The good news is, with movie theaters partially reopened in the two largest film markets in the United States – Los Angeles and New York – specialty films are performing better.

Promising Young Woman, for example, drew nearly 30 % of its weekend earnings from LA and NY. The revenge thriller, which is actress Emerald Fennell’s feature directing debut and stars Carey Mulligan, saw a 117 % increase in its box office tally.

The film, which earned four Golden Globe nominations and recently picked up five Oscars nods, took in $195,000 and added to its total take of $5.7 million so far.

Director Shaka King’s Judas and the Black Messiah, the biographical drama on the betrayal of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton, increased its gross by 53 %. The film hauled $250,000 to add to its overall earnings of $5.02 million.

With additional 500 screens, Minari also gained box office strength. Filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung’s drama about a South Korean immigrant family, starring Steven Yeun, Yeri Han, Youn Yuh-jung, Alan Kim and Noel Cho, earned $306,000 for a total of $1.4 million.

The basketball drama Boogie benefited from the reopening of cineplexes in the major East and West Coast film markets, too. More than Boogie’s 30 percent in ticket sales came from LA and NY. Eddie Huang’s coming of age tale about a hoopster phenomenon in Queens, New York sold $600,000 in tickets for a cumulative take of $3.26 million.

The Father, director Florian Zeller’s adaptation of a play about a man dealing with memory loss, with Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman as leads, also stayed steady with $322,000 for overall ticket sales of $979,000.

These specialty films, and those yet to come, are predicted to do better with the reopening of cinemas (albeit partially), especially in Los Angeles, which is the biggest film market in the United States.

Even with the 25 % capacity restrictions in its cineplexes due to the COVID-19 health safety restrictions, LA is credited for 9 % of the recent weekend’s ticket sales in the U.S.

The overall domestic box office winner was still Raya and the Last Dragon. On its third weekend on top, Disney’s animated film, directed by Don Hall and Carlos Lopez Estrada, and with a voice cast led by Kelly Marie Tran, Awkwafina and Gemma Chan, dropped 5 percent only.

With $5.2 million in box office receipts, Raya and the Last Dragon has now earned $23.4 million domestically.

In second place was the live action/animation combo film, director Tim Story’s Tom and Jerry, voiced by Michael Peña and Chloe Grace Moretz, which took in $3.84 million for a total of $33.69 million so far.

Benedict Cumberbatch and Rachel Brosnahan’s The Courier, helmed by Dominic Cooke, debuted in third place. The historical drama-thriller, set in the 1960s, scored $2.01 million.

Rounding out the top five were Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley’s adventure/sci-fi, Chaos Walking ($1.93 million) and the animated-film-that-could, The Croods: A New Age ($620,000).

In the international box office race, James Cameron’s Avatar was still amazingly king of the world. All thanks to the reissue of the movie, anchored by Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana and Sam Worthington, in China.

Racking up $14.1 million ticket sales in China, which includes $4.1 million from IMAX theaters, Avatar ruled the overseas market.

While Raya and the Last Dragon is not performing as expected in the world’s largest film market, the movie earned $8 million internationally. The Southeast Asia-set film has amassed an offshore cumulative take of $47.8 million.