As Thanksgiving in 2020 was suggested to be a more subdued affair, rather than the usual hustle and bustle that holiday would entail, one would have expected the box office to reflect a pretty similar picture. The Croods: A New Age’s recent box office debut would say otherwise, as the film brought in a figure that’s pretty impressive when compared to the market overall. Nowhere is that more apparent in the numbers from the film’s first two nights of release, with the film racking up $4.6 million in that short span of time.
That’s pretty impressive for a movie that was once rumored to be cancelled in production, thanks to Dreamworks Animation’s tumultuous history throughout the last decade. But with The Croods: A New Age under the auspices of Dreamworks’ parent studio Universal, it seems that the project not only found its feet, but according to Deadline’s numbers, also found its audience. The same of which could be said for almost the entire run of films in theaters now. Among the titles that were mentioned as seeing a bump in their Thanksgiving portfolio were the other family comedy on the market, The War With Grandpa, as well as Liam Neeson’s action thriller Honest Thief. Though Universal was probably smiling extra hard yesterday, as they had two other films see fortune smile upon them, with both slasher-comedy Freaky and the emotional drama Let Him Go both receiving their own increases.
Speaking of Freaky, the numbers we’ve seen from The Croods: A New Age are even more impressive when compared to those shown by director Christopher Landon and co-writer Michael Kennedy’s opening salvo. Upon opening weekend, that particular film saw a result of $3.7 million raked in over the course of just that frame. But with The Croods sequel beating that number in just two days, there’s hope that there might be a surprise windfall in the world of animation; which depending on who you are could be a good and a bad sign.
Per the most recent agreement between studio Universal and theater chain Cinemark, there’s a new monetary threshold that could see a delayed VOD release of The Croods: A New Age, or any project that qualifies. So long as Dreamworks Animation’s latest release stays below $50 million this weekend, the movie will be able to be released on VOD after the 17 day mark that was previously set with AMC Theatres. However, if the holiday offering manages to cross that seemingly improbable mark under current conditions, that window would be delayed until 30 days from initial release.
It may seem like a near impossible feat for The Croods: A New Age to cross the $50 million mark in one weekend, but then again who could have predicted the Thanksgiving opening results? We’ll be keeping an eye on this developing story throughout the weekend here at CinemaBlend, and if you’re interested in seeing The Croods A New Age yourself, you can catch it at a participating theaters near you.
