Box office tallies continue to slide

Box office tallies continue to slide downward, as studios furiously push back their big-ticket films and hope fades of a fall theatrical revival.

Estimated totals fell from $28 million to $12 million to just under $10 million over the last three weekends, according to industry reports.

"Tenet" was again first place with $4.7 million, followed by "The New Mutants" with $1.6 million and "Infidel" with $1.5 million and "Unhinged" with $1.3 million.

I'm starting to wonder about the veracity of the numbers I've been seeing. "The Nest" with Jude Law opened last weekend and no totals are listed for it. Surely somebody bought a ticket.

It could be that with much of the usual personnel in the exhibitor biz furloughed, the reporting is lagging behind.

I'm curious if reports of a vaccine will have any effect on movie-going. Let's say one rolls out by Thanksgiving -- is that enough time for studios to move things up in time for the holiday season? Or have audiences permanently adjusted to the VOD model and aren't ever coming back in the sort of numbers necessary to sustain the production of $200 million films?