U.S. Box Office Heading to 22-Year-Low While People Practice Social Distancing Amid Coronavirus Outbreak

The weekend box office is on track to drop to its lowest point in 22 years amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Movie theaters around the country have experienced a drop in attendance while movie fans are too scared to go to the theaters. Big chains like AMC and Regal have been supporting “social distancing” practices by restricting attendance to a maximum of 50% capacity in all auditoriums, though it doesn’t seem the theaters are filling up that much.

Deadline reports that this weekend’s films are on track to gross an estimated $58.5 million, which would be the lowest cumulative gross since the weekend of September 11-13, 1998. The movies that weekend grossed $56.8 million.

Certain counties in New Jersey and Pennsylvania have actually shut down all movie theaters this weekend because of the virus.

The new movies in theaters this weekend are I Still Believe, The Hunt, and Bloodshot. Holdovers include Onward, The Invisible Man, and The Way Back.