Analysis & Opinion Archives - Page 2 of 10 - Celluloid Junkie

NEWS

The UK Cinema Industry in 2020 – A Year to Learn From

It is quite revealing as to the state of the year when a third of the top 10 films of 2020 were in fact released in 2019. But 2020 was far from normal, as the latest annual summary from Comscore illustrates. The headlines are not pretty. Total UK and Ireland box office was just £323m,Read More

Why Warner Bros. Is Max-imizing Its 2021 Movie Slate

Editor’s Note: This post is longer than those we ordinarily publish, however we can assure you that it will give you a thorough understanding of the seismic upheaval currently affecting the motion picture industry, why it is occurring and what to expect moving forward. When 2020 began everyone…

Warner Bros. Did Not Just Kill Cinema

CJ Opinion: Warner Bros. Did Not Just Kill Cinema

We’ve been here before. Ninety-three years ago to be precise. The announcement by Warner Bros. Pictures Group that it will make its major titles for 2021 available simultaneously for a month in both cinemas and on its HBO Max streaming platform is rightly seen as a watershed moment for theatrical ex…

The Storm Before the Calm: European Cinemas Buoyed by Local Films Pre-Lockdown

For European exhibitors in November 2020, there is a sense of deja-vu. “Lockdown 2 – The Sequel”. Not playing in a cinema near you. In response to rising coronavirus cases, Europe is once again closed for business. Gower Street reports that only 24% of theatres are now open across the EMEA region, d…

Box Office Success and the New Normal: Looking Beyond the Numbers

Last Wednesday I attended a 1:00 pm showing of “Tenet” on its opening day in one of London’s biggest multiplexes. I think it was a “sell out” – it certainly looked pretty full – but I genuinely have no idea. For those of us who have made decisions based on box office figures and analysis…

Korean Zombies and Cartoon Characters Battle It Out For Global Boxoffice Dominance

Global data kindly provided by Comscore. With cinema starting to bloom open across the globe – with Beijing opening up while spikes as seen in Dalian shuttered cinemas in that area – the theatrical industry is stirring from its ventilator. It remains to be seen what state the patient wi…

Is 2020 Now a Write-Off Year for Cinemas?

So what now? That seems to be the common refrain from most cinema industry followers as this past week we watched more high profile films moved back to 2021. As cinemas reopen in some parts of the world, and as others prepare to do the same, they are increasingly faced with a crippling problem: they…

7 Reasons Why Moving “Tenet” Was The Right Call For The Industry

Most movie industry observers figured that Warner Brothers would have to make a decision on whether to fire the starter’s gun on the “summer” movie season by launching Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” on July 17th by the middle of June. The word came down late last week that while “Tenet” would indeed be…

What Cinemas Are Showing While They Wait for “Tenet”

In one of the most famous scenes in the 1992 film, “The Last of the Mohicans”, Daniel Day Lewis’ character tells Madeleine Stowe, “You stay alive, no matter what occurs, I will find you.” That’s a rather apt analogy for movie theater operators during this coronavirus pandemic who are trying desperat…

The Hollywood Studio Release Schedule Shuffle: Where It’s Been and Where It’s Going

There’s a favorite New England saying, “If you don’t like the weather wait 10 minutes and it will all change.” Welcome to 2020 in the movie business. Obviously this year has been unlike any other (I will make a concerted effort to avoid the now cliched “these are uncertain times” mutterings in this…