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Source: IndieWire
Throughout the past couple decades, the Memorial Day weekend, often occurring at the very end of May, has been viewed as one of the most important times of the year for the world of big-budget filmmaking. As this time is generally seen as the beginning of the summer season, which has historically seen the release of the year’s most popular films, studios will often kick things off with one of the films they hope will rank in the largest amount of revenue possible. Although little has changed that would make the time any less of a big deal, this upcoming Memorial Day weekend may be the most important in recent memory. After nearly an entire year in which the majority of movie theaters were forced into closure by the COVID-19 pandemic, this will be the first Memorial Day weekend since 2019 on which thousands of people across the nation will go to their local cineplex and check out the newest big release. With vaccinations on the rise and case numbers going down, it’s safe to say that the comeback of cinemas is all but guaranteed.
However, to find even further evidence that global cinema is on the verge of a major resurgence, one would have to look to the previous weekend, one that saw a film receive the biggest opening weekend gross of any film released during the pandemic, at least when taking international grosses into account. That film is “F9”, the latest in the “Fast and the Furious” franchise from Universal Pictures, receiving a total of $162.4 million from several different markets across the globe. Of these markets, it was China, one of the series’ most lucrative markets as well as the most successful box office of the previous year, that provided “F9” with the overwhelming majority of sales, around $135.6 million to be precise.
Under normal circumstances, a $160 million gross across the world might come across as somewhat of a disappointment, especially for a franchise known for making big bucks whenever a new installment is released. For comparison, the previous film in the series, 2017’s “The Fate of the Furious”, earned a record-breaking $540 million worldwide upon its opening weekend, over three times as much as its successor was able to achieve during a similar duration. However, with anti-COVID practices still being enforced in a grand majority of markets, many of which restrict the number of people allowed in a given auditorium during each screening, the intake that “F9” has received is seen less as a disappointment and more as a sure sign of success, with its totals being more than enough to pass the previous title holder, Warner Brothers’ “Godzilla vs Kong” (which earned $123.1 million over its global opening weekend), and receive the most successful opening weekend gross of any film released during the pandemic.
It should also be noted that despite being released in several major markets over the past weekend, one of them was not the United States. Those living in this nation will have to wait several more weeks to get their fill of the “Fast and the Furious” franchise, as the film isn’t expected to be released until June 25th. Despite the long wait though, analysts predict that the series will still be appealing enough to draw in as many people as possible (at least given the circumstances), and the revenue it has received so far elsewhere only provides further encouragement that success in the United States is achievable for this long-running action franchise.
While “F9” won’t be released in the United States until just under a month from now, there are still some films that are coming out this Memorial Day weekend that are expected to finish the next few days with grosses that are respectable at the very release. In fact, this upcoming weekend will be the first in several months in which two major studios will each release a major big-budget production at the same time, competing against one another to see which of them will attract the largest audiences. Those films are “A Quiet Place: Part II”, the sequel to the unexpectedly popular 2018 horror film from Paramount Pictures, and “Cruella”, an origin story for the villain of Disney’s animated classic “One Hundred and One Dalmatians”.
Both of these films have much working to their advantage when it comes to their release later this week. “A Quiet Place: Part II” is highly anticipated not only as a follow-up to one of the biggest sleeper hits of 2018, but also as one of many films originally scheduled to come out around this time last year before being delayed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and if early critical reactions are any indications, the sequel is more than worth the wait. “Cruella”, meanwhile, is the latest in a long run of financially successful live-action re-imaginings that Disney has released over the past couple years. While these films have tended to be fairly polarizing when it comes to critic and audience reactions, early buzz suggests that this latest effort is one of the better of such films, which should provide additional help in getting audiences interested in the film. Of the two competing films, “A Quiet Place: Part II” is the one most expected to be #1 film at the box office, but because “Cruella” is being released simultaneously in theaters and on the Disney+ streaming service (albeit for an additional $30 surcharge), much of what it receives over the four-day weekend will likely be much larger than what is announced from box office revenue.
No matter which film comes out on top though, the true winner of the weekend will be the movie theater itself. After months of closure and less than satisfactory grosses from the few films they have been able to exhibit upon their reopening, movie theaters are finally starting to have films that they can show and lure in audiences across the world, especially those who have long missed the theatrical experience. With several more films to follow, including the Warner Brothers musical “In the Heights”, the Marvel superhero film “Black Widow”, and the aforementioned “F9”, it’s safe to say the summer blockbuster is back and ready for business.
