More Hollywood Studios Start to Conceal Box Office Grosses - Hollywood Reporter

More and more Hollywood studios are concealing their box office grosses amid the pandemic and ongoing theater closures, saying they don't want to be unfairly judged for numbers that, in 'normal' times, would be considered anywhere from tepid to abysmal.

In the latest twist, Searchlight Pictures didn't even send a Sunday note to the press when Chloé Zhao's Nomadland expanded into more than 1,100 theaters over the Feb.

Ditto for A24, which didn't send a press note Sunday with any numbers for awards contender Minari, which is playing in roughly 140 locations.

As a result of the hybrid release, Searchlight insiders say the specialty label opted not to report box office grosses.

Otherwise, major studios such as Universal, Disney (minus Searchlight) and Paramount have continued to report numbers in the normal transparent fashion throughout the pandemic.

Also, they are borrowing a page from Netflix, which is infamous for not revealing box office numbers when it plays its films in cinemas during awards season, or at any other time of the year.

Rather, Warners reported numbers to the press each Sunday (that same pattern has continued for all WB titles since, including Wonder Woman 1984, The Little Things and Judas and the Black Messiah).

Sony also started being secretive in terms of letting competitors see its Comscore numbers on opening weekends, but, like Warners, sends a note to the media on Sunday.

Universal's The Croods: A New Age stayed atop the box office chart in its 13th weekend with $1.7 million for a domestic total of $50.9 million and a global total of $154 million.

Wonder Woman 1984 followed with $805,000 domestically for a global total of $159.5 million, while Liam Neeson-starring action thriller The Marksman grew its domestic total to $11.5 million.