The American box office is showing no signs of recovering its previous vitality, even as another thriller takes the top spot at the box office even as most of the country was riveted by the drama brought about by the recent presidential election.
Variety reports that Let Him Go, a thriller led by Kevin Costner and Diane Lane, managed to top the American box office with ticket sales amounting to $4.1 million. While not something to brag about before the pandemic, it was enough to win the weekend.
The ticket sales are also $1 million higher than last week’s top earner, the horror movie Come Play. That movie is now in second place after bringing in $1.7 million over the election weekend. The three other films making up the top five are The War With Grandpa, Honest Thief, and Christopher Nolan’s Tenet.
According to Variety, The War With Grandpa made $1.5 million over the election weekend, while Honest Thief made $1.1 million. Tenet, once thought to be the savior of the film and theater industry, made $905,000 over the election weekend.
Compared to the box office results last week, two of the three movies actually enjoyed a bump in their earnings. Last week, The War With Grandpa made $1.08 million while Tenet made $885,000. Honest Thief was the only loser this weekend since it earned $1.35 million last weekend.
Before its continued drop this week, Honest Thief was actually able to hold the top spot on the American box office for two successive weekends, bringing in more than $5 million in box office receipts over the period.
Deadline notes that Let Him Go and Come Play’s back-to-back appearances at the top of the box office make it a first for Focus Features, which produced both movies. In a statement released to the press, Focus Features head Lisa Bunnell said that they were “thrilled” at the results.
Bunnell also hyped Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, and Lesley Manville’s performances in Let Him Go. The film is based on the bestselling novel by Larry Watson and tells the story of a couple who confronts a dangerous family that has their grandchild.
Whether the American box office is going to recover its old vitality will depend heavily on the states of the coronavirus pandemic in the country. According to the Nov. 8 update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are now 9,808,411 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country. The number of people that have died from COVID-19 is now at 236,547.