Cruella earned $2.1 million as word arrived of halfway decent Disney+ “premier access” business over its opening weekend.

In terms of daily box office, well, for the first time in a while (at least since Godzilla Vs. Kong and before that not since maybe Sonic the Hedgehog), we actually have movies performing well enough to justify the day-by-day beat. Paramount’s A Quiet Place part II earned $4.2 million on Tuesday, which is (by default, natch) the biggest Tuesday gross for any single movie since Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog, which gross $5 million on day five right after a $70million Fri-Mon domestic debut in February 2020. It had dropped 57% from its $11.9 million Monday gross for a $75 million five-day total. Conversely, A Quiet Place part II dropped 55% from a $9.54 million Monday, giving the $61 million horror sequel a $61.3 million five-day total.

That’s above the $58 million lifetime domestic cume of Chris Nolan’s Tenet. That Warner Bros. sci-fi actioner opened and played last Fall under quite different circumstances. It faced a much grimmer domestic Covid scenario amid theaters still closed in most/all of New York and California. It’s not nothing that the film is still the third-biggest domestic grosser of the pandemic era behind A Quiet Place part II and (for now) Godzilla Vs. Kong ($98.5 million). Also, considering A Quiet Place ended its global run with $341 million, I’m sure Paramount, Platinum Dunes and friends would be overjoyed to get anywhere near Tenet’s $363 million global cume. Speaking of which, A Quiet Place 2 is currently 3% ahead of A Quiet Place’s $59.74 million five-day cume.

The first John Krasinski/Emily Blunt horror flick earned $50.2 million over its domestic debut in April of 2018 before earning $4.1 million on Monday and $5.2 million (+29%) on Tuesday. If you recall, from a lifetime ago, grosses generally jumped from Monday to Tuesday thanks to many major chains offering notable discounts on admissions and refreshments in what I liked to call “cheap ticket Tuesday.” That 55% Monday-to-Tuesday drop is obviously due to Monday being Memorial Day. The size of the drop right between Aladdin (-52%) and Solo (-60%) and tied with Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (-55% after a $77 million Fri-Mon debut). That may not mean much in terms of predictions, but that it’s still playing “like normal” is encouraging.

Speaking of “normal,” Cruella earned another $2.1 million for second place, bringing its five-day cume to $28.6 million. That’s -58% from its $5 million Monday, which is in line with the above-noted examples. Yes, the film’s theatrical revenue is potentially tied to its concurrent available (for a $30 one-time-fee) on Disney+. SambaTV reports that around 686,000 subscribers took the plunge over the first weekend, which is 37% less than did so with Mulan and not exactly a banner figure. Still, that’s $20.6 million in revenue for Disney (equivalent to around $41 million in 50/50 theatrical grosses) along with whatever it earned on the service outside of North America and via the devices that SambaTV doesn’t tabulate. We’ll check back in three weeks when the Nielsen ratings drop.

Ironically, after years of recording box office results instead of ticket sales, the streaming revolution may get dinged by much less sexy viewership figures. “$21 million in revenue, almost all of which goes back to Disney,” sounds better than “less than 750,000 subscribers.” If Mulan and Raya and the Last Dragon had pulled bonkers-bananas revenue, then Disney wouldn’t have put Cruella or Black Widow in theaters at all. Conversely, had those films absolutely “bombed” at home (relatively speaking), they probably wouldn’t have offered this summer’s slate as a hybrid release. The additional variable that far more adults than kids are vaccinated, making at-home viewing more optimal for kid-friendly flicks like Disney’s Cruella, Warner’s Space Jam: A New Legacy and Universal’s The Boss Baby: Family Business.

The hope is that A Quiet Place part II takes a Fri-Sun drop closer to 50% (24 million) than 60% ($19 million). To be fair, it’s not like the Purge and Conjuring sequels/spin-offs were that leggy on weekend two. Speak of which, direct competition from New Line Cinema’s The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (premiering in theaters and on HBO Max this Friday won’t help. In normal times, I’d have guessed that the softer-than-hoped debut for Annabelle Comes Home (a still-solid $31 million Wed-Sun debut in 2019) meant that Conjuring 3 might open closer to Don’t Breathe ($21 million in 2016) than Conjuring 2 ($40 million in 2016) or Annabelle Creation ($35 million in 2017). So I’m curious as to what “normal” looks like here.