A Florida movie theater is responsible for the entire US weekend box office report
Until recently, “Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star” was the lowest grossing movie to top the weekend charts — netting $6.6 million in 2003, according to box office records.
That was before the coronavirus pandemic forced movie theaters nationwide to shut down.
Now a lone drive-in movie theater in Florida is driving the entire weekend box office report — and helping two newly released independent films dethrone “Dickie Roberts.”
Still standing
Ocala Drive-In off U.S. 301 in central Florida, about 75 miles north of Orlando, is one of only a handful of movie theaters still screening films after emergency orders and social distancing guidelines forced most to close, according to Deadline.
Of those remaining, movie industry data sites like The Numbers — which tracks box office revenue — appear to only be keeping up with Ocala, according to Ernie Smith, editor of the internet blog Tedium.
Smith said Ocala is the “the only theater in the country screening first-run movies right now.”
Screencrush also reported it’s one of the only open theaters “showing new releases and reporting their grosses,” pointing to findings by journalist Gitesh Pandya, who runs the website BoxOfficeGuru.com.
In an interview with Vice, Ocala’s owner said he won’t close the drive-in theater — which first opened in 1948 — “until he has no choice.”
“The old cliché ‘the show must go on’ is not a cliché in my family: It’s a way of life,” 63-year-old John Watzke told Vice.
Box-office numbers
According to The Numbers’ box office report for the weekend of April 17, only a handful of films were screened, generating just over $5,300 in ticket sales.
Most of that belonged to the IFC films “Resistance” and “Swallow,” which grossed all of $2,490 each while playing at a single movie theater — Ocala, according to Pandya and Smith.
Both movies from IFC Films, one a historic drama set during World War II and the other a horror film about a woman who eats inedible objects, are listed under “Now Showing” on Ocala Drive-Thru’s website.
In addition to driving the the box office report, “Resistance” and “Swallow” have outranked every other film on The Numbers’ list of “Lowest Grossing No 1. Movies on the Domestic Box Office Chart” at different points during the pandemic.
On April 15, Smith reported “Swallow” was the second-lowest grossing movie after earning just $1,710 over the weekend of April 10.
By Tuesday, The Numbers showed “Resistance” overtaking the No. 2 spot after grossing $2,490 last weekend.
This story was originally published April 21, 2020 at 4:12 PM.
