Summer box office rebounds in 2021

There appeared to be light at the end of the tunnel when the 2021 summer box office season kicked off on week 18 of the box office year. The COVID-19 vaccine was more widely available and plenty of people were lining up to get the shot. It looked like people would soon be able to gather in larger numbers and studios committed to releasing several big films in theaters for the season.

May remained relatively quiet at the box office until "A Quiet Place Part II" and "Cruella" debuted over Memorial Day weekend, grossing $47.5 million and $21.5 million, respectively. Summer seemed to kick off in earnest after that with weekly box office averaging $106.9 million from week 22 — the week with Memorial Day — through week 35, the final week of the summer season. The rising number of COVID-19 infections due to the delta variant starting in mid-July did not appear to halt moviegoers.

The summer 2021 season was inevitably going to be an improvement over the 2020 season when most of the theaters in the country were shut down. Total 2021 summer box office was $1.63 billion compared to just $32.6 million in 2020. Approximately 75% of the summer 2020 box office came in the final three weeks of the season when theaters began to reopen.

Summer admissions had been trending downward before the pandemic, going from 507.7 million in 2012 to 411.2 million in 2019 with some ups and downs along the way. Summer admissions plummeted to just 3.5 million in 2020 and bounced back up to 164.1 million in 2021. Fewer films being released in the summer certainly contributed to the low admissions figure but hesitancy to return to theaters was also a major factor as the capacity restrictions for nearly every state have been lifted.

The summer season certainly was not typical, but it was an improvement over the pandemic-ravaged 2020 season. The momentum may carry over into the fall and winter seasons if the major studios maintain their release schedules. The fall season got off to a strong start as Disney released "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" exclusively in theaters and racked up a $75.3 million opening weekend, setting a new Labor Day opening gross record.