Russell Crowe's 'Unhinged' had a promising opening weekend at the US box office, but its biggest venues were drive-in theaters
- Russell Crowe's new movie "Unhinged" opened in the US over the weekend with $4 million, as major chains like AMC and Regal opened their doors for the first time in five months amid the coronavirus pandemic.
- Despite the encouraging box office, the movie's five biggest venues — all drive-ins — suggest that audiences may not be comfortable returning to traditional theaters just yet.
- A Morning Consult survey of 2,200 US adults released last week found that just 17% would go to a theater right now.
Russell Crowe's new road-rage thriller, "Unhinged," hit theaters in the US over the weekend as the first major theatrical wide release since theaters shut down more than five months ago because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The movie earned an encouraging $4 million from just over 1,800 screens, but its biggest venues suggest that audiences are largely still uncomfortable with going to a theater amid the pandemic.
According to the Exhibitor Relations senior media analyst Jeff Bock, the top five venues for "Unhinged" were all drive-ins and four of them were in California, where traditional theaters remain closed due to rising coronavirus cases this summer.
"Paramount DI in Los Angeles was the #1 venue in the US, and has just 2 screens--beating out other traditional Top 10 venues that have anywhere between 15-24 screens," Bock tweeted.
Ahead of major theaters chains like AMC Theatres and Regal reopening their doors last week, Morning Consult released a survey of 2,200 US adults that found that just 17% would go to a theater right now. 51% of those surveyed said they would feel comfortable going to a movie theater only within the next six months or longer.
In an interview with Business Insider last week, Mark Gill — the CEO of Solstice Studios, the new studio behind "Unhinged — said that if the movie makes its production budget of $30 million in its full North American run, that will be a success.
"This is just the most baffling thing ever," he said. "There's a reason nobody else did this. There are so many unknowns."
"Unhinged" was originally slated for release in September. Solstice moved it to July when "A Quiet Place Part II" initially took that date (it's since been pushed to next year) and the rest of the theatrical calendar looked crowded. It was delayed several times amid the pandemic.
With a modest budget, why didn't Solstice do what some major studios have done and release it to digital platforms?
"We set the company up to be a theatrical company," Gill said. "And we had sold this and other movies internationally to other distributors and one of the requirements of those contracts was to release the movie wide in the US in theaters."
The movie has received mostly negative reviews from critics and has a 48% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. Vulture said it "isn't worth getting COVID-19 for."
"Despite its bullet-point nods to toxic masculinity and some glib armchair sociology about the rage-fueled society we have become, 'Unhinged' doesn't have much on its mind," Justin Chang wrote for The Los Angeles Times.