Hollywood box office sales fell in November

By Eva Rotenberg CNN

(CNN) – Movie theaters have fallen into a “slow November,” industry analysts say, as many of the season’s most anticipated films had disappointing sales last month.

Domestic theaters grossed about $553.6 million last November, down 12% from a year ago and still more than $400 million below pre-pandemic levels, according to data from research firm Comscore. Between 2009 and 2019, November was a reliably profitable month to raise nearly $1 billion, due in part to the long Thanksgiving weekend.

This year’s holiday pass, measured from the Wednesday before Thanksgiving to the Sunday after, brought in $173 million, according to Comscore. That’s about $50 million more than last year but still lags behind the usual average of about $270 million before 2020.

“’The Marvels’ and ‘Wish’ are two films that, based on the impressive historical record of Marvel Cinematic Universe and Disney animated films over the Thanksgiving period, were expected to do much more at the box office than both films did,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior analyst. Media at comScore.

The two films, along with “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” and “Trolls Band Together,” “arguably served to cannibalize each other’s potential female audience within their timeline,” said Sean Robbins, senior analyst at Box Office Pro. short”. .

Other major factors contributing to the disappointing box office were the SAG-AFTRA strike, which prevented actors from promoting upcoming films, as well as the highly anticipated sci-fi film “Dune: Part Two,” which was removed from the November slate and postponed to another release. Release date March 2024. But ultimately, “nothing reached the level of the must-see event for casual moviegoers that was popular in past holiday seasons,” Robbins said.

Last year’s November Marvel offering, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” opened with strong domestic sales of $181 million, topping the opening weekend with nearly $64 million.

This year, The Marvels grossed a disappointing $46 million in its opening weekend. It was also surpassed by The Hunger Games, which took first place on Thanksgiving weekend, with revenues of $42 million. However, even that amount fell short of the Thanksgiving box office grosses of “Catching Fire” and “Mockingjay,” which grossed $110, $82, and $76 million, respectively, between 2013 and 2015.

“The Hunger Games, while tall thanks to word of mouth, never had a realistic chance of matching the performance of its predecessors as a prequel without Jennifer Lawrence’s star power,” Robbins said.

A poor performing November means that pressure is on in the final month of the year. December could see a similar decline, according to Robbins, given that “Ghostbusters” sequel has been delayed until next year, and “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” will likely not live up to the first film’s box office take.

So far this year, local theaters have generated $8.26 billion in revenue, “just $740 million less than the $9 billion expected for the full year,” Dergarabedian said.

“It will now be important that films scheduled for the rest of the year perform at or above expectations to take the industry into 2024 with strong momentum,” he added. “The good news for theaters is that there is a fantastic range of films from all genres, big and small budgets, award contenders, as well as blockbusters in the mix.”

CNN Wire
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