Canadian box office rises in 2023, at pre-pandemic levels – The Hollywood Reporter

Barbie and Oppenheimer

Courtesy of Warner Bros. Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures

Canadian movie theaters closed 2023 with their highest ticket sales since the start of the pandemic.

Total Canadian box office receipts rose to $897.7 million last year, up 34 per cent from $674 million in 2022 amid a continued rebound at the Hollywood box office, the Canadian Movie Theater Association reported.

But last year’s performance was still below the $1.02 billion level Canadian cinema operators reached in 2019, before the pandemic. Movie ticket revenues north of the border over the previous decade had gone from $950 million to just over $1 billion.

For 2023, credited to the Barbenheimer phenomenon, with Greta Gerwig Barbie And global Oppenheimerdirected by Christopher Nolan, helps local exhibition giant Cineplex break summer box office records.

James Cameron Avatar: Water Road and Taylor Swift’s concert film Tour of the ages They were also breakout performers at the box office domestically last year. Canadian box office still comes mostly from moviegoers flocking to see Hollywood films, often franchise fare, as the amount of screen time for domestic Canadian films and other international films pales in comparison.

Its 2023 box office performance included about $8 million in revenue from alternative content, mostly concert films and local syndicated sports broadcasts, versus about $5 million from the same category in 2022.

With the Canadian box office approaching pre-pandemic ticket sales, local cinema operators can look forward to a set of Hollywood pillars pushed into this year and 2025 due to the production impact of the now-ended Hollywood writers and actors strikes.

That includes Sand Dunes: Part Two And the Ghostbusters: Afterlife The sequel is now hitting theaters in 2024 and next Mission: Impossible movie and snow white, Disney’s live-action remake has been delayed until 2025.