It was another rough weekend for the country's multiplex operators. AMC Entertainment and its peers collected less than $53 million in domestic ticket sales over the three-day weekend. It was barely above the $52 million in box office receipts for exhibitors last weekend, the softest showing since late January. Even if you add Monday's admissions -- during the Labor Day holiday -- for an extra day as a boost, the last two weekends are the weakest admissions for the 10 highest-grossing flicks in nearly six months.
A perfect snapshot to illustrate how Hollywood has gone bone dry in cranking out compelling content is that the top draw on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday came out in either May of this year or December of last year. Maverick and Spidey continue doing a lot of the heavy lifting to keep the silver screen golden.
Was the strong initial burst of box-office activity this summer simply a case of revenge viewing -- along the lines of the revenge-travel trend for the tourism industry that had folks making up for lost vacations earlier in the pandemic by booking getaways early in the peak season? There may be some truth to that, but at the end of the day it's likely a matter of studios loading their potential summertime winners early in the season as they have historically done. The sharp deceleration over the past month is notable and potentially problematic. However, it's not worrisome unless some of the higher-profile releases coming out later this year fall flat.
Image source: Getty Images.
Reel problems
Your local multiplex probably felt like a time capsule over the weekend. Spider-Man: No Way Home and Jaws were re-released. Most major multiplex chains including AMC ran a promo charging $3 a ticket over the weekend. The only thing missing from this blast from the past was the crowds.
Neither move was enough to immediately turn things around. Despite taking over the premium-priced formats, the two film retreads combined for less than $10 million in ticket sales. The experiment isn't over. Avatar will return to theaters later this month, ahead of the next of many sequels for the franchise hitting cinemas in December.
The jury's still out on Saturday's National Cinema Day where all screenings, including premium formats, were $3 a piece. AMC CEO Adam Aron tweeted that his chain sold 1.6 million heavily discounted tickets on Saturday, also pointing out how those customers spent a lot of money on high-margin food and beverage items.
The past month has been rough for movie-theater stocks, and a shakeout seems inevitable with some of the weaker chains buckling in the process. Things should change as we get closer to the holidays with the highly anticipated Black Panther and Avatar sequels coming out in November and December, respectively. Bringing back throwback films and even throwback pricing is filling a void in content, but that hole won't be there forever.
