by Josh Bate
Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon topped the box office this weekend with $8.6 million from 2,045 theaters. While Disney has not released official numbers, that number is bound to be significantly higher when the Disney+ rentals for the film are added in (it costs $30 to rent ‘Raya’, along with a subscription for the streaming service, and Disney reportedly keeps 100% of these profits). Raya also debuted in 23 other territories this weekend, taking its total to $26.2 million. Raya is going up against some unfortunate circumstances upon release, as the COVID-19 pandemic keeps roughly half of domestic theaters closed. Many of the ones that are open are at a reduced capacity, usually in the 25-40% range.
Tom & Jerry, which made a whopping $14 million in its opening weekend 7 days ago, came second this weekend, adding another $6.6 million to take its tally to $22.95 million. Elsewhere, Chaos Walking took in $3.8 million from just under 2,000 theaters. Eddie Huang’s Boogie debuted this weekend, making $1.2 million overall.
While these box office numbers aren’t where studios want them to be, the decrease in COVID-19 cases, along with the vaccinations ramping up, should provide hope that there will be more films exceeding expectations in the future, as Tom & Jerry did last weekend.
Image courtesy of Disney