The motto is “abysmal numbers”. And this goes for both, the pandemic and German cinemas. As Covid numbers kept climbing in Germany, last week’s and most of all last weekend’s box office numbers kept tumbling. How else can it be explained that one of the world’s most famous musicals made by one of the world’s most famous directors would only debut at number five? The fact that it did not do much better in the US – which has no lockdowns as of yet – notwithstanding. Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story  -which just received four Golden Globe nominations including Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, Best Director, and nods for both, the lead and the supporting actress – is not exactly singing its way into the hearts of German audiences with a bombastic orchestral fanfare: a meager 23.000 musicals fans amounted to an equally measly 232.000 euros over the weekend.

The number one spot stayed reserved for Ridley Scott’s true crime love, sex, and fashion saga House of Gucci, but it was the only film in German cinemas with a six-figure number in sold tickets – 129.000 most likely Lady Gaga fans went to see it which equals 1,33 million euros in box office receipts. This brings House of Gucci to a total of 350.000 visitors with a combined total of 3,54 million euros.

The movies coming in second, third, and fourth saw no change from last week: Encanto held steady in number two with 60.000 theater goers totaling 463.000 euros. The animated – and Golden Globe-nominated – musical has so far enchanted 243.000 fans but has not gotten over the two million hurdle, something that it would have easily done before the pandemic. Clifford, the Big Red Dog barked its way into third place with only a slight drop in numbers compared to its debut last week. 44.000 dog fans (as opposed to 46.000 last week) paid altogether 320.000 euros which brings the total to 648.000.

No Time to Die stayed in number four in its tenth week on the screen, bringing its cumulative box office to almost 65 million euros and 5,9 million tickets, 300.000 being made from 27.000 tickets last week.

Lauras Stern (Laura’s Star), the lone German production in the top ten raked in 212.000 euros with 28.000 viewers. Lauras Stern is the story of a seven-year-old girl from the countryside who moves to a city with her family. On her first night in their top-floor apartment, she sees a shooting star. As she finds it hard to make new friends in the big city, she continues looking to the sky. One evening, a tiny star lands at her feet breaking one of its points, having fallen from above. Laura realizes that it is a living being and takes it home and tries to patch it up with a band-aid. She then discovers that the little star has superpowers and can make people fly or bring objects to life. The film is based on the children’s book of the same title, written by Klaus Baumgart. In 2004 it was first adapted as an animated film and subsequently became an animated TV series. Now, director Joya Thomas has made a live-action version starring Emilia Kowalski in the title role. In a non-pandemic year, this little gem would have been the perfect Christmas movie.

As it is, and with Austria only ending the lockdown this week, the German-speaking box office saw only a total of a little more than half a million tickets and 4,42 million euros in sales.