Liam Neeson's 'Honest Thief' leads cratering US Box Office

Liam Neeson’s thriller Honest Thief limped to first place at the domestic box office, debuting at $3.7 million. Those ticket sales, among the lowest ever to land at No. 1, came in slightly ahead of Christopher Nolan’s Tenet and Robert De Niro’s family comedy War With Grandpa.

Tenet, now in its seventh week of release, grossed 1.6 million, bringing its U.S. haul to $50.6 million. The sci-fi epic, from Warner Bros., continues to fare better overseas. Tenet generated $5 million at the international box office for a global haul of $333.9 million.

Overall, it was another quiet weekend at the weekend box office as theatres that reopened have resorted to reducing hours of operation or closing down again entirely due to low attendance. Apprehension among filmgoers, coupled with the lack of new potential blockbusters are to blame for lackluster ticket sales.

Theatre owners argue that it’s not fear keeping people from going to the films, it’s the dearth of fresh product from major studios. But Hollywood companies have been reluctant to unveil their biggest films because cinemas in major markets like New York and Los Angeles, which account for a bulk of ticket sales for any given film, aren’t open.

A potential bright spot: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Saturday gave film theatres outside of the city permission to reopen at reduced capacity starting on Oct. 23. It remains to be seen whether the news will encourage studios to start unveiling major films.

In the meantime, speciality studios such as 101 Studios and IFC Films have been supplying exhibitors with new indie dramas and comedies. War With Grandpa collected $2.5 million from 2,260 locations in its second weekend of release, boosting domestic receipts to $7.2 million.

Disney, meanwhile, continues to find modest success with re-releases of past favourites. Tim Burton’s 1993 holiday classic The Nightmare Before Christmas brought in $1.3 million between Friday and Sunday. And Hocus Pocus, another three-decade-old hit, stirred up $765,000 over the weekend.

Romantic drama 2 Hearts, starring Jacob Elordi of The Kissing Booth and Euphoria fame, pulled in $565,000 from 1,683 screens over the weekend.

Box office analysts suggest that YA-skewing films, the kind that regularly populates Netflix queues, haven’t been a huge theatrical draw during the pandemic.

“Based on at least three youth-oriented films released during the last month and a half, teens and young adults do not appear ready to return to the films,” said David A. Gross, who runs the film consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research.

Among speciality releases, IFC Films’ comedic drama Shithouse opened in 28 theatres across the country and scraped together $6,750 ($241 per location). The well-reviewed film launched simultaneously this weekend on premium video-on-demand platforms, where the studio said landed on the iTunes top 15 charts among independent offerings. Shithouse, the directorial debut of Cooper Raiff, premiered this year at SXSW and won the Grand Jury Prize.

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