Raya and the Last Dragon tops US box office as more theatres reopen

Los Angeles

DISNEY'S animated adventure Raya and the Last Dragon led the domestic box office in its third weekend, illustrating the appeal of family films as Hollywood attempts to mount a moviegoing revival.

The movie collected US$5.2 million from 2,261 theatres through Sunday, representing a scant 5 per cent decline. Disney can thank the reopening of Los Angeles movie theatres for the stellar hold in ticket sales.

Cinemas in the City of Angels were given permission to resume operations on March 12, but most film exhibitors were not able to get up and running until now.

Capacity in Los Angeles area movie theatres will be capped at 25 per cent, or 100 people per auditorium, which is double the limit in New York, where its restricted to 50 people.

Even with restrictions, Los Angeles accounted for nearly 9 per cent of all movie tickets sold over the weekend, according to Comscore. "The weekend showed solid results from holdovers, demonstrating the revenue generating horsepower of opening the biggest box-office market in North America," said Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst with Comscore.

"Eager movie fans in Los Angeles showed up in solid numbers to enjoy the big screen experience once again."

AMC Theatres, the cinema chain with the biggest footprint in the country, has reopened 98 per cent of its locations, including 40 venues in California, as of March 19. The circuit expects to reopen even more locations by March 26.

"It was exactly one year ago that we closed all AMC locations in the United States," said Adam Aron, the CEO of AMC. "It gives me immense joy to say that by the end of next week we expect that 99 per cent of our US locations will have reopened."

Raya and the Last Dragon amassed another US$8 million overseas from 29 countries. The film, which is available to Disney Plus subscribers for an additional US$30, has generated US$71 million globally to date. Without much in the way of competition, Raya and the Last Dragon was able to easily repeat No 1 in North America.

Two new movies - The Courier and City of Lies - opened theatrically while several awards season hopefuls got a post-Oscar nomination boost.

The Courier, a Cold War drama led by Benedict Cumberbatch and Rachel Brosnahan, landed in third place with US$2 million from 1,433 locations.

Strong turnout

Directed by Dominic Cooke, the movie premiered at last year's Sundance Film Festival (with the title Ironbark) to mostly positive reviews. Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate, the film's backers, reported strong turnout in Salt Lake City, Orlando and Dallas.

Meanwhile, Johnny Depp's City of Lies, a crime drama about corruption in the Los Angeles Police Department, mostly fell flat. The poorly reviewed film cinched 11th place on box office charts, scraping together US$275,049 from 501 screens.

Warner Bros' live-action-animated hybrid Tom and Jerry remained in second place with US$3.8 million from 2,508 screens, a 7 per cent drop from last weekend. The film, which is also playing on HBO Max for 31 days, has made US$33 million at the domestic box office. Internationally, Tom and Jerry added another US$4 million, bringing its overseas tally to US$43.5 million and global haul to US$77.2. million.

At No 4, Lionsgate's sci-fi thriller Chaos Walking took in US$1.9 million from 2,132 theatres, marking a slight 14 per cent fall. After three weeks of release, the Daisy Ridley and Tom Holland-led film has made US$9.69 million.

Universal's The Croods: A New Age rounded out the top five with US$620,000 from 1,411 screens. The animated family film has made US$55 million since it was released last November. Globally, The Croods sequel has made US$160 million. REUTERS