Marvel Hit Revives Exhibition Market Ahead of Toughened Covid Restrictions 

A long-awaited tentpole in a beloved Hollywood franchise revived the market over the weekend, boosting sales 65% to 1.24 million admissions, the highest total seen this year to date. However, given toughened social distancing protocols being put in place on Monday to combat the fourth wave of Covid-19 infections, the business may once again take a turn. Meanwhile, the local competition was shut out, claiming just 10% of tickets sales.

Black Widow, the first Marvel film to appear since Spider-Man: Far from Home in July 2019, finally bowed in theaters and pent-up audience expectation pushed the film to an impressive debut, with 984,000 tickets (USD 8.82 million) sold over the weekend and 1.37 million entries (USD 12.14 million) banked over its first five days. This represented both the best start of any film this year, as well as the top opening for a foreign film since the beginning of the pandemic.

After two weeks on top, the local action-thriller HARD HIT tumbled 72%, adding 66,000 sales (USD 569,000). The CJ Entertainment film has so far accrued 894,000 admissions (USD 7.45 million).

Fellow Disney title Cruella was down 63% but still managed third place during its seventh week on the charts. Adding 61,000 spectators (USD 540,000), the hit has now reached 1.86 million viewers (USD 15.7 million).

Ahead of its wide opening next weekend, The Thai horror film The Medium, based on an idea by and produced by local filmmaker Na Hongjin, scored 44,000 advance screening sales (USD 422,000) this weekend. The film is also screening at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan), where it is competing in the Bucheon Choice section.

Rounding out the top five was the US horror sequel A Quiet Place Part II, which slowed 77% as it filled another 23,000 seats (USD 203,000), raising its total to 843,000 entries (USD 7.3 million).

Looking ahead to this weekend, Black Widow seems poised to post strong numbers again, though it will likely be affected by this week’s Covid restrictions. Meanwhile, The Medium is currently leading the reservations chart, and time will tell if that momentum can translate into a win on the charts.