Monday the box office looks like it hit a record low.
No film on the list made more than $533,000. The number 1 film was “The Invitation” with just $533,295.
As far as I can tell, it’s the lowest cumulative box office in the post-pandemic era. It may be worse than that if you omit the two pandemic years and look earlier. There is never a day when at least one film makes more than $1 million, even on the worst days.
Indeed, a year ago there were two films at the top of the box office on August 30, 2021. They were “Candyman” with almost $1.8 million and “Free Guy” with $1.2 million. The latter had been in release for three weeks
Lack of product all summer has finally piled up on the studios. They’ve sent too many films to streaming, as well. It’s one thing to have hit series like “Stranger Things” or “Only Murders.” But this week a Kevin Hart comedy went to streaming that could easily have been in theaters.
The only other new movie of the weekend, “Three Thousand Years of Longing,” a flop, made just $300,000 in over 2,400 theaters. If only MGM-United Artist Releasing had bothered to inform anyone that it was playing, maybe someone would have gone.
Now the box office will limp through Labor Day weekend and the next two weekends until September 16th when “The Woman King” starring Viola Davis comes thundering into 3,000 or more locations. Then a new season will begin.
