‘Onward’ Still Seeing Blasé $39M-$40M Opening, But Are Coronavirus Fears Really To Blame?

ONWARD: RelishMix adds that on social, that potential moviegoers think “the journey/quest story line feels a bit tired. For others, the story, the characters, or the Disney brand have recently upset them for some reason or another. For others, this entry to the Pixar filmography does have its unpopular elements from the portrayal of the characters to the ‘borrowing’ from other pop culture favorites.”

In sum, rivals say that they’re not surprised at the results here for Onward: It’s a movie that they guessed could have overperformed on the Pixar brand into the $50Ms, and also underperformed for what it inherently is. Social media metrics were strong, according to RelishMix, with 366M across YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, which is ahead of the average family animated film. Holland and Pratt have been promoting the film aggressively, especially to their combined social media following, which is near 80M. Again, should there be any misstep in Onward‘s grosses here, don’t blame the Disney marketing machine, which was firing on all cylinders. It’s a product situation.

THE WAY BACK: Warner Bros.’ Ben Affleck drama The Way Back was moved to this date from the fall to capitalize on the March Madness basketball season. The pic is coming in the low end of where tracking was seeing it at $8.4M, in 3rd place. This was a personal drama which Affleck has reflected upon in interviews, but the film’s paltry opening has nothing to do with waning star power at all, as he’s had his highs and lows. “To his credit, this film industry veteran has championed his successes and failures in recent interviews, talking about everything from this current movie to his family troubles and addiction, too,” reports RelishMix.

FULL STORY: https://deadline.com/2020/03/onward-opening-weekend-disney-pixar-coronavirus-invisible-man-1202876016/