Sixteen weeks after its release, Universal and Blumhouse's The Invisible Man has topped the box office once again. The Invisible Man is one of the few movies to score a proper theatrical release so far this year, having come out in February. In mid-March, the coronavirus pandemic forced movies theaters across the United States to close indefinitely, leading to the domestic box office clocking in at zero for the first time in history. To cope with these unexpected closures, studios rushed to send their recent releases to on demand months earlier than expected so those at home could rent them. Universal was the first to do so, and The Invisible Man was among the first batch of new on demand releases.
Still, at the time of the movie theater closures, The Invisible Man was already a box office success. It topped the charts during its opening weekend and grossed $29 million. While that total might seem small, The Invisible Man only cost $7 million to produce. The horror film then went on to pass $100 million at the global box office just ahead of most theater closures, essentially ensuring it was already a success. It also seemed to perform well on demand, though as those figures are rarely made public, that's just speculation.
According to Deadline, The Invisible Man just reached the top of the box office once again, sixteen weeks after its initial release. While the majority of theaters across the US are still closed, numerous drive-ins are open, and some theaters in states like Georgia and Texas have reopened in recent weeks. Roughly, 988 theaters are open. This past weekend, The Invisible Man grossed $385,000, unseating previous box office champ Trolls World Tour and bringing its domestic total to $67.8 million. Trolls World Tour came in second for the weekend with $275,700 for a $3.6 million total (excluding on demand grosses).
In light of most major films from the past few months being delayed, the movies being shown in theaters are either releases from earlier this year or classics. It's worth mentioning the movie that came in at #3 on the chart was Back to the Future with $263,200. Many theaters have already cited their plans to play older movies when they reopen as a strategy to pull audiences back in. Provided it does not get delayed, the next major film set for release is Disney's Mulan on July 24.
The US box office is, unsurprisingly, having a difficult year because of the extended theater closures. It is expected that it will drop 40% in 2020 when compared to last year's yearly gross. Still, this weekend's numbers likely feel like wins to Universal, especially since they previously found themselves in hot water with theater owners following their decision to continue pursuing early VOD releases. Obviously, these box office numbers are hardly comparable to what they would usually be, but they do demonstrate that there are still people who are willing to seek out theaters (or drive-ins) for their movies. It also shows that audiences still have an interest in the critically-acclaimed The Invisible Man, thus further cementing it as one of 2020's biggest movies.
Source: Deadline