While this Thanksgiving weekend continues to be the lowest in box office history thanks to the pandemic, Universal/DreamWorks Animation’s “The Croods: A New Age” actually saw a small uptick on Thursday with $2.7 million grossed from 2,211 screens. When added to the film’s $1.85 million on Wednesday, the sequel’s total is now up to $4.6 million.
“Croods 2” is the first major studio film since “Tenet” to brave the pandemic box office and comes as hundreds of theaters have been forced to close again due to escalating infection rates. Still, Universal chose to press forward with releasing the film now rather than move it to 2021 thanks to its new deal with AMC, Cinemark and Cineplex that allows it to release “Croods 2” on PVOD after three weekends in theaters. While an exact home release date has not been set, the film is expected to hit PVOD in mid-December.
While “Croods 2” will provide a small degree of revenue for theaters that are still trying to fend off closures, this Thanksgiving weekend is a far cry from last year’s, which saw “Frozen II” top the charts with a $125 million 5-day total while newcomer “Knives Out” contributed $41 million. While a vaccine for COVID-19 is expected to be approved in the coming weeks, it will take months to administer it to the public, meaning that normal moviegoing won’t resume until Q2 of 2021 at the earliest.