LOVE AND MONSTERS (2020): Paramount’s Adventure Comedy Makes a Hit Debut on Streaming

Love and Monsters Makes a Hit Debut

Originally scheduled for theatrical release on April 17th, Love and Monsters is at the top of the charts on both Apple TV and FandangoNow.

After hemorrhaging off a half-dozen titles to FandangoNow and Netflix, Love and Monsters is one of the few remaining Paramount Pictures films to be given a 2020 theatrical release, albeit a fairly meager one with only 387 theaters this weekend, for a total revenue of $255,000. However its PVOD performance (at $19.99) indicates why Paramount chose not to sell if off.

Budgeted at $30 million, this adventure comedy starring Dylan O’Brien — star of Maze Runner and Teen Wolf — has a similar premise to that of Zombieland in that it features a young man on a journey across a post-apocalyptic America, killing monsters along the way.

Being the only PVOD title this week, it’s unsurprising to see its dominant position on FandangoNow, which ranks its new releases by revenue. Nonetheless it beat out Mulan, which costs $29.99, more than what most viewers are willing to pay. More impressive still, it is leading at Apple TV, which ranks films by number of transactions, where it beat out Dinesh D’Souza‘s right-wing documentary Trump Card at a price of $3.99. Trump Card was at  #1 on Google Play, #2 at Apple, and #3 on Fandango.

Into its fourth week on Spectrum, Jessica Chastain‘s Ava defended its #1 spot and is the only film to appear on all four charts this week.

Along with Love and Monsters, two vintage re-releases have seen strong numbers on PVOD platforms. Beetlejuice and Hocus Pocus — both of which were in the top ten at the box office when they originally debuted — did well this week.

Five new movies made their debuts on VOD this week, but only one made it onto more than one chart. Grindstone’s zombie thriller Alone ranked at #3 at Google Play and has also been released on FandangoNow. Another film by Magnolia with the same title, which is a remake of the Swedish film Gone, held the #8 spot on Google Play.

Also of note is Into the Labyrinth, an Italian thriller with Dustin Hoffman in his first project since Netflix’s The Meyerowitz Stories in 2017. The film was released in Italy a year ago and is just now seeing an American release

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