#Universal’s ‘The Croods’ has $2M box office debut amid pandemic

Universal Pictures’ release of “The Croods: A New Age” logged $2 million in ticket sales at its opening, a paltry sum by industry standards that nevertheless marked the second-best box office debut during the pandemic.

The Wednesday debut of the DreamWorks Animation-produced sequel about a prehistoric family was second only to Disney’s $3.1 million debut of superhero flick “New Mutants” in August, according to ticket sales tracker Box Office Mojo.

“Croods 2,” which features the voices of Ryan Reynolds, Emma Stone and Nicolas Cage, debuted at a time when there are only 2,650 theaters open out of a US foot print of 5,500 locations.

While there’s hope that “Croods 2,” which was shown at 2,211 theaters on Wednesday, will break the $10 million mark by Sunday, it’s hard to make predictions given the uncertain environment. Universal has high hopes that “Croods 2” will bring in strong returns when it opens internationally this weekend and hits streaming services next month for an additional cost.

Still, there’s no chance the movie will come close to grossing what the original “Croods” amassed in 2013. According to Box Office Mojo, “Croods” had a domestic opening of $44 million. Overall during its run, the film netted $187 million in domestic sales and $400 million international sales for a total of $587 million in global sales.

Making matters worse for movie theaters is the fact that there are hardly any new releases between now and the end of the year. Moviegoers can look forward to catching Warner Bros.’ “Wonder Woman 1984,” starring Gal Godot on the big screen on Dec. 16.

Otherwise, they can avoid the crowds and stay at home and watch the flick on HBO Max when it premieres on the streaming service on Christmas Day.