Awards Favorite ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’ to Top Box Office

(Bloomberg) -- Awards-season favorites have arrived at the box office, with “Judas and the Black Messiah,” a tale about FBI attempts to infiltrate the Black Panthers, expected to be the biggest draw over the holiday weekend.

The Warner Bros. film, starring Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield, is expected to generate $2.4 million in domestic ticket sales from Friday to Sunday, according to an estimate from BoxOffice Pro. That’s a paltry sum by pre-pandemic standards, but enough to lead the pack during the theater industry’s slow crawl back from Covid shutdowns.

The movie also premiered Friday on HBO Max, the streaming service owned by Warner parent company AT&T Inc., in an effort to maximize the number of people who have access to the film during the pandemic.

The premiere of “Judas” is indicative of how strange the looming movie-awards season is this year. Normally, films expected to outperform at the Golden Globes and Oscars in January or February make splashy theatrical premieres in December. This year, both shows have been pushed back at least a month because of the coronavirus, meaning awards bait is also premiering later. Further, about 60% of U.S. theaters remain closed, according to data from Comscore Inc., leaving studios more reliant on the web.

Next weekend, another Oscar favorite, Walt Disney Co.’s “Nomadland,” will debut on Hulu, as well as in cinemas. The film, starring Frances McDormand, is based on a nonfiction book about adults struggling to make it in the U.S. after the 2008 financial crisis. A third awards contender, “Promising Young Woman” from Comcast Corp.’s Universal Pictures, was only in theaters for three weeks before it was offered online.

So far, streaming premieres haven’t seemingly cut too much into physical ticket sales, though it’s hard to say in the middle of a pandemic. Two weeks ago, Warner’s “The Little Things” premiered in cinemas and on HBO Max, and the film generated almost twice the volume of cinema ticket sales that analysts had expected. The movie is expected to take the No. 2 spot at this weekend’s box office, selling about $1.9 million in tickets.

Universal’s “The Croods: A New Age,” which came out around Thanksgiving Day, and Warner’s “Wonder Woman 1984,” which came out on Christmas Day, also are still playing. Most brand-new blockbusters have been delayed until the second half of 2021, with studios hoping that widespread vaccine distribution means audiences will be able to gather in larger numbers.

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