Latest in Exhibition

SUNDAY AM: While the theatrical marketplace is starving for big movies post-strike, Apple Original Films’ $200M pick-up of Matthew Vaughn’s Argylle isn’t cutting it with a $18M domestic/$35M global start, C+ CinemaScore, and 3 stars on Comscore/Screen Engine’s PostTrak. At the end of the day, this…

With Apple and Amazon Studios embracing theatrical distribution to enhance their content on streaming, is Netflix far behind? Despite the streamer dipping its toes in the water with a $15 million-grossing limited release of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery during Thanksgiving 2022, and a hot title…

Apple Original Films’ third movie to go wide in theaters, the $200 million, Matthew Vaughn-directed Argylle, hits cinemas this weekend via a distribution deal with Universal. A mid-teens start is expected. As the old saying goes in distribution, “It would be nice if it had a 2 in front of it,&#8221…

Movie theater circuit Cinemark’s credit rating has been raised by S&P Global, a small sign of optimism that exhibitors can weather the impact of Hollywood strikes and pandemic-altered moviegoing habits. The agency said it raised its ratings on the Plano, TX-based company’s secured and unsecured debt…

EXCLUSIVE: Sony, which kicked off CinemaCon last year, is skipping this year’s exhibitor-studio conference in Las Vegas that runs April 8-11 at Caesars Palace. This happens from time to time when a major studio will sit out, and it’s not a diss to theater owners. The last time Sony didn’t attend…

Vue International, Europe’s largest independent movie theater operator, is in discussions with its shareholders and lenders on a fresh debt-for-equity restructuring. This comes after last year’s dual WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes caused production delays and pushed a number of titles off of the 2023 and 2024…

Exhibitors are lighting candles and saying prayers that Paramount’s feature musical redux Mean Girls carries them big-time throughout January after a dry spell caused by the double strikes. Ya see, for the next three weeks following Mean Girls, there isn’t a major studio wide release until Apple Original…

AMC Entertainment stock fell 2% today and dropped 15% this week to establish a new all-time, split-adjusted low of $5.17. It is a notable turnaround after the unlikely boost delivered in 2020 by meme-happy individual investors who built positions even as movie theaters were shuttered by…

B. Riley analyst Eric Wold, who has stayed generally bullish on the movie theater business despite its recent trials, is now warning investors that the arrival of a “down box office year” has made him “increasingly cautious.” In a note to clients about his 2024 outlook, Wold wrote that he expects…

MONDAY AM writethru: Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, and he’s delivering the motion picture industry a $9 billion-plus year at the domestic box office, a feat many thought was unimaginable with the lack of a mega-tentpole over the holiday, coupled by a Q4 impacted by the double strikes. The numbers…

Releasing three tentpole movies into December, Warner Bros is walking away with bragging rights to giving the holiday season an important boost – particularly given the absence of an Avatar or a Spider-Man as in recent years. In total, WB's three titles on release have grossed $700 million since Wonka…

Christmas Week rang in an estimated $281.4 million at the domestic box office, up 14% from the December 23-29 period a year ago ($246.4M), indicating that moviegoing remains healthy post-pandemic for a family-heavy yet diversified lineup of movies — this despite the lack of one big five-quad tentpole on…