UNITED STATES • Comcast Corp's Universal Pictures is betting a movie about a serial killer who hunts down teenagers is the antidote to real-life dread at the United States box office.
The horror film, Freaky, a collaboration with Blumhouse Productions that came out last Friday, made US$3.7 million (S$4.98 million) in North America this weekend, making it the No. 1 movie for the domestic box office.
According to researcher Comscore Inc Overseas, it grossed US$1.9 million across 20 markets.
Freaky, which is showing in Singapore cinemas, is one of the few movies that have hit cinemas since the start of the pandemic.
It is also one of the first movies Universal is releasing as part of a new distribution strategy, in which it plays its new movies in the cinemas for about three weeks before selling them online.
The box office will take all the help it can get. Practically every big blockbuster this year has been pushed back until next year or later, with studios refusing to release major new features before audiences can once again gather en masse.
That has led to unusual arrangements between studios and theatres, which are usually sticklers about their right to show new movies exclusively for two or three months.
Running out of cash, racking up debt and keen to promote any film to draw in more customers, exhibitors have become increasingly flexible throughout the pandemic.
Universal now can put its films online 17 days after they debut in the largest US theatre chain, AMC Entertainment Holdings.
In exchange for shortening the so-called exclusive window, AMC gets a cut of Universal's online movie sales.
AT&T Inc's Warner Bros is also said to be discussing a hybrid release strategy with theatre chains in which it would move the film Wonder Woman 1984 onto its HBO Max streaming platform shortly after it comes out in cinemas around Christmas.
AMC's chief executive officer Adam Aron has said the new model with Universal helped keep his theatres open.
In September, Universal released a crime comedy, Kajillionaire, in theatres before quickly moving it online - and cut AMC in on some of the sales.
Mr Aron said that netted the company more cash than a standard release would have.
BLOOMBERG
