Event Movies Will Kill Cinema

“Event movies will save cinema”, we’re constantly told by adults who should be too old to get excited by the sight of men in spandex. This summer has been dominated by two event movies — Barbie, Greta Gerwig’s ode to single-use plastics and body conformity, and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, a 3-hour precognition of civilization’s end — that have racked up box office receipts that seem, on the surface, to defy the recent trends of theatrical distribution. Because theatrical distribution is a war zone. Here in the UK, Cineworld, our biggest chain, is in administration, as is Empire, one of its biggest rivals. At 9,139 global screens — it also owns Regal in the US — Cineworld is the second biggest cinema chain in the world, behind only AMC. On the back of Barbenheimer, AMC’s own share price has risen this week, back to $4.97 — but go back to the immediate pre-pandemic era and shares were trading at about $10. Even that was a significant decline from a few years before (highs of around $27 in 2016).In the post-Titanic (the first billion dollar film) period, it felt like box office hauls were on an exponential and irresistible rise. From 1998, when the film came out, to 2004, total domestic receipts grew each year. A small correction in 2005 was followed by another few years of growth, into the 2010s when 3D ticket prices and a mature multiplex system saw total US box office receipts comfortably over $10,000,000,000 each year. 

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