The box office finally seems to be getting its groove back.
Over the weekend, six very different movies — a new feel-good family comedy, a new espionage epic, a bloody horror flick, a superhero spectacle, a Southern horror fantasia and a new rodeo drama — collected a combined $252 million in the United States and Canada. That figure is up from $92 million for the top six offerings on marquees a year ago, according to Comscore, which compiles ticketing data.
A box office turnaround started last month, when “A Minecraft Movie” arrived as a surprise sensation. (It’s now nearing $1 billion in global ticket sales.) Then came Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” which has blown past analyst expectations to collect $257 million to date ($339 million worldwide) and is still going strong.
All told, studios gave 20 movies a wide release (2,000 theaters or more) in April and May, a 25 percent increase from the same period a year ago. Notably, the No. 1 movie over the weekend was Disney’s live-action “Lilo & Stitch” remake, which was initially planned as a straight-to-streaming project.
For theater owners, the two-month run of hits amounts to vindication. Moviegoing has struggled to regain its prepandemic verve, and the primary reason has involved “product,” cinema operators have insisted: To thrive, big screens need a steady flow of new movies, and those movies must come in a variety of flavors. Studios, however, have cut back on exclusive theatrical releases in recent years in a bid to build streaming services and to cope with the effects of lengthy strikes by writers and actors.
“Moviegoing is habitual,” said Greg Marcus, chief executive of the Marcus Corporation, which runs the fourth largest theater circuit in the United States. “You go one weekend and hopefully have a good time, and you see a trailer for what’s coming the next weekend, and you tell your friends.”
Yes, competition from streaming services has cut into their business, theater executives acknowledge. Yes, some multiplexes are dirty and need to be renovated. Yes, teenagers find it increasingly hard to keep their phones in their pockets for two or three whole hours.
“But people will come if we have enough product coming at a consistent cadence,” Mr. Marcus said. “We’ve been saying it and saying it.”
“Lilo & Stitch” took in an estimated $146 million in North America from Friday through Sunday, one of the best results on record for Memorial Day weekend. (Disney blasted its marketing trumpets on Sunday for the movie, saying ticket sales “shattered” a record for the holiday weekend. While true in raw numbers, “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” still holds the record, when adjusting for inflation. That movie collected $203 million in today’s dollars over its first three days in 2007.)
Disney said “Lilo & Stitch,” which cost about $100 million to make, not including hefty marketing expenses, was on track to sell $183 million in tickets at domestic theaters from Friday through Monday. (To compare, “At World’s End” had $243 million in adjusted ticket sales over its first four days.)
Tom Cruise’s nearly three-hour “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning” arrived in second place, with an estimated $63 million in ticket sales from Friday through Sunday and $77 million through Monday, according to Comscore. Ticket sales were especially strong at IMAX locations, where tickets sell for a premium price. “Final Reckoning,” the eighth chapter in the “Mission: Impossible” series, improved on the three-day domestic opening for the seventh installment, “Dead Reckoning,” by about 15 percent.
Worldwide, “Final Reckoning” should take in more than $200 million from Friday through Monday. Paramount Pictures said a total in that range would set a franchise record.
Still, the large turnout for “Mission: Impossible” came with a big asterisk: Profitability for Paramount and its financing and production partner, Skydance Media, remains a long way off. Because of filming delays resulting from the 2023 strikes in Hollywood and the large number of stunts, “Final Reckoning” cost roughly $500 million to make and market, according to box office analysts.
“Final Destination Blood Lines” (Warner Bros.) was third, with about $20 million in three-day sales, for a strong two-week domestic total of roughly $90 million. The superhero movie “Thunderbolts*” (Disney) chugged away in fourth place, collecting an estimated $9.2 million, for a four-week total of $171.4 million.
“Sinners” (Warner Bros.) rounded out the top five, while a modestly budgeted drama, “The Last Rodeo” (Angel Studios), arrived to $5.3 million.
“The industry is doing what it does best, offering something for every taste,” David A. Gross, a film consultant who publishes a newsletter on box office numbers, said on Sunday.
Brooks Barnes covers all things Hollywood. He joined The Times in 2007 and previously worked at The Wall Street Journal.
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