It was hardly a normal week at the box office, with theaters nationwide closing or enforcing seating at half capacity to adhere to “social distancing” over coronavirus concerns. And heading into this maelstrom was Bloodshot, the Vin Diesel vehicle that was also the long awaited first Valiant film to hit theaters.
But not even Diesel’s undershirt could light things up. It’s hard to define what a bomb might be in these times, but the poorly reviewed film still managed to come in third, behind Pixar’s Onward and the faith-based I Want to Believe:
Lionsgate’s I Still Believe came in lower than the $10M+ many were seeing yesterday, with $9.5M at 3,250 locations. That said, this movie held incredibly well, given the circumstances that the nation is in. Typically a faith-based movie like this would see a solid Sunday, bolstered by churchgoers heading to the cinema after services. But most churches are closed around the nation, which poses a question around today’s business. Sony’s Bloodshot is coming in at $9.3M in 3rd, and Universal/Blumhouse’s Invisible Man and The Hunt were 4th and 5th with $6M and $5.3M. For all the wide entries, it’s not about opening weekend, it’s about where do we end up?
While it was never expected to be a huge hit stateside, Bloodshot had a shot at doing better box office in China, but theaters are still closed there.
This may amount to a “hill of beans” matter in the larger scheme of things, with every business lurching to an unknown future amid economic uncertainty, but the Valiant cinematic universe definitely has gotten off to a start that was, pardon the expression, plagued with problems. Given that so many comics publishers are planning on media adaptations to fill their coffers, it’s a reminder that that plan is far from an easy layup shot.
