Both "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" and "Project Hail Mary" have boosted box office sales for movie theaters. Two years ago at CinemaCon, the vibes were hopeful. “Survive until 2025” was the unofficial motto as industry was still recovering from the 2023 labor strikes (and pandemic). Everyone was just happy that the major studios were finally prioritizing movie theaters again following their streaming love fest.
Unfortunately, despite a few hits like “Zootopia 2,” the live-action “Lilo & Stich” and “Minecraft,” last year wasn’t the rebound movie theater owners were expecting. Even the third “Avatar” showed some signs of aging in James Cameron’s franchise. It did nothing to dispel the notion that the movie theater biz was permanently shrunk in the streaming era.
But as theater owners and film studios gather for this year’s CinemaCon in Las Vegas next week (pro tip: go outside) they’ll be riding some… actual optimism?
Yoshi, Mario and Luigi have helped pushed the film to the top of the box office. AP Driven by the releases of “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” this past weekend ($190M over its five-day opening) and overperformance of “Project Hail Mary,” this year is shaping up to be the best year at the box office since COVID, and will pass $9 billion for the first time in nearly a decade.
“Try as they might, the powers that be thankfully cannot force this beloved business into extinction. This year’s rising ticket revenue is largely due to an increase in the number of wide releases scheduled. It’s a bit of an, ‘If you build it, they will come,’ situation,” Brendan Katz, Director of Insights & Content Strategy at Greenlight Analytics, told P6H.
This year still has two Marvel releases (including the first “Avengers” in seven years), plus Star Wars’ “The Mandalorian & Grogu” next month. There’s also Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” starring Matt Damon, and a third “Dune” in Denis Villeneuve’s trilogy.
“Project Hail Mary” overperformed at the box office. Amazon MGM Adding a dash of cold water: Being the highest-grossing year since COVID is a backhanded compliment. Prior to the pandemic and a streaming push, box office would routinely top $11 billion and it doesn’t seem like the industry will ever get back there.
“Audience behavior has shifted dramatically. But longer-term, the looming price hike for NFL rights is expected to force buyers to reduce scripted content budgets elsewhere (especially on TV). It’s fair to wonder if, amidst a potential programming pullback, we might one day find our way back to some semblance of the cinematic monoculture,” Katz said. (It’s no multiverse, but hey.)
