Severe U.S. Blizzards Close 250 Theaters in 30 States, Comscore Says

The blizzards that have blasted across much of the United States took their toll on the box office, as Comscore reports that 250 theaters across 30 states were closed due to the severe weather.

With Amazon MGM’s “Mercy” being the major new release this weekend and Sony/Columbia’s “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” struggling to find a wider audience, this weekend was already looking like it would be a slow one.

But with the closures in 200 cities and moviegoers less likely to go out into the snow to theaters that were still open, overall grosses sank to an estimated $59 million, a 12% decrease from the $67 million overall total on the same weekend a year before.

Nearly 11,000 flights have been cancelled across the country — the most since the COVID-19 pandemic — as more than a foot of snow has been forecast for much of the northeast United States. In the southern and southeast U.S., more than a million people have been affected by power outages, including 331,000 in Tennessee.

In the tri-state area, at least a foot of snow has already been reported in Long Island and parts of New Jersey. As much as three feet of snow may hit parts of New York and New England by the time the majority of the storm passes through the region on Monday.

With such frigid temperatures keeping millions of Americans home, all of the films in theaters saw lower returns this weekend even in areas affected by the storms where cinemas did not close. Films that appeal to younger and mass audiences were able to mitigate the damage, such as A24’s “Marty Supreme,” which reported a $3.5 million sixth weekend in theaters that was only a 32% drop from last weekend.

But perhaps one film in particular that had its box office potential stunted was Focus Features’ “Hamnet,” which expanded to just under 2,000 locations to take advantage of increased audience awareness from its eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. A period drama based on the lives of Agnes and William Shakespeare and the loss of their 11-year-old son, the Chloe Zhao film has been expected to rely on the sort of older moviegoers far less likely to go out anywhere during a snowstorm as its core audience.

“Hamnet” did see an increase in its weekend returns with $2 million grossed this weekend with a per theater average of $1,002, bringing its total to $17.6 million domestic. But the film’s 3-day total on MLK weekend of $1.35 million had a per theater average of $1,882 from just 718 theaters.

Insiders at Focus have told TheWrap that the studio wants to give “Hamnet” a full theatrical run, making cinemas the place to see Jessie Buckley’s Oscar contending performance prior to Oscar Sunday. So there’s still a chance that “Hamnet” could see sustained turnout from moviegoers if audiences whose interest was recently piqued but are snowed in show up in the weekends ahead.

Globally, “Hamnet” has a box office total of approximately $45 million, passing the box office run of Focus’ 2023 Oscar winner “The Holdovers,” which made $20.3 million in the U.S.

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