After a brief two-week reign at the top, Denzel Washington’s crime thriller The Little Things has been knocked out of first place at the domestic box office, and in a damning indictment on the current state of the theatrical industry, animated sequel The Croods: A New Age has returned to reclaim the number one spot.
While there’s nothing inherently wrong with a broad family film topping the charts, and the follow-up to 2013’s smash hit is an entertaining enough pic that currently holds a solid 77% on Rotten Tomatoes and became a rare pandemic-era success after raking in over $150 million globally on a $65 million budget, dig a little deeper and it doesn’t make for encouraging reading.
For one thing, it only took $2 million for A New Age to ascend to the summit of the box office, but perhaps the most concerning statistic is that it managed to do so despite initially hitting the big screen a full twelve weeks ago, while it’s also been available on digital and VOD for almost two months now.
The fact that the number one movie in the United States was first released in mid-November isn’t a good sign for the immediate resurgence of the industry, although acclaimed drama Judas and the Black Messiah did manage to nab second place despite debuting simultaneously on HBO Max.
Everyone might be hoping for business to pick up relatively soon given that there’s a trio of major blockbusters penciled in for May, but six of the current top ten have spent at least eight weeks playing in cinemas. That being said, the studio will still be pleased that The Croods: A New Age has shown incredible staying power, even in such uncertain times.