Box Office 2022: What Worked, What Flopped And What To Make Of A Rollercoaster Year At The Movies

© Provided by Varieties

When All, Everywhere, All At Once premiered last spring, the Alamo Drafthouse hosted a special screening where attendees were presented with bug-eyed bags. Peeps refers to the protagonist's habit of suffocating everyone and everything he can. When Jordan Peele's complicated horror film "No" opened in July, a Texas theater chain held a temporary screening at a Hollywood horse ranch. This is an allusion to the siblings who fight on horseback at the center of the space thriller. And when the gourmet horror film Menu opened last November, the Alamo served slow-cooked oysters and biodynamic wines to guests so they could eat in style like on-screen characters. died in a panic

"We're doing everything we can to get people back to the movies," said Sara Pitre, senior film programmer at the Alamo Drafthouse. “We love movies and we want to do more to get the most out of the content we show. It's about rebuilding those relationships with our customers."

The extra effort seems to have paid off. As a result, The Alamo outperformed the industry by double digits in a rollercoaster year for movies. It's a reminder of the craziness that comes at a time when the film business is struggling and largely unable to rebuild its footprint in the wake of the pandemic. Overall, domestic ticket sales will drop more than 30% from pre-pandemic levels in 2022, and analysts expect US revenue to exceed $7.5 billion. That's largely due to the studio releasing 40 fewer movies in the past 12 months than in 2019 as it tries to resume production on projects amid an unpredictable health crisis. The decline in theatrical releases roughly equates to the same decline in revenue. Theaters need movies to show, and for most of 2022 there will be too much blank space on their billboards.

"It's been a year of real recovery," said Tirlach Hutcheson, vice president of Studio Movie Grill. "The study is still in development and it will take time to turn things around."

Theater owners believe sequels await us next summer, including Guardians of the Galaxy and The Fast and the Furious. However, they predict that the situation will not return to pre-pandemic levels until 2024. Businesses hit hard by prolonged outages and changing tastes as viewers get used to streaming services face a long wait. That led to closures and bankruptcy: Cineworld, Regal's owner and the world's second-largest exhibitor, filed for Chapter 11 protection in September, and some industry watchers believe other chains could be forced to do the same if the situation doesn't improve not. .

"You will see a wave of bankruptcies," predicted one executive, who asked not to be named. “Private capital will probably come in and buy some of these theaters, close the underperforming screens and cut costs. They are not going away, but it will be difficult."

COVID and politics have fundamentally changed companies that, to put it bluntly, quit their jobs even before the virus turned everything upside down. It was an industry that relied on spectacles and superheroes to sell tickets that cost a lot of money to send. The result is a major shift in the declining global theatrical release landscape, making it increasingly difficult for movies to turn a profit. Russia's invasion of Ukraine means that no more Hollywood movies will be released in the country, a blow given that Russia is one of the top 10 film markets. What's even more concerning is that tensions between the US and China have resulted in fewer studio movies coming to the country or have been plagued by boring release windows. The rising number of COVID-19 cases in the country could greatly affect the profitability of Avatar: The Path of Water, one of the rare Hollywood movies to receive a coveted release date in China. This is a problem because for a huge blockbuster with a budget of more than $200 million, success in a huge market like China can be the difference between making a profit and losing money.

"China is unstable, to say the least," said Veronica Kwan Vandenberg, president of distribution for Universal Pictures International. “There are still many opportunities in China, but this is never a guarantee. It's more like the icing on the cake."

It was also a year of reversals in fortunes, most vividly illustrated by Paramount Pictures, which was largely written off as a major player after a decade of corporate change and instability. Instead, Paramount jumped back into the fray with this year's best-selling release, Top Gun: Maverick, followed by hits like Sonic the Hedgehog 2, The Lost City, Smile and Scream. Babylon, Damien Chazelle's $80 million tale of the early days of the film industry, was his only setback.

"It's been an absolutely fantastic year," said Brian Robbins, chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures. "And I really feel like we're living in an alternate universe."

In fact, the events of Paramount seem to take place in another reality. Even as they flourished, most other studios suffered painful setbacks. Disney missed out on two of its animated movies, Strange World and Lightyear, both of which flopped at the box office and probably lost more than $100 million each. Its collapse presents a problem for family properties, which were one of the most reliable theater demographics before COVID turned everything upside down. There have also been several attempts to launch or expand new franchises that have met with audience indifference, such as Warner Bros. Fantastic Beasts: Dumbledore's Mystery (nobody seems to care where to find them); Black Adam, in which DC's new leadership announced that anti-hero Dwayne Johnson would have no role in the next phase of universe-building; and Lionsgate's Moonfall, a disaster movie that cost more than $140 million to produce and grossed $67.3 million.

Prestige Fare, an award-winning title of sorts, also did well at the box office. Movies like She Said, Bones and All and The Fabelmans received rave reviews from critics but failed to convert reviews into multiscreen queues. These movies didn't make $15 million worldwide, which is an unfortunate outcome that could mean adult movies, at least without the special effects and explosions, will continue to migrate to streaming services, where they'll be more isolated from viewers. . consideration.

So what works? Franchises, especially comic book related ones, continue to dominate the box office. Domestically, nine of the ten top-grossing films are sequels: the only entry without Roman numerals, Batman, is not an original film. It's a reboot of a character that has headlined more than a dozen movies. And what worked for viewers in the US also worked for ticket buyers in other countries. The eight highest-grossing films in the world are also sequels, with the exception of Batman and the Chinese sci-fi comedy Moonman. These films were wildly successful at the box office. In 2022, the box office is more concentrated at the top, with the top 10 grossing movies accounting for more than 60% of total ticket sales, up from 47% in 2019. And that's a problem, because these big movies don't have to be great interesting, but for the business to stay going, there needs to be more complementary parts.

"Studios have always focused on home runs, but singles, doubles and triples keep the distribution pipeline going," said Greg Foster, exhibition operations consultant. "2022 will not have wide enough exemptions."

And while the summer was successful at the box office with Top Gun: Maverick and cemented that success with hits like Jurassic World: Dominion and Minions: The Rise of Gru, business was in a prolonged downturn. in August, from which it never recovered by the end of the year. Sure, there were some big hits like Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Avatar: The Path of Water, but those hits weren't enough to launch another new release. They were also few and far between: for far too long there were no big movies to show. As a result, movies like The Brothers, The Devotion and Easter Sunday had some of the worst debuts in movie history.

"We have a tough hiatus in 2022," said Megan Colligan, president of Imax Entertainment. "It always happens that it calms down in August. You can live it. But when November and December are quiet, it's not good."

As for theater managers like Pitre, they are already looking to the coming months in hopes of finding an original or unusual offering that can attract a large audience and serve as a bridge to the next blockbuster. He thought he found it in Cocaine Bear, a darkly comic thriller about a black bear who swallows punches and runs bloody.

“We have some pretty crazy party ideas that we can bring to life in our theater lobby,” says Pitre. "This is the movie we love."

Click here to read the full article.

Wake up, Hollywood is dying! | The box office tanked in 2022 after fans left for good.