Sawt Falasteen - US box office looking good as cinema owners gather: industry chief

The two films have drawn stellar audience figures in the last few weeks, pushing the US box office to its best start to the year since the Covid-19 pandemic.

The North American movie industry, which is in a constant battle with booming streaming services, surpassed $2 billion in receipts by the first week of April for the first time this decade, according to Box Office Mojo.

Although the figures do not yet match pre-Covid totals, cinema owners are "very excited," said Michael O'Leary, CEO of Cinema United, the world's largest trade organization for movie theaters.

The positive results -- up 23 percent year-on-year -- come as theater owners prepare to gather in Las Vegas for their annual CinemaCon meeting, where studios offer a sneak peak of their upcoming slates.

Those present will be hoping the sector can extend this growth after a difficult few years that have seen audiences dwindle in the face of the pandemic, strikes by actors and writers, and competition from streamers that have changed audience habits.

O'Leary said that along with big-budget crowd-pleasing US films, a growing suite of international fare is helping to sustain cinemas.

"It's not just movies from Hollywood that people are interested in," O'Leary told AFP in an interview.

"I think a lot of it is that people are drawn to compelling stories. It doesn't really matter where you live or where you're from, or even what language you speak... you want to have a compelling and interesting story."

O'Leary said there is also a generational element in the optimistic audience numbers.

"You've seen the... industry reinvest in itself, focus on creating even more grand and exciting experiences at the theater, and you're starting to see audiences come back, particularly younger audiences," he said.

"Gen Z is kind of leading the way. It's the fastest growing demographic of habitual moviegoers."

- Studio merger -

A decade ago, filmgoers in the United States and Canada would frequently spend more than $11 billion annually at the cinema, but since the pandemic, the total take has not exceeded $9 billion.

This year's string of big releases has sparked hopes that there could be a return to such lofty numbers.

The opening weekend for Amazon MGM's "Project Hail Mary" logged a healthy $81 million, and was followed up by "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" with $131 million.

Upcoming releases expected to do well include Michael Jackson biopic "Michael," "The Devil Wears Prada 2," "Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu," "Spider-Man: Brand New Day," "The Odyssey," and the third installment in the epic "Dune" series.

But there are clouds on the horizon for cinema owners, said O'Leary, with unease over Paramount's attempt to swallow Warner Bros.

"When you have consolidation of legacy studios, as we learned with Disney and Fox, the amount of movies produced goes down, prices go up, and we think that is bad for theaters," he said.

"It's bad for the industry, and it's certainly bad for movie fans."

O'Leary said his group had made representations to US regulators about the proposed mega-merger.

"We continue to oppose this transaction (and) encourage them to look closely at this merger, because the consequences of it are serious," he said.

CinemaCon will take place from April 13 to 16 in Las Vegas.

H.Darwish--SF-PST