It’s been an attractive year at the box office, with true highs for studios like Disney (which struggled mightily last year) and films like Wicked and Moana 2, which broke Thanksgiving box office records. Artificially, it might seem that movie theaters have finally recovered from the post-Covid crisis. The figures, however, tell a different story.
According to a new year-end report from Variety, total global revenues are expected to reach $30.5 billion this year, down 10% from 2023. (Try as Glicked might, nothing could reach last year’s Barbenheimer numbers.) That’s a dire position for theaters, as 2023’s total was itself down 20% from the pre-pandemic era. Ditto for admissions, which are expected to hit about 800 million this year, down from approximately 1.3 billion annually before the pandemic.
Until now, movie theaters have largely filled this gap by taking even more money from their consumers than by offering a more engaging experience. “A lot of the gains we’re seeing at the box office are due to emerging prices,” said Eric Handler, managing director at Roth Capital Partners.
Based on the quotes in Variety‘s report, however, some studio execs don’t seem to understand that raising prices so drastically will result in people not only seeing fewer movies, but taking fewer risks with their ticket purchases. “Audiences say they want original titles, yet they’re doubling down and supporting the safer options of titles they know,” said Disney‘s executive VP of global theatrical distribution Tony Chambers. On a purely statistical level, he’s right. Of the ten highest-grossing movies this year, Wicked was the only one that wasn’t part of a pre-existing franchise. (Even then, it’s an adaptation of a popular musical and a prequel to the very well-known The Wizard Of Oz.) Everything else—Inside Out 2, Deadpool & Wolverine, Dune: Part Two et. al.—was a sequel, threequel, or higher.
This is partly the result of turning those types of films into capital events. Think of other people’s pink and green Wicked or Fremen cosplay outfits (and popcorn bucket purchases) for Dune: Part Two. ” We’re all well aware of the fact that a sense of urgency needs to be created. for videos to be successful at the box office,” said Peter Cramer, president of Universal Pictures. I would have liked to say that informal cinema was as strong as it is, but it is not. We want to get other people out of their homes.
Jeff Goldstein, president of domestic distribution at Warner Bros. , echoed those sentiments, wishing the type of films weren’t box office hits or flops that inflated the studio’s numbers. “Before, there was a middling elegance that made up most of the films,” he said. “It has decreased. ” Maybe that number would go unnoticed if other people didn’t feel like they had to spend some of their savings to see a movie with their family, especially if that movie was good. You can check out Variety’s full report here.
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