'New Mutants' hopes to weather box office storm as Hurricane Laura endangers reopened theaters

Movie theaters are once again weathering the box office storm — quite literally this time around.

Hurricane Laura, which made its ferocious landfall along the U.S. Gulf Coast late Wednesday, is now complicating the reopening process for certain U.S. theater locations — just one week after AMC (AMC), Cinemark (CNK) and Regal Cinemas partially reopened their doors.

So far, Louisiana and Texas have been hit particularly hard by the storm, with Cinemark announcing theater closures in several state counties as a result.

The inside of an office is seen after the building was destroyed as Hurricane Laura passed through the area on August 28, 2020 in Lake Charles, Louisiana . The hurricane hit with powerful winds causing extensive damage in the area.

Some analysts worry that the re-closures could inflict more permanent damage to the South’s already battered box office ecosystem while others say the storm should not make much of a difference within an already complicated theatrical landscape.

Marvel’s “The New Mutants” (DIS), which first made its debut overseas before hitting over 2,400 U.S. theaters on Friday, is still expected to pull in between $8 million to $10 million domestically over the weekend. The movie was originally predicted to open at around $20 million pre-pandemic, according to Deadline.

Meanwhile, Russell Crowe’s “Unhinged,” which opened in U.S. theater last weekend (the first new movie to do so since coronavirus closures), took in over $4 million at the domestic box office — a decent start amid cinemas’ staggered reopening plans, and a motivating boost for yet-to-be released films.

“The New Mutants” sets the stage for Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” which is expected to hit the domestic box office on September 3rd.

Streaming fills the void

As theaters grapple with a post-coronavirus universe, consumers are turning to more online viewing options to fill the void, and complicating efforts to lure moviegoers back into theaters.

According to a new survey by Hub Entertainment Research, 50% of respondents said an online or over-the-top service was their default TV choice — up from 47% last year.

Meanwhile, 42% chose traditional cable, DVR or VOD options — down from 47% from 2019.

Source: Hub Entertainment Research *NOTE remaining % default to antenna viewing (not shown)

For those that chose an online or OTT source, nearly half (23% of the 50%) selected Netflix (NFLX) as their first choice.

In fact, Netflix’s popularity has been steadily increasing over the past few years — now trailing live viewing by only 7% compared to a whopping 33% back in 2016.

Source: Hub Entertainment Research

And boomers seem to be hopping on the streaming bandwagon.

According to the study, those aged 55 and older are now more and more likely to defer to an OTT plan like Netflix. Less than half of that age demographic selecting live TV as their default viewing choice.

Alexandra is a Producer & Entertainment Correspondent at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @alliecanal8193

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