• by Wayne Friedman , 4 hours ago

Snowstorm related issues -- with some 400 theaters closed -- resulted in the U.S. theatrical box-office's weak $56 million total, according to IMDb’s Box Office Mojo.

It’s the first weekend of 2026 that did not exceed the totals for 2025.

The first four weekends of 2026 averaged $104.6 million. So far this year, theatrical revenues are still up 12.3% to $537.0 million.

For the most recent weekend, Amazon MGM’s “Mercy” posted the best results, with a modest $11.2 million, revised down from around $14 million.

Two of Disney’s released movies were next, still showing healthy results many weeks after their release last year: “Avatar: Fire and Ash” ($7 million) and “Zootopia 2” ($5.7 million).

“Avatar” is now at $378.5 million in domestic revenues and “Zootopia 2” at $401.4 million.

Year-to-date, movie studios have increased national TV advertising 12% to $66.7 million -- some 9,020 airings, yielding 7.0 billion impressions.

Biggest spenders this year so far include two upcoming movies: Disney/20th Century Studios “Send Help” ($9.7 million),  a horror/thriller film and Amazon MGM’s crime drama “Crime 101” ($7.8 million).

Highly rated big live sports events -- the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, the Super Bowl, the NBA All Star Game -- all on NBC -- are expected to see a sharp spike in national TV advertising efforts from movie studios for their upcoming theatrical releases.