The Weekly Watch Report: Harley hits hard at home!

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

As you probably noticed, movie theaters are closed as the planet deals with an ongoing viral apocalypse. Ordinarily on Sundays we would be bringing you the weekend box office results, but as the situation has demanded, humans have shifted to the many options for home viewing to satisfy their entertainment needs. So for the foreseeable future, instead we'll be taking a weekly look at what is getting the most attention on TV screens (or laptops, tablets, phones or whatever surface where eyeballs are aimed).

The Digital Entertainment Group (DEG) has been tracking the activity of home media and calculating the most popular titles across DVD and Blu-Ray sales, and Digital VOD sales and rentals. (Note that their metrics do not include "Premium" VOD titles — these typically run $19.99 for a 48-hour rental, like the recent TROLLS: WORLD TOUR and SCOOB!, which is currently the #1 movie on iTunes.)

Below is the most recent DEG rankings for the week ending May 16, 2020.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that the bulk of the current list is a combination of movies that were audience favorites over the Christmas holiday season, and releases that made it to screens in 2020 but rapidly saw their business dwindle as the spread of COVID-19 put the globe on lockdown.

Leading the pack and surging several places this week is the DC Comics adaptation BIRDS OF PREY. Fronted by Margot Robbie's hammer-swinging harlequin, the R-rated Warner Bros. release originally hit theaters in February and collected nearly $200 million worldwide. Another comic book character was close behind, as Vin Diesel's nanotech-powered BLOODSHOT has found an audience at home after its unfortunate arrival in theaters on the weekend right before the multiplexes shut their doors.

The Will Smith/Martin Lawrence sequel BAD BOYS FOR LIFE is the highest-grossing theatrical release of 2020 with $418 million worldwide (which could potentially remain the champion for the remainder of the year), and continues to see plenty of action in home theaters. And the adventure of Harrison Ford and his CGI hound seemed to have a sudden leap in popularity as THE CALL OF THE WILD climbed up a number of spots. Filmmaker Rian Johnson's murder comedy KNIVES OUT remains a favorite just before it hits Amazon Prime, and Season 4 of Adult Swim's animated "Rick and Morty" is doing ricktacular business while the second half of the season currently plays out on Cartoon Network.

Writer-director Leigh Whannell's R-rated update of THE INVISIBLE MAN made an appearance on the list (after getting a Premium VOD release back in March), along with another Blumhouse-produced horror movie, the remake of TV series FANTASY ISLAND. Other new activity included director James Mangold's Oscar-nominated racing biopic FORD V FERRARI and the second season of Kevin Costner's modern Western series "Yellowstone" (which starts airing its third season in June).

It didn't make this week's list, but Tom Hardy's depiction of notorious mobster CAPONE has already made an impact in homes. Since its release on video screens, director Josh Trank's look at the final year of the the ruthless crime boss has reportedly set records for a VOD movie.

On the streaming side of things, the most watched titles on Netflix this past week were a blend of their original programming (Season 2 of the Christina Applegate/Linda Cardellini black comedy "Dead To Me", romcom THE WRONG MISSY, crime thiller series "White Lines", romance show "Sweet Magnolias"), teen melodrama ("Riverdale", "Outer Banks"), the animated series "Avatar: The Last Airbender", and curiously, the Johnny Depp/Christian Bale gangster thriller PUBLIC ENEMIES and the inspirational biopic SOUL SURFER.

While filmmaker Christopher Nolan seems confident that his time-inverting thriller TENET (which got a stunning new trailer this week) will still get its big theatrical release in July, some studios are considering different tactics for their major upcoming movies. The Tom Hanks WWII drama GREYHOUND, which was due to hit screens in June (after sliding from its original March date) got snatched up by AppleTV for a considerable sum and will skip theaters entirely.

The only box office figures that have been reported in several weeks are for drive-in theater showings of IFC's low-budget horror movie THE WRETCHED and the Beanie Feldstein comedy HOW TO BUILD A GIRL. Although the cinema experience will ultimately endure, recent surveys indicate that audiences are in no hurry to head back to theaters, with 70% of moviegoers stating they'd rather watch at home. The landscape is changing and everyone is adjusting, and at this point it's impossible to predict the short-term and long-term effects of the coronavirus fallout. But we'll keep watching and reporting!

You can also check out all previous box office reports, from the glorious days when theaters (and pretty much everything else) were open for business, RIGHT HERE,

What is your favorite movie released wide on a Memorial Day weekend? VOTE HERE!