With just over one week to go until the end of 2020, the U.S. theatrical box office continues to suffer due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with revenues down 81% to $2.1 billion, according to IMDb’s Box Office Mojo.
The last time that overall yearly U.S. box-office revenue was below $3 billion was in 1983, when the best-performing movie was “Star Wars: Episode VI- Return of the Jedi.”
For the entire year of 2019, U.S. box-office revenue was $11.3 billion -- the third-best result (2018 was a top earner at $11.9 billion).
The best-performing movie this year, “Bad Boys for Life,” was released two months before the pandemic took hold -- with U.S. box-office revenue of $206.3 million, coming in at $426.4 worldwide.
Theatrical movie marketing on national TV over the most recent 30-day holiday period totaled $64 million, according to iSpot.tv.
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A year ago over the same time period, it was at $202.5 million.
The three biggest TV-marketed movies over the most current 30-day period were Dreamworks’ “The Croods: A New Age” at $16.1 million, Warner Bros.’ “Wonder Woman 1984” at $14.2 million, and Universal Pictures” “News of the World” at $10.9 million.
Starting in September on Labor Day weekend, some movie theater chains began partial openings, in selected states and with limited seating.
Labor Day Weekend posted the best pandemic-related results so far, with $28.4 million in U.S. box-office revenues. Thanksgiving Day weekend was at $19.9 million. By comparison, the weekend of March 6-8, before widespread movie theater closures, pulled in $100.8 million.
In 2020 thus far, 444 movies have been released versus a total of 910 a year ago.
Can someone please elucidate why in the US movies are reported as 'theatrical box office' when it is clearly 'cinematic box office'. Theatre = Live, Cinema = Filmed.