Is Tom And Jerry Starting A US Box Office Revival In 2021?

In 1940, two of the world’s most infamous cartoon characters outside of Mickey Mouse, Bart Simpson or dare I say, Pikachu were born. Tom And Jerry (funnily enough the inspiration behind The Simpsons’ Itchy and Scratchy) were created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera who also created The Flintstones.

Since 1940 the duo has battled in over 114 original short films some of which even won Academy Awards.

A further 50 shorts were created after 1958 to a total of 164, along with spin-off television series and features.

However, in 2021, almost 20 years since the first-ever feature cinematic film for Tom And Jerry was released in 1992 to an unsuccessful return, it’s leading the revival of the box office in the US.

Tom And Jerry opened to the second-biggest opening in the pandemic-era

Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

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With Regal still remaining closed, the second biggest Cinema operator in the US, and New York City sites yet to open until next week, the 2021 release of Tom And Jerry has just launched with the second biggest opening of the pandemic-era.

Taking a total of $13.7m according to Deadline and across the globe, Box Office Mojo reports a further $25m despite many territories in Europe being shuttered.

That’s a total of just $38m, on a reported budget of $79m in reduced capacity cinemas across the globe, which is highly impressive.

In comparison to other features released over the past 12 months domestically in America, it beats the Croods 2 which came out over the ever-popular Thanksgiving weekend with only $9.7m.

Wonder Woman 1984 is the only film to make more than Tom And Jerry

Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

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It comes in second place to Warner Bros. Pictures’ Wonder Woman 1984 which took $16.4m back in 2020.

What makes the debut impressive (and especially if it continues into next weekend) is that the film is part of the Warner Bros. and HBO Max new releases going straight-to-streaming deal.

Now let’s not go crazy, the figures are well under pre-pandemic box office levels, but it’s certainly a sign of a tide turning for the American box office.

We’ve also seen over the past 12 months that the US box office also affects the rest of the world in Hollywood’s rollouts.

With almost half of cinemas being closed in the United States, Tom And Jerry’s box office takings is a very impressive result. It also proves that:

1. The vaccine roll-out is providing confidence to consumers to return to the cinema
2. Tom And Jerry is the perfect content for families to return to the cinema and even in 2020, they hold weight in a market mostly dominated by Disney, Pixar and Dreamworks

In the world’s biggest box office territory China, Tom And Jerry almost matched its American counterpart with $12.4m across the weekend.

All eyes now turn on Disney and Raya And The Last Dragon which stands as the first cinematic release for Disney in 2021 along with a premium Disney Plus showing.

What do you make of this news? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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