The coronavirus outbreak has been a huge impact on the world as we know it and The Walt Disney Company is feeling the impact as well. As Deadline is reporting that Disney is suspending global box office reporting.
Despite the fact there are major theater closures in the United Stated States, China, Italy, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. There are markets with theaters still in operation offering limited seating including Australia, Croatia, Iceland, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Taiwan, and Slovenia, with China expecting to slowly reopen theaters as early as next week with limited titles.
Deadline received a statement from someone at Disney, confirming the news:
“Given the current large number of theater shutdowns around the globe, Disney will suspend global weekend reporting for the time being. Wishing you and your families the best during these testing times and please be safe”
The suspension includes Disney Studios, Pixar, Marvel Studios, and 20th Century Studios, as well as Searchlight Pictures. Without Disney’s reporting and this will be nearly impossible for industry insiders to compile accurate figures for the top ten films at the domestic and international box office. We’d expect Disney to lift the suspension sometime in July in time for Jungle Cruise.
Read: Disney Submits Statement to SEC Regarding Business Risks During The COVID-19 Outbreak
Pixar’s Onward has held the top spot for two weeks in a row. However, in its second week the animated film dropped over 70% in its second weekend a drop the studio hasn’t experienced since 2015’s The Good Dinosaur, which dropped 59% in its second week.
This is a rough time for a studio that is coming off a record-breaking 2019 at the box office grossing over $11 billion worldwide and that is not including the studios fox acquisitions from last year which include titles Ford v Ferrari, Jojo Rabbit, Ad Astra, amongst others that would’ve put Disney past $13 billion worldwide.
Source: Deadline
