Where's The Cinema ?

Forget all the hubbub about Hollywood diversity and inclusiveness, it's the international box office that now matters most.  The 2015 box office gross was about $40 billion - up 10% over 2014.  Most of that gain came from outside the U.S. and provided the major studios with most of their profits - about 73% of total box office gross was generated outside the U.S.

For itself, pushed by 'Star Wars', 'Jurassic World', and 'Furious 7', the U.S. box office generated $11.1 billion, a 7% increase over 2014 but due principally to higher admission pricing as attendance was essentially flat for the year.

So, overseas is where the action was and will remain as the studios look for ways to meet the needs of overseas audiences.  China's box office gross was $6.5 billion, a 50% growth over 2014 thanks to a combination of U.S. and Chinese movies.  It is only natural that Hollywood is green-lighting more movies that have international appeal and cater to other countries tastes, leading to casting decisions to accommodate this change.  The majors are also doing more joint production with foreign film companies to placate foreign audiences. Tentpole movies do very well in overseas markets.  For example, 'Furious 7' generated 77% of its total gross outside the U.S..

International box office growth is all the more dramatic given that fact that it was bucking a very strong U.S. dollar, if the strong dollar was taken out of the exchange picture the global box office would have been much, much greater.

Screen count is up dramatically overseas.  Last year there was a 6% increase in screen count globally reaching a total of 142,000.  In China screen count was up a gigantic 40% to 32,000 screens.

In sum, the movie business is very much alive and well and there is no need for hand-wringing due to competition from other media platforms.  Like many other things in the U.S.,  the cinema is static and needs rejuvenation - it is still numero uno but the international market is booming and that is where the growth in content production and box office will be in the future.

Just saying,

Jim Lavorato