After raking in $31 million at the box office its opening weekend, Space Jam: A New Legacy saw a 69% drop a week later. The drastic sink in the movie’s theater profits follows a pandemic-era trend of new films struggling to sustain high turnouts in cinemas. So why exactly are so few people flocking to theaters to see NBA star LeBron James team up with Bugs Bunny and the rest of the Looney Toons squad?
A New Legacy, directed by Malcolm D. Lee, follows in the footsteps of Joe Pytka’s 1996 movie Space Jam starring Michael Jordan. Like its predecessor, A New Legacy centers on a basketball legend, in this case, James, as he and his son Dom find themselves trapped in a digital universe. They collaborate with Looney Tunes characters in a basketball game against their AI foes to escape. The movie also stars Don Cheadle, Cedric Joe, and Khris Davis.
The most prevalent reasons for A New Legacy’s box office collapse revolve around the enduring effects of the worsening coronavirus pandemic. Theaters around the United States are now open, but the concern of the highly contagious delta variant has resulted in a diminishing number of Americans willing to enter a theater. Accordingly, moviegoing hesitancy combined with the film’s HBO Max release and poor reviews has resulted in an anticipated slump for LeBron James’ solo film debut.
A New Legacy‘s box office plummet is bad, but it’s not new. The movie’s concurrent release on HBO Max plays a major role in its low theater turnout. Other recent titles such as Marvel’s Black Widow and Disney’s Jungle Cruise, which were simultaneously released in theaters and on Disney plus for a $30 additional fee, also saw their fortunes suffer following impressive openings. With no additional fee to HBO Max subscribers, it’s easy to see why die-hard fans of original Space Jam went to see A New Legacy in theaters opening weekend, while the average audience either opted for the streaming service or skipped the movie entirely.
In regards to A New Legacy‘s appeal, moviegoers may be compelled to pass on the film due to the Space Jam sequel’s poor reception among critics and fans alike. The movie may have received a respectable 79% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, but IMDB users averaged a score of 4.4. Critics unanimously viewed the movie in a different light, leaving the movie with a 27% approval rating. A New Legacy also landed a Metacritic score of 36. If the pandemic wasn’t a good enough reason to miss LeBron James-led flick, its paltry reputation provides another explanation for the movie’s declining box office numbers.
Although Space Jam: A New Legacy‘s box office numbers are hardly impressive, it isn’t unexpected or unwarranted, given the current times. In this time of adjustment in the film industry amid the coronavirus pandemic, with much debate surrounding theaters and streaming services, A New Legacy‘s disappointment serves as another example of the pandemic-era trend of day-and-date releases on streaming services. Thus, similar box office slumps should be expected to occur with numerous upcoming releases as long as the pandemic endures.
