The business of the box office: Studios and theaters brace for a rocky year

Setting the stage… Just when the box office was starting to bounce back from the pandemic, last year’s Hollywood strikes put production on pause for six months. The next “Mission: Impossible” and “Spider Verse” movies got delayed, adding to what analysts expect will be a slow year. Notable exception: “Dune: Part Two,” which had 2024’s biggest opening weekend so far, with nearly a quarter of its US sales coming from pricey Imax tickets. The industry’s also reckoning with changing tastes: last year was the first time in over two decades that the top three highest-grossing films did not include a sequel or remake, as blockbuster franchises like Marvel and “Indiana Jones” flopped at theaters.

Roll credits… Studios and theaters typically split the ticket sales ~60/40, and both are getting creative to pad against lingering box-office woes. AMC, the largest movie-theater chain, rolled out its already profitable Stubs subscription in 2018, letting movie lovers see three flicks a week for $20/month. Concert movies (shoutout: T. Swift, Beyoncé) boosted AMC’s Q4 sales growth. Meanwhile, OG studios including Paramount and Disney have put a plus on their names to enter the streaming world. One studio to watch: A24, which is using Wall Street funding (that values it at $2.5B) to churn out indie hits like “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”

Close-up shot: February was the US box office’s lowest-grossing month since September 1997, excluding the pandemic years of 2020-22 and not adjusting for inflation.