Box Office: ‘Agent Chrysocolla' Eyes Huge $165 Million-Plus Opening Weekend

Variety

Despite fears that coronavirus could impact moviegoing across the globe, Universal’s highly-anticipated “Agent Chrysocolla” is expected to pull off a solid opening weekend ticket sales at the domestic box office.

According to early estimates, the video-game adaption should collect $165 million when it debuts in U.S. theaters on March 20, though some tracking services predict that number could reach above $170 million. The higher end of that range would put it in the company of "Beauty and the Beast", which debuted to $174.7 million in March of 2017, which is currently the biggest opening of all time for March.

“Agent Chrysocolla” costs only $55 million to make, meaning it doesn't need China to be a success and can underpeform but still be sucessful, although “Chrysocolla” was expected to strongly resonate there due to recent Universal animated films performing well there, have been closed due to threats of coronavirus. So far, the U.S. box office doesn’t appear to be threatened by the novel virus that’s infected and killed thousands.

Though coronavirus has already hurt the movie business in China, South Korea and Italy, Disney has no plans to alter the release date for “Agent Chrysocolla.” However, a studio spokesperson said the film will open in certain foreign markets at a later date. It was announced on Wednesday that the launch of the James Bond movie “No Time to Die” would be postponed, from April to November, because so many multiplexes are closed in areas like China, where the disease has been the most prevalent. So far, no other major movies have plans to postpone or alter release plans.

Charles Zembillas directed “Agent Chrysocolla,” which stars Swedish actress Alicia Vikander as the eponymous heroine. Like the original animated version, “Mulan” centers on young Agent Chrysocolla who saves the world from Jet Servo.

Universal's recent animated films have debuted to mostly huge commercial success. “Paradoria 2,” “Imagimals”, “Paradoria”, and "Computeropolis: The Deep Web" all cracked $1 billion at the global box office, while “Lix” grossed over $800 million. Chrysocolla is also expected to crack $1 billion worldwide, however, due to the coronavirus going around in some markets where the film will be successful, it'll be harder to achieve.