AMC Entertainment swung to a profit last quarter and saw revenue jump 45%, besting Wall Street forecasts. CEO Adam Aron found the numbers “quite satisfying.” But, he said, the short-term impacts of the writer’s and actor’s strikes will cause additional and needless challenges for AMC in 2024. Without taking sides as to who is to
Box Office
Cinemark CEO Sean Gamble said Apple and Amazon, two behemoths of the tech world but newcomers to the wide-release movie business, are so far “very pleased” with their results. During a conference call with Wall Street analysts to discuss third-quarter results, the major exhibitor boss said Cinemark’s conversations with the two tech firms indicate they
Last weekend’s box office results could be described as dismal. The biggest new title was Scott Waugh’s Expend4bles, which received a beatdown from critics in the hours before showtimes, and the final results not only saw said action film flop and finish in second place, but no title managed to make over $10 million. The
EXCLUSIVE: The UK box office is booming thanks to Barbenheimer. According to seven-day figures from Comscore, this past week is the highest ever recorded at the UK and Ireland box office, with £66,373,575 clocked from all movies between July 21-27. The feat has been fueled by the Barbenheimer phenomenon, which has seen Greta Gerwig’s Barbie
Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz said last weekend’s blockbuster release of Barbie – the toymaker’s first-ever major theatrical film – is a moment that “will be remembered as a key milestone in our company’s history.” His comments came amid second-quarter numbers in line with Wall Street forecasts. “The Barbie movie is a showcase for the cultural
We knew Warner Bros’ Barbie and Universal’s Oppenheimer were going to be big — but not this big. Paramount’s Tom Cruise sequel Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One learned that the hard way (65% Weekend 2 decline with $19.3M) by going one weekend before the dual tidal wave, trying to avoid the wake of
What was it W. B. Yeats wrote, that line Joan Didion lifted and twisted in her essay “Slouching Towards Bethlehem,” about West Coast chaos in 1967? Things fall apart; the center cannot hold. That’s how it felt on Thursday, a few minutes before lunch with some seasoned film executive-friends at the Academy Museum (Salad Niçoise
Asteroid City delivered a massive jolt to the arthouse and specialty world this weekend as the Wes Anderson film presented by Focus Features blew past records with an estimated $790k three-day gross and $890k estimated for the four-day weekend in just six theaters. That’s a per-theater average of $132,211 for the three days, and $148,901
Comedy is back; Super Mario Bros has proved that laughs are good for a half billion dollars. The antihero business is intact. Both Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 and John Wick: Chapter 4 hit their marks. But affairs of the heart are still suffering at the movie box office. Love Again is the latest
Beau Is Afraid posted the top per-screen average of the year so far and the best limited opening for distributor A4 since Uncut Gems, grossing an estimated $320,396 at four locations in New York and LA for a hefty per screen average of $80k+ to sold out shows on both coasts. (Uncut Gems with Adam
Watching Jesus Revolution surge past $45 million in ticket sales for Lionsgate—matching or besting The Fabelmans, The Banshees Of Inisherin, Tár, Women Talking and Triangle Of Sadness, combined—it finally seems safe to say it. The faith-based audience is back. Between Covid and the culture wars, it’s been a rough few years for those who make,
Imax said today it expects to return to its pre-pandemic gross box office level of $1.1 billion in 2023, as it reported revenue of $98 million for last year’s fourth quarter, down 10% from the year before. That dip, in-line with Wall Street forecasts, comes despite blockbuster Avatar: The Way of Water and was due largely to
Three films opening this weekend highlight women’s rights, class and racism — nothing ripped from today’s headlines exactly, but features with a distinctive moment and point of view that appear particularly relevant today. Call Jane, Holy Spider and Armageddon Time join Tár, Till, The Banshees of Inisherin and others already in theaters as it gets
Searchlight Pictures’ The Banshees Of Inisherin opened to an estimated $181,000 and a raring per screen average of $45,250, beating Tár’s impressive $40,000. Both opened in four locations and now rank no. 2 and no. 3 for an indie per-theater gross this year after A24’s Everything Everywhere All At Once. That film’s in a class
The Banshees of Inisherin, which won writer-director Martin McDonagh Best Screenplay and Colin Farrell the Volpi Cup for Best Actor in Venice last month, hits theaters in New York and Los Angeles on Friday, expanding to 10 more markets/50 locations next weekend, and to 600-800 screens November 4. If standing ovations say anything, the comedy-drama had a
