Disney's 'Free Guy' was pipped at the post by Warner Bros.' 'The Suicide Squad' on its opening weekend, but the Ryan Reynolds-starrer's second outing proved the film has legs, even in a disrupted market.
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With audiences emerging from lockdown in South East Queensland, Cairns and regional Victoria, DC/Warner Bros.' 'The Suicide Squad' held no. 1 at the box office, narrowly defeating Disney's new sci-fi, 'Free Guy'.
With 16 million Australians in lockdown last weekend, the box office prospects for James Gunn's 'The Suicide Squad' were fairly slim.
With Sydney's cinemas still shuttered, a snap lockdown in effect in South East Queensland, Victorian and South Australian theatres just reopening, and the Olympics competing for eyeballs, it wasn't going to be smooth sailing for Disney's 'Jungle Cruise'.
With more than half the country's population in lockdown, it followed that the box office would take a tumble, with no title cracking $1 million last weekend.
'Space Jam: A New Legacy' did bumper business during school holiday advance screenings, but its official opening weekend was hampered by cinema closures in the country's two largest markets.
Despite school holidays, last weekend proved relatively quiet at the movies, with cinemas still shut in Sydney and other parts of the country.
Just over a week ago 'F9' revved into cinemas, posting the highest opening weekend since the pandemic began. Many exhibitors were then excited about the further promise of school holidays and two other upcoming major releases in 'The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard' and 'In The Heights'.
But what a difference a week can make, with new outbreaks of the virus impacting cinemas across the country and disrupting the market.