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The New Mutants has earned approximately $750K in box office revenue for its preview night opening on Thursday. Movie industry analysts have measured that New Mutants opened in 62% of the US theatrical marketplace, and that release excluded key states like California and New York (along with New Jersey, North Carolina, Michigan, Maryland, Mexico, and parts of Arizona). In addition, major urban markets like Miami, Portland, Philadelphia, and Seattle were also excluded from New Mutants’ initial release. In addition to that, other factors inhibiting New Mutants‘ chances in theaters include a Hurricane Laura hitting the Gulf Coast states, and the coronavirus pandemic keeping theaters at limited capacity. No big deal.
In many ways, New Mutants is the proverbial ‘Canary in the Coalmine,’ and as such has a lot of eyes watching it. Some are watching to get the measure of what kind of financial returns there even is in theatrical releases, at this time. Others think that Disney has opted to put New Mutants out in theaters now (no matter how difficult of a sell it is), in order to get around legal stipulations. Disney can’t put New Mutants on streaming services until it has a theatrical release; even if the movie bombs in theaters over the weekend, there could soon be new opportunities to make New Mutants a major streaming attraction in just a few months.
As for New Mutants‘ current pace at the box office: DC’s Birds of Prey pulled in $4 million on preview night, while New Mutants’ franchise cousin X-Men: Dark Phoenix pulled in $5 million on its Thursday opening. Both of those figures were considered to be bad starts, with Birds of Prey ultimately opening at a dismal $33 million, and Dark Phoenix only mustering $32 million.
However, given the circumstances, New Mutants still isn’t doing as bad as you may think. As The Wrap points out, two films that opened in summer 2019 – comedy film Stuber and horror sequel 47 Meters Down: Uncaged – earned $750K and $500K, respectively. And that was at a time when going to movie theaters was still a care-free leisurely experience.
So, New Mutants really is a litmus test for your point of view, right now. If you want to see the glass being half full, then this box office is solid indication that there is genuine demand from moviegoers to get back into theaters. If you want to see the glass being half-empty, then New Mutants and/or the theatrical business are trying to find perch on rocky ground.
The New Mutants is now open in theaters, where available. Check your listings.
Disclosure: ComicBook is owned by CBS Interactive, a division of ViacomCBS.