LOS ANGELES, March 17 ― With the coronavirus pandemic already spreading in many countries, cinemas are either deserted or completely shuttered. In spite of these extreme but necessary measures to contain the virus, the action movie Bloodshot with Vin Diesel has nonetheless managed to sell enough seats to take the lead in the box-office rankings with takings of only US$22.3 million (RM96.6 million) worldwide, according to figures reported by Comscore on Sunday, March 15. The Disney/Pixar animated fantasy Onward and science-fiction horror The Invisible Man are respectively positioned in second and third place.
Faced with the Covid-19 pandemic, moviegoers are setting aside the pleasures of big-screen theatres, preferring the relative safety of their homes. Although many countries had already imposed measures to reduce the spread of Covid-19, some movie theatres still remained open to the public during the weekend of March 14 and 15. In the United States they remained open throughout the weekend, but had to reduce their capacity to comply with US measures banning gatherings of more than 250 people.
Given the current crisis, global box-office receipts are a fraction of what they would normally be. The action movie Bloodshot directed by Dave Wilson and starring Vin Diesel took first place in the world ranking with only US$22.3 million in revenues across the globe. In what amounted to a disastrous start for Sony, Bloodshot still succeeded in overtaking the latest gem from the Pixar and Disney studios Onward. The animated film slid down one place in the world ranking, accumulating in the process a little more than US$17.3 million in additional worldwide revenues. It was closely followed by The Invisible Man with Elisabeth Moss. The horror movie, which was second in the world ranking last week, is now placed third with an additional US$12.2 million in receipts.
Finally, it is worth noting the sudden fall-off in receipts of the video-game adaptation Sonic the Hedgehog which has gone from third to sixth place in the ranking in just a week.
The world box-office top 10 (in millions of dollars)
01. Bloodshot ― 22.3
02. Onward ― 17.3
03. The Invisible Man ― 12.2
04. I Still Believe ― 9.7
05 The Hunt ― 6
06. Sonic the Hedgehog ― 5.4
07. The Call of the Wild ― 3.3
08. The Way Back ― 2.4
09. The Gentlemen ― 1.9
10. My Spy ― 1.8 ― AFP-Relaxnews
