Weak Weekend Box Office Shows 'We're Still in Recovery Mode': Analyst

Black Friday weekend may have been good for retail, but the $133 million five-day domestic box office, through Sunday, was well below the pre-COVID-19 pandemic take of $262 million in 2019 and last year’s $142 million, said Rosenblatt Securities in a Monday investor note. Underwhelming results showed “we are still in recovery mode,” said analyst Steve Frankel, noting theaters didn’t suffer a lack of compelling releases with a “leggy Marvel title, interesting theatrical release from Netflix and an animated Disney title.” Black Panther: Wakanda Forever earned $64 million for the period, Disney’s Strange World, $18.6 million, and Netflix’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery generated $13.3 million for the first five days of its one-week theatrical run, said the analyst.