Weekend Moviegoer Increase 40% Compared to Last Week, Expecting Theaters Back to Shape

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022)  

From April 18 (Monday), ‘social distancing’ rules caused by the COVID-19 were lifted. The limit on the number of private gatherings and the business hours of commercial facilities was also eliminated. It has been two years and one month since the introduction of the social distancing regulations. With the news released on April 15, the number of audiences in theaters also increased significantly. The average number of weekend audiences was about 300,000 during the Pandemic, however, from April 15 (Fri) to 17 (Sun), the number of weekend moviegoers increased to 484,000, about 40% up compared to 344,000 last week.

In the third week of April 2022, when the number of moviegoers was on the rise for the first time in a long time, the fantasy blockbuster Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore topped the weekend box office. Released on April 13, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore recorded 337,391 audiences with sales of USD 3 million, accounting for 72.4% of the weekend's total sales. 

The film is the 3rd episode of the Fantastic Beasts series, a spin-off series of the Harry Potter series that has a worldwide fandom. Set in the 1930s, the film depicts the war between Grindelwald, the dark wizard who intervened in World War II, and the good wizards fighting against him. All the main characters of the previous episodes are back, and Mads Mikkelsen plays new Grindelwald instead of Johnny Depp, who dropped out of the series due to his privacy concerns. 

Sonic the Hedgehog 2, which topped last week, stepped down to 2nd place with 67,228 audiences (USD 479,815). 3rd place is Morbius with 18,116 viewers (USD 151,293). Stellar, the Korean comedy film that ranked 4th place last week, remains in 4th place again this week. Director Michael Bay's action film, Ambulance, which ranked third last week, fell two steps to 5th place. 

Next week, the number of theater audiences is expected to increase more due to the release of several new films and the lifting of the social distancing rules. Also, from April 25, drinks and food will be available in theaters that have been banned so far. Attention is focused on whether such changes will have positive effects on the increase in the number of moviegoers.