French director Cédric Jimenez’s thriller November has drawn one million spectators in France in its first two weeks on release, bucking the trend of the country’s recent lackluster box office, co-producer and distributor Studiocanal has announced. The fast-paced drama feature, which is inspired by the five-day manhunt for the perpetrators of the November 15 terror
Specialty film rollouts continues to accelerate with Chinonye Chukwu’s Till, Park Chan-wook’s Decision To Leave and A24’s Stars At Noon joining releases from previous weeks to populate theaters as awards season gathers steam. Till, from United Artists Releasing, world premiered at the ongoing New York Film Festival to stellar reviews (100% on Rotten Tomatoes,
Focus Features’Tár opened in limited release to strong results with $160,000 at four locations in New York and Los Angles for a $40,000 per theater average, one of the best PTAs since Covid and not bad for a 2-hour and 38-minute arthouse film pre-pandemic. Riding strong reviews, the Cate Blanchett-starrer by Todd Field was no. 1 in three
Today Focus Features opens Tár, the strikingly original return of Todd Field, in four locations in NY and LA. The film premiered at Venice winning star Cate Blanchett Best Actress as musician and conductor Lydia Tár. Early this week, it seemed to mesmerize a sold-out Allice Tully Hall at the New York Film Festival. A 97%
Sarigama Cinemas’ Ponniyin Selvan: Part One crashed the weekend box office at no. 6, looking at $4+ million on 500 screens for a per theater average of $8,260, the biggest of the top ten. The Tamil-language historical epic being billed as India’s Game of Thrones is based on a Tamil history book series that’s read
Widespread optimism months ago that domestic box office might readily return to pre-Covid levels has given way to a new sense of pragmatism about the movie business. This year’s tally will far surpass last year’s $4.5 billion haul, but it will certainly fall billions short of 2019’s $11.4 billion in receipts, and all bets are
“People are catching up on films,” is how one arthouse executive described the current moment in specialty, which echoes the slowdown in studio wide releases. August can be slow ahead of a trio of festivals – Venice, Toronto, New York – and a ramp up to awards season. It can also offer an less obstructed
As of Sunday, 88% of moviegoers were “very or somewhat comfortable” going to the movies, up a percentage point from a week ago and hitting a new high, according to the latest data from NRG released by the National Association of Theatre Owners. That compare to 65% in January at the height of the Omicron
Where did everybody go? They certainly weren’t watching the Friday night Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony. The audience dropped to about 17 million, down 37 percent from 26.5 million viewers for the Rio de Janeiro opening in 2016. (Though Saturday was better.) We know they weren’t at the movies. The box-office dropped 25 percent from last
After debuting at the top of the U.S. specialty box office over Memorial Day weekend, family comedy/drama Dad, I’m Sorry (Bo Gia) has now surpassed the $1M mark, becoming the first Vietnamese-produced title to reach that milestone. Starring, written and co-directed by Tran Thanh, the movie added $116K in its third frame to bring its
Exhibition ruled the stock market today after a long holiday weekend saw Paramount’s A Quiet Place Part II crush it, earning $57 million over four days. That’s not far from the $60 million that the John Krasinski-directed sequel was anticipated to do in its 3-day opening pre-pandemic, according to my colleague Anthony D’Alessandro. Shares of Paramount
On Wednesday morning, studio executives and exhibitors will rally at AMC’s Century City 15 multiplex to cheer the return of movie theaters that had been closed by the pandemic. “The Big Screen Is Back,” they’ll declare. Glad to hear it. That’s great, as far as it goes. But those movers and shakers should probably charter
The Motion Picture Association released its annual report on box office and home entertainment, and the bottom line is sobering but little surprise after a year of Covid closures. The U.S./Canada box office market was down 80% in 2020, to $2.2 billion, while tickets sold were down 81% to 0.24 billion. Still, that was offset
Talk about box-office drama. As the July 4 weekend unwinds, IFC’sThe Truth might be slugging it out with Homewrecker from Dark Star and The Outpost from Fathom for the honor of ranking somewhere in the 300s, near IFC’s own Wiener-Dog, among all-time Independence Day performers. (Who can say for sure, as release dates have become
National Amusements, the Redstone family holding company, was placed on negative credit watch by ratings agency S&P Global after shares of ViacomCBS – which NAI uses as debt collateral – skidded so low over the past three weeks that the parent technically defaulted on a bank loan. That’s a headache for NAI but also a