‘Conjuring’ tops box office as people return to theaters post-pandemic

The new Fast & Furious movie F9 is on track to setting a new record at the pandemic-era box office!

Ellise Shafer administratorThe ninth installment in the “Fast and Furious” franchise is on its way to breaking a pandemic-era domestic box office record with an estimated $68 million debut.The action film, starring Vin Diesel and John Cena, raked in $30 million on Friday alone from 4,179 theaters.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and Media“F9” is racing towards a pandemic era box office record after nabbing a mighty (at least for plague times) $7.1 million in Thursday previews.The homage to living life “a quarter-mile at a time,” in the words of one Dominic Toretto, is providing a welcome dose of adrenaline to a cinema business that’s been stalled out for months, as audiences slowly creep back to multiplexes and vaccination rates continue to rise.

The summer box office, starting with today’s long-anticipated release of Universal’s F9, is bringing a renewed sense of optimism about the theatrical movie business.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterThere’s a lot riding on the box office debut of Universal’s “F9,” the latest entry in the high-energy “Fast & Furious” franchise.As the first all-audience tentpole to exclusively grace the big screen in some time, the movie theater industry is looking to “F9” as the benchmark for summer blockbusters.

As the audience gets ready to witness the battle royal between Vin Diesel and John Cena on the big screen in the US on June 25, the box office pundits have started their predictions for Fast and Furious 9. The action-packed franchise is expected to record the biggest opening day and weekend for a feature film in the US ever since the world has been taken aback by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The sequel to the 2017 film starring Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson will open in 2,940 theaters on Wednesday and expand to 3,300 theaters on Friday.

Hidden Empire Film Group’s comedy/horror romp The House Next Door: Meet the Blacks 2 scared up a $1.064M opening weekend (per screen average of $2,533) with writer-director Deon Taylor and his team huddling right now over where and how much to expand the run — but expand it they will. Taylor’s thrilled with the $$ although he and others in the indie space acknowledged Sunday that ongoing distancing restrictions in key New York and LA is a major bummer.

A Quiet Place Part II has become the first film to surpass $100million in US ticket sales during the pandemic era.The horror sequel starring Emily Blunt opened in the United States on May 28 after multiple COVID-related delays, and has since generated $108million (£77m) at the domestic box office and another $80million (£57m) internationally.The $100million mark wouldn’t usually be a notable feat, but because the coronavirus pandemic forced cinemas to close for a long period of time ticket sales

A Quiet Place Part II is unstoppable!

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterJohn Krasinski’s nearly silent thriller “A Quiet Place Part II” has crossed a notable box office milestone.The Paramount Pictures film is the first of the pandemic era to surpass $100 million in U.S. ticket sales.

SATURDAY UPDATE: Refresh for updates While it appeared that the summer box office was dusting itself off from the pandemic over the last two weeks, both newcomers Warner Bros. highly anticipated Jon M. Chu directed Lin-Manuel Miranda musical In the Heights and Sony’s Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway are currently filing less than spectacular results respectively with a No. 1 rank of $5M Friday, $13M 3-day and No. 4 place of $4M Friday, and $10.2M 30-day.

Christopher Vourlias The coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc on cinema chains across the globe, with protracted lockdowns, limited seating capacity, and delayed releases of Hollywood blockbusters sending the likes of Alamo Drafthouse into—and out of—bankruptcy and pushing giants like Cineworld and AMC to the brink.Yet for Russia’s Karo Cinemas, the past year has hardly slowed pre-pandemic growth; at the rapidly expanding cinema chain, which is among the country’s largest, it’s currently full

This total is slightly above the series-low opening for the eight-film “Conjuring” franchise, which was $20 million for the 2019 spinoff “Annabelle Comes Home.” Produced on a $39 million budget, the horror film is on its way to turning a solid profit for Warner Bros.

Such an opening puts the eighth film in the “Conjuring” universe just behind the $26.3 million opening earned by the 2019 spinoff “The Curse of La Llorona” As with all “Conjuring” films, “The Devil Made Me Do It” was made on a relatively lower budget, with the latest holding a reported $39 million production spend. Reception has been fairly positive for the film with a 61% Rotten Tomatoes score and a B+ on CinemaScore.

Ellise Shafer administrator“The Conjuring: Devil Made Me Do It” is set to out-scare “A Quiet Place Part II” at the domestic box office this weekend, with an estimated 3-day gross of $25 million in 3,102 theaters.Though “A Quiet Place Part II” solidified the biggest debut of the pandemic era last weekend with $48 million and continued to an extended gross of $58 million, its estimated income this weekend is predicted to be $20 million.

Exhibition ruled the stock market today after a long holiday weekend saw Paramount’s A Quiet Place Part II crush it, earning $57 million over four days. That’s not far from the $60 million that the John Krasinski-directed sequel was anticipated to do in its 3-day opening pre-pandemic, according to my colleague Anthony D’Alessandro.

Alamo Drafthouse has emerged from bankruptcy and is opening five new theaters, the chain announced Tuesday as the box office roars back to life.

Memorial Day weekend to a pandemic-best $48.4 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.All of Hollywood was watching those numbers for hints about what is in store for the delayed summer movie season. After largely sitting out the pandemic, or diverting to streaming platforms, a lineup of blockbusters are again queuing up.