Summer B.O. Big But Skewed

This summer's box office is going great-guns but its only Disney and Universal that are making it big. Missing-in-action are Warners, Sony, and Paramount. This makes one wonder if this is a shift in release strategy or just plain bad product, or a combination of both.

It's not that moviegoers aren't visiting their local cinema - as the B.O. tallied over $2.6b from May 4th - July 8th - a 14% increase over last year's figure.  Disney along is responsible for a whopping 44% of the total, while Universal accounted for 17%. Fox, Warners, Paramount, Lionsgate, and Sony shared the rest. Globally, the story is the same, as the box office is 10% above last year.

Some in the industry believe that placing films throughout the year is a better strategy than loading up in the summer, for example, Warners is releasing 'Aquaman' (its 2018 tentpole) is being released in December.

To be fair, this summer isn't over yet and things may change but the numbers are just too big for Sony or Warners to overcome.

Jim Lavorato