Hollywood box office revenue plunges 80pc as coronavirus devastates US cinema
Some 274 movies – including blockbusters like Bond film No Time to Die, Top Gun: Maverick and the ninth Fast and Furious action film – were moved to 2021 release dates, according to the Comscore report.
That left Sony Pictures cop caper Bad Boys for Life, released in January last year, as the top-earning movie in North America for 2020 with $206 million. In 2019, Avengers: Endgame ruled the domestic box office with $858 million.
Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, which Warner Bros hoped would tempt punters back into cinemas in the summer, took just $58 million in the US and Canada.
Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst with Comscore, said that 2020 revenue – much of it from drive-in venues – was grounds for hope given that some industry observers had feared the figure would be even smaller.
“That should be extremely encouraging to anyone who was worried that movie-going would not come back at all,” Mr Dergarabedian said.
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