If you seemed to find a few more seats empty around you in the theater this year, there was a good reason for that.
After a record haul of $11.88B in box office receipts in 2018, revenue dropped by 4% in 2019, the sharpest decline in five years, according to ComScore. The revenue this year is targeted to come in at $11.45B.
While it’s easy to see this as a negative, it will still rank as the second-biggest year for domestic box office gross sales. Considering the number of source of competition trips to the theater are seeing, this is still a pretty good result.
What is concerning in the long-term, however, is that Disney accounted for 35% of this year’s domestic gross. Should the shine come off the House of Mouse any time soon, it could be disastrous for the industry. There is no studio really suited to trying to step into its shoes at the moment, so it’s going to be in the industry’s best interest to keep Disney as healthy as possible.
With competition at home for streaming services expanding even further in 2020, what will the box office results look like this time next year? Remember, not only will the competition be tougher, but there will be no Avengers: Endgame, no Star Wars films, and some other key players are sitting out in 2020.
Theaters are going to have to make it that much more enticing to get us in the door, and we can’t wait to see what ideas they come up with. It’s not just enough anymore to sell us popcorn and sit us in a darkened room. Some chains are stepping in, but we imagine we’re going to need to see a lot more of that in the coming days.
