Joshua Mah / Edge columnist

From “Box office: ‘Tom and Jerry’ opens to surprisingly strong US$13.7 million, giving movie theaters hope” by Rebecca Rubin from CTV News, published on March 1, the newest “Tom & Jerry” film production was the second most expensive movie released in the United States, valued at US$13.7 million, three million dollars away from the movie, “Wonder Woman 1984” which was valued at US$16.7 million. “Tom & Jerry” was released on February 26.

“With half of theaters still closed, the pandemic still a threat, and ‘Tom & Jerry’ available at home, this is a very good opening. It’s a positive sign for the business and for theatrical’s pull over home entertainment.” said David A. Gross, who works at the Franchise Entertainment Research.

The movie was the first one to ever last three days since the theaters reopened due to the COVID-19 pandemic that started a year ago. Other than “Wonder Woman 1984”, “Tom & Jerry” was able to go beyond the $10 million mark, which no other movie was able to break for the past 10 months.

Movies such as “The Croods: A new age” and “Tenet” were the other two movies that were very close to breaking the $10 million mark. “The Croods” sequel was valued at US$9.7 million and “Tenet” was valued at US$9.35 million. There are other movies that got delayed because of COVID as well like “Fast and Furious 9 – The Fast Saga“. That movie was supposed to be released May 25 of last year but they were impacted by COVID so its release was delayed to June 25, 2021.

People can watch “Tom & Jerry” at home online instead of going to the theaters, but must subscribe to HBO Max which will be available for a month. In the rest of the world, the “Tom and Jerry” movie was able to make $25 million. Right now, even in a pandemic, it has a confident and incredible start for the $79 million budget movie. Warner Bros. have decided to release 18 other movies at the same time both in theaters and on HBO Max.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is planning to lift the rules of the pandemic at theaters on March 5. However, due to social and physical distancing, theater capacity will be reduced by 75% of the space so no one is at risk of getting COVID. But people won’t like it because this reduces seating so not everybody will be able to watch it in the theaters, ruining their plans of going to the theaters.

COVID has changed the way we live so much that we can’t enjoy the movies we want to watch in theaters. All large group entertainment events that we used to be able to attend are not possible during this time. The release dates of movies get delayed, resulting in long waits, causing people to feel disappointed or upset.

Links:

Box office: ‘Tom and Jerry’ opens to surprisingly strong US$13.7 million, giving movie theaters hope – https://www.ctvnews.ca/entertainment/box-office-tom-and-jerry-opens-to-surprisingly-strong-us-13-7-million-giving-movie-theaters-hope-1.5328827

‘Wonder Woman 1984’ debuts wiht pandemic-best US$16.7 – https://www.ctvnews.ca/entertainment/wonder-woman-1984-debuts-with-pandemic-best-us-16-7m-1.5246116

Testing new release strategy, ‘The Croods’ opens to US$12.4M – https://www.ctvnews.ca/entertainment/testing-new-release-strategy-the-croods-opens-to-us-14-2m-1.5209299

‘Tenet’ to head to home release in December after theatrical run – https://www.ctvnews.ca/entertainment/tenet-to-head-to-home-release-in-dec-after-theatrical-run-1.5176654

‘F9’ – Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F9_(film)