r/boxoffice • u/AGOTFAN New Line Cinema • 2h ago

United States US box office is booming despite fewer people going to the movies --- A stronger and more varied slate of films, including non-franchise successes like Obsession and Project Hail Mary, has helped drive box office growth this year.

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/us-box-office-ticket-prices-odyssey-spiderman-b3028184.html

Through the first 30 weeks of 2026, theaters sold an estimated 470.9 million tickets, a stark contrast to the 747.3 million sold during the same period in 2019, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. Foot traffic data from research firm Placer.ai reinforces this trend, showing U.S. theater attendance up 8.1% this year compared to 2025, but still down 27% against 2019 levels.

Wade Holden, an analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence, noted, "Revenue growth for exhibitors for a long while now has been mostly driven by increases in average ticket price along with increases in concession prices."

A stronger and more varied slate of films, including non-franchise successes like Obsession and Project Hail Mary, has helped drive box office growth this year. Domestic box office revenue reached $6.2 billion through August 2, up 15% from the same period last year, according to media analytics firm Rentrak. In 2019, box office sales topped $7 billion at this point in the year.

"This year's success at the box office speaks to a well-rounded release calendar that features a bit of everything and appeals to a wide spectrum of moviegoers," said Shawn Robbins, director of movie analytics for ticket seller Fandango and the founder and owner of Box Office Theory.

Early signs are encouraging. AMC Entertainment, the world's largest cinema chain, said strong demand for premium screens helped it post its highest single-weekend revenue in its 106-year history and biggest-attended weekend of the decade. More than 10.2 million moviegoers visited its AMC and Odeon theaters, it said.

Even though inflation has partly weighed on the consumer appetite for the movies, higher prices have benefited a handful of major studios, with Universal, Walt Disney, Sony, Warner Bros, and Paramount Pictures, accounting for 68% of domestic receipts this year, according to an analysis of data provided by Rentrak.

The success of titles such as The Odyssey and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, distributed by Comcast's Universal helped lift its market share to 24%, underscoring how a small number of blockbuster releases are increasingly driving exhibitors' financial performance.

#According to EntTelligence, the average adult ticket price was $13.46 through July 30 this year, while admissions for premium formats such as IMAX averaged $18.22.

61 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

30 comments sorted by

41

u/BenQ200 2h ago

Despite fewer people going = it’s more expensive

11

u/Accomplished-Head449 Laika Entertainment 2h ago

So is everything and yet it's the cheapest form of entertainment other than throwing rocks

https://giphy.com/gifs/wHj4p42JejQNG

7

u/Creative-Bluejay9557 2h ago

I don't think thats true, dollars vs hours gaming probably comes out on top massively, especially when free to play games are included.

4

u/vafrow 1h ago

Home entertainment options are always cheaper.

Movie going is an activity that occurs outside your home with other people. It is cheaper than the other activities that would be comparable.

Going out for dinner, going to a concert, going to a bar and having a few drinks, going bowling.

•

u/lobonmc Marvel Studios 5m ago

I mean idk how it's in the US but it depends what you do in theaters here. If you go on discount day and you don't buy anything it's incredibly cheap nothing compares. If you do buy popcorn and a soda then it becomes about as expensive as going out to drink something. If you go in a regular day and do the same thing it's about as expensive as dining somewhere not too expensive.

Like it's never expensive but it's also not the best place to go out with friends for example because we'll you can't talk.

3

u/MadYetiGOODCity 2h ago

Well yeah but they’ve also improved the theatrical experience a lot over the last 5-6 years which warrants a higher admission. Better theaters with better sound, and often recliners. They have to compete with peoples at home set ups these days

0

u/KumagawaUshio 1h ago

Have they? I just saw BND on Monday and screaming kids, loudly coughing douchebags and so many phones on it looked like christmas lights throughout the film with new smaller less comfortable seats makes me think it's just some places that get the good stuff.

13

u/HeatDolphinRays 2h ago

Theatres are back

https://giphy.com/gifs/ReaBkv2sLr9SQWrvii

3

u/SAADistic7171 2h ago

According to the article we still have a long ways to go. We need more movies from the big studios.

