The Myth of the Opening Weekend as a Key Performance Indicator
Gruvi's Ben Johnson crunches the numbers to show that the opening weekend box office focus can be over-stated in terms of judging a film's long term success.
European Cinema Attendances Rises in 2015 (but 1,900 Analogue Screens Remain)
European cinema attendance rose significantly in 2015, judging from statistics announced by both UNIC and MediaSalles. But regional variations remain, as do 1,900 analogue screens.
How Sustainable Is The Chinese Cinema Market?
In 2011 the average ticket price in China was CNY ¥37 (USD $5.62) but by 2015 this had fallen to nearly CNY ¥35 (USD $5.32) despite the growth of Imax and premium screens and the increase in cinema ticket prices in all other major economies. Mobile ticketing by third-party vendors is the main cause,…
China to Crack Down on Box Office Fraud
Chinese authorities are cracking down on box office fraud, with severe punishments for cinemas, ticket software vendors or apps caught siphoning off BO.
Are UK’s PLF Pre-Releases Hurting Smaller Exhibitors?
There is a growing sense of unease amongst smaller UK exhibitors about the recent trend to pre-release blockbusters in PLF (premium large format) auditoriums. The back-to-back Week -1 screenings of “Everest” and next “The Walk” on both Imax and own-brand PLF screens has raise…
Cinema’s Bright Future: A 50-100 Year Perspective on Box Office Trends
“Betting on Box Office: Major Cycles and Market Conjuncture in Film Exhibition” by Oleg Berezin (2014) English translation: Mikhail Prokofiev Edit of English translation: Nick Holdsworth and Elisa Koshkina Amazon Kindle edition, 238 pages At a time when Hollywood box office trends are tr…
China Cinema Growth Slows Dramatically
New data released by Ent Group shows that while the growth of cinemas in China continued in the first half of 2015, the pace of growth is slowing significantly. According to Ent Group the first six months of 2015 saw an addition of 600 new cinemas with 2,449 screens, putting the total in China atRea…
European Cinema Figures and More by UNIC
Definitive cinema attendance figures for Europe in 2014 have been published by cinema trade body UNIC, as part of its 2014-2015 General Report. Preliminary figures were released by UNIC back in February and are largely the same, so the report is more interesting for its analysis of market trends, ad…
Dissecting the Dispute Between Disney and Cinema Owners Over Film Rental Terms
The recent news that exhibitors in North America and Germany were unhappy with the film rental terms Walt Disney Studios was offering for their release of “Avengers: Age of Ultron” provides a perfect opportunity to explain some longstanding industry practices associated with theatrical f…
Global Box Office 2014: Asia Comes to West’s Rescue
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has released its 2014 Theatrical Market Statistics report, providing an overview of global box office and trends. Overall box office grew year-on-year by just 1% but to a record USD $36.4 billion. However, the underlying trends point to a surging Asia…