Tom & Jerry has earned the second-best box office opening of the pandemic with a projected $12.5 million. The long-awaited family movie opened in theaters and on HBO Max this weekend with $4 million on Friday alone. The movie beats the 3-day earnings of Universal/Dreamworks Animation’s The Croods: A New Age, which took in $9.7 million over the Thanksgiving weekend late last year, and shows evidence that people are slowly starting to get back into theaters after being stuck in their homes for nearly a year.
As of this writing, Tom and Jerry is the second-best debut for a movie released during the public health crisis. Wonder Woman 1984, which also opened in theaters and HBO Max, is still the winner after earning $16.4 million upon its debut weekend. Two weeks ago, over 60% of movie theaters in North America were shut down, while we now have roughly 50% open now. According to Warner Bros., Tom & Jerry opened up in 2,475 theaters this weekend. Los Angeles theaters are still closed, but it is believed that they will open back up in the coming weeks.
CinemaScore gave the movie an A- and PostTrak has given it 81% and four stars. Tom & Jerry has been receiving some mixed reviews, but for the most part, audiences are enjoying what they are seeing. After nearly a year of being stuck in the house, families are starting to venture out to movie theaters again in different parts of the United States, thanks to the vaccine. Analysts predict that theaters will be back to some form of normalcy late this summer, with a full run coming by the end of the year.
Movie theaters, along with theme parks, shut down in March 2020. While theaters are slowly starting to open back up and allow audiences back in, theme parks in California remain closed. Disneyland has been fighting with California Governor Gavin Newsom over loosening restrictions, which could end up happening in the near future. It is believed that the governor will ease restrictions in the coming weeks, thanks to case numbers starting to decline. AMC and Cinemark were close to financial ruin only a few months ago, but things are starting to look up, thanks to the vaccine.
Tom & Jerry will undoubtedly win the box office weekend, but it’s still a little early to tell where the rest of the numbers will shake out. The Croods: A New Age has seen a return to the top spot over the last few weekends and has earned just over $153 million internationally. With a new family movie in theaters, we might see animated movie start to finally fall out of the top ten. For now, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens with Tom & Jerry at the box office. The box office news was first reported by Deadline.