Now, in mid-2022, reports of theaters ’deaths seem very exaggerated. Audiences have returned to the cineplex with hits such as “Top Gun: Maverick”, “The Batman” and “Minions: The Rise of Crane” and there is hope in Hollywood that these films will be the rule, not the exception, during the rest of the year .. Cinemas should receive another lightning this weekend when “Thor: Love and Thunder,” Marvel’s latest film, hits theaters god (s) of thunder, is expected to debut $ 150 million in North America.The film earned $ 29 million on Thursday night.
“Theaters have seen a kind of renaissance this year with traditional box office hits (sequels, superheroes and slasher photographs) at the helm of the box office brigade,” said Jeff Bock, senior analyst at entertainment research firm Exhibitor Relations, on CNN Business.
However, despite the optimism, the industry has not yet fully returned. Streaming remains a powerful alternative, inflation is reducing disposable income and the second half of 2022 has a shortage of possible blockbusters.
Where are we
The national box office has earned about $ 4 billion so far this year, according to Comscore (SCOR). This total increases by 243% compared to the same period last year, but 33% lower than the levels before the 2019 pandemic.
This year’s box office numbers feature a sort of “Choose Your Own Adventure”. A 33% drop could be considered disappointing, but it could also be seen as a success considering the last two years.
A good example of this dichotomy is “Top Gun: Maverick.”
The biggest film of the year to date, in which Tom Cruise receives one of his most iconic roles in the 1986 classic, has grossed $ 575 million in North America, or about 15% of the national box office. ‘this year.
It’s great news for the industry, but should a film represent a big part of the national box office? Bock called “Maverick” a “box office anomaly that happens maybe once every decade.”
There have been other hits, of course, big money-generating franchises like Marvel’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” and Universal’s “Jurassic World: Dominion,” in addition to unexpected newcomers like the trippy “Everything Everywhere All At Once ”on the A24, which has grossed nearly $ 70 million nationally despite being a smaller, low-budget film.
So even though the 2022 box office has recovered, it still has a long way to go before it returns to normal. But can you get there?
Where we go
“As we move forward, the box office outlook is starting to focus minimally on concerns about the pandemic and especially toward the strength of the calendar,” Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at Boxoffice.com, told CNN Business.
He noted that summer movies like “Thor,” Jordan Peele’s upcoming horror film “No” and “Bullet Train” directed by Brad Pitt have the potential to “maintain a healthy momentum.” However, Robbins admitted that “there isn’t a lot of integrated audience content planned to open from August through mid-October.”
The original films have struggled to find a significant audience in recent years. If movies like the romantic comedy “Bros.”, the mysterious “Don’t Worry Darling” starring Florence Pugh and Harry Styles and others are able to find an audience, it could bridge the holiday season.
If cinemas can keep traffic on foot until the holidays, 2022 ends the year with sequels to two of the highest-grossing films of all time.
The long-awaited “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” is scheduled for November. The latter is December’s “Avatar: The Way of Water,” director James Cameron’s first film since the original “Avatar” in 2009, which has grossed $ 2.8 billion worldwide. “Wakanda Forever” can match the box office of the original without Chadwick. Boseman, who played the main character and tragically died in 2020? And will “Avatar” still find publicity 13 years later? The answers are unclear, but bet on Marvel Studios and Cameron, the director of many box office hits like “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” and “Titanic,” at your own risk.
Bock, the Exhibitor Relations analyst, believes that box office hits will continue to “escape the box office” and that this year “will generally be considered a major success given the titles remaining on the release schedule.”