Movie theater comeback? Memorial Day weekend box office biggest since start of pandemic

PLEASANT HILL, Calif. (KGO) -- As people rush to escape the heat, many in the Bay Area are turning to movie theaters -- and it's a welcome sight for theater owners after the past year. It's also good news for Hollywood.

This Memorial Day weekend grossed $100 million, the biggest weekend for the movie theater box office since the shutdown last March, according to Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst at Comscore.

"Memorial weekend is usually a very pivotal weekend for the movie business and movie theaters," Dergarabedian told ABC7 News. "It normally is a bellwether for what's to come for the box office in any given summer movie season, so it's vitally important, and in 2021 it may have been the most important memorial weekend ever...because it's been a while since we've had a summer movie season at the box office."

RELATED: 3 major movie theater chains lift mask requirements for vaccinated

Last Memorial Day weekend, during the pandemic, box office grosses were less than $1 million.

While this year, the two new Memorial Day releases -- Disney's "Cruella" and "A Quiet Place Part II" -- both did better than expected, their numbers are still far from reaching pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, Memorial Day weekend grossed $213 million -- more than double.

Still, Dergarabedian sees this year's numbers as a hopeful sign that people are starting to go back to the movies at a time when more and more people have started streaming.

"People spoke very loudly with their presence in movie theaters this weekend," he said. "And only about 72% of theaters are even open and many of them are opened at limited capacity."

RELATED: Tour of Bay Area Century Theatres shows what will be different when you go back to the movies

For Leo Sweeney, who was seeing Cruella at the Century Theaters in Pleasant Hill, streaming at home is nothing compared to going to the movies.

"When I went to Avengers End Game, this was in 2019 before everything hit, there were people you could talk with, fans," he recalled. "And we would go nuts. We would go 'yay!' and 'Yeah, yeah, yeah!' or 'Aw!'"

"It's like you can't get that streaming on a phone," he added.

No, you certainly can't.

VACCINE TRACKER: How California is doing, when you can get a coronavirus vaccine

Having trouble loading the tracker above? Click here to open it in a new window.

RELATED STORIES & VIDEOS:

• Map shows which counties can, can't reopen under reopening tiers


• Cheat sheet: What you can and can't do after being fully vaccinated


• COVID-19 vaccine: Everything to know about your 2nd Pfizer or Moderna shot


• CA COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker: See your status here


• These CA counties are way ahead in vaccinations


• How to register for a COVID-19 vaccine in every Bay Area county



• Map shows everywhere you can get a COVID-19 test in the Bay Area


• Interactive map shows what's closed and what's reopening in the San Francisco Bay Area


• Data tracker: Coronavirus cases, deaths, hospitalizations in every Bay Area county


• COVID-19 Diaries: Personal stories of Bay Area residents during pandemic


• Get the latest updates on California EDD, stimulus checks, unemployment benefits


• Coronavirus origin: Where did COVID-19 come from?


• What is a COVID-19 genetic, antigen and antibody test?


• What does COVID-19 do to your body and why does it spread so easily?


• Coronavirus Timeline: Tracking major moments of COVID-19 pandemic in San Francisco Bay Area


• Coronavirus Doctor's Note: Dr. Alok Patel gives his insight into COVID-19 pandemic