The domestic box office continues to struggle with no new movies being released, but it did get a small boost this weekend thanks to the debut of The Croods: A New Age. In fact, it ended up earning more money than Christopher Nolan's Tenet when it hit the big screen back in September.
The animated sequel scored an okay $9.71 million during its opening weekend, and while that's a massive drop from the $43.64 million the first instalment made, it's an improvement over Tenet's $9.3 million.
Since opening last week, The Croods: A New Age has grossed a total of $14.22 million over five days of release. "To do the kind of business we’re doing under what is obviously a very difficult theatrical landscape is very gratifying," Universal Pictures President of Domestic Distribution Jim Orr tells Variety.
If nothing else, this performance suggests that there is an interest from families to return to theaters, and it's hard not to wonder how a movie like Free Guy or Wonder Woman 1984 would do in the current climate. Unfortunately, thanks to the ongoing pandemic, there's no way any title is going to make the sort of money a major studio is really going to end up being happy about.
The signs are there that things could change next year, but it's too hard to say right now.
The Croods: A New Age boasts an all-star cast made up of names like Nic Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Kelly Marie Tran, and Peter Dinklage.