Onward and The Way Back Open on Top During the Outbreak

Disney says effects of virus scare are limited to Asia and Pacific
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Mar 8, 2020 11:27 AM CDT
Onward and The Way Back Open on Top During the Outbreak
From left, characters Laurel, voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus; Ian, voiced by Tom Holland, and Barley, voiced by Chris Pratt, appear in a scene from "Onward."   (Disney/Pixar via AP)

North American audiences are not staying away from theaters in the face of coronavirus concerns, according to the weekend's box office numbers. Disney and Pixar's Onward topped the charts, and the Ben Affleck basketball drama The Way Back also opened normally. Onward earned $40 million from 4,310 North American locations, according to studio estimates on Sunday. It's on the lower end of openings for the studio, the AP reports, more in line with the launch of The Good Dinosaur in 2015. Onward is an original story about two brothers voiced by Chris Pratt and Tom Holland.

Internationally, Onward picked up $28 million. Disney noted that outside of Asia-Pacific regions, coronavirus concerns have not made a material impact. Universal and Blumhouse's The Invisible Man fell to second place in its second weekend, with $15.2 million. In third place, Warner Bros.' The Way Back picked up $8.5 million from largely older audiences.

(More box office stories.)

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