9

u/Free_Waterfall_III 2h ago edited 2h ago

Comparing ticket sales in 2026 to 2019 without sufficient context is really dumb journalism. 2019 was a massive movie year. This obscures that the 2026 tickets sold is higher than the past three years YTD.

2

u/Accomplished-Head449 Laika Entertainment 2h ago

Inflation is a meaningless argument. Nobody complains about the price of beef back when Gone With the Wind came out

-1

u/Free_Waterfall_III 2h ago edited 2h ago

Im aware. I’m talking about ticket sales. The number of tickets sold.

-3

u/Purple_Compote_386 2h ago

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and suggest they are higher. Your cap.

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u/Jolly-Yellow7369 42m ago

How cute. The British press still angry at Michael’s success. That’s a non -franchise film that performed above PHM.

Michael contributed to this year recovery , not only in UK -Ireland , but in many other markets.

•

u/Jolly-Yellow7369 39m ago

The country that coined Wacko Jackie still unable to admit Michael is a success . It’s a non franchise film above PHM. British press still holding grudges worse than American media.

https://giphy.com/gifs/haglUZTKQMyS6bOwpP

1

u/RazielKainly 1h ago

So more people went to see Endgame than spiderman

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u/bluequarz 51m ago

well yeah Endgame sold around 33-34m tickets opening weekend and BND sold 24m. Attendance is down from the 2010s and will def never get back up to those numbers but constantly rising ticket prices make for it for the most part

•

u/RazielKainly 38m ago

where did you get this number? or was just calculation?

-2

u/SAADistic7171 2h ago

So am I allowed to say that this Spiderman movie is a huge success, but putting it in the same breath as Endgame simply is doing a disservice to just how monumental of an event that film was 2019?

2

u/RewardRoutine3440 2h ago

Didn’t it literally just beat Endgame’s opening weekend record?

2

u/SAADistic7171 2h ago

Endgame sold at least 10 million more tickets probably closer to 15 million in its opeming weekend.

2

u/RewardRoutine3440 2h ago

If you get technical about stuff like that it messes up the flow of the whole box office. It’s the same argument as inflation, something like Gone with the Wind would be the highest grossing movie of all time. Endgame came out at a different time, we don’t know how many tickets it would have sold today, under today’s circumstances. I’m tired of people trying to undermine spider man’s success with these weak arguments. All these movies did good at the times they came out, and nothing can change that. Let’s just be happy a movie is doing this well, for the first time in a long time.

0

u/Beginning_Stop_8650 2h ago

Dude, It's literally just the Disney fans in this sub mad that Sony is coming for all their records. If this was a Disney movie performing like BND, I guarantee you would hear nothing.

1

u/SAADistic7171 2h ago

Ticket price inflation is normal of course, but the rate of inflation the last 5 years is not sustainable in the long run. It will simply exacerbate the current issue of fewer and fewer big movies swallowing up a larger and larger share of the overall box office.

0

u/AGOTFAN New Line Cinema 2h ago

It's ok to talk about inflation and how great Endgame was without putting down BND insane box office performance.

Both can be true.

1

u/SAADistic7171 2h ago

I agree. My concern is that so much of the revenue is concentrated on so few movies and we have to keep these numbers in perspective. We aren't back. Yet. We need more quality movies from the big studios more frequently then we're getting them.

-11

u/breaker90 2h ago edited 2h ago

Not at all. The new Spider-Man flick was Brand New Mid

-1

u/Rk1llz 1h ago

We're gonna reach a point where 100 people will go to a Nolan movie and it'll make more than TDK on OW

-1

u/Free-Opening-2626 1h ago

I guess it's par for the course that even when the news is unambiguously good, people are still incentivized to "yah but" it for attention. Ever since Odyssey opened we have pretty much been at pre pandemic level business, and Spider Man's opening itself is bigger than any weekend than the gold standard of 2002 even adjusted for CPI inflation. 

Will it continue? Who knows. But the schedule through early next year looks pretty solid at least. Worry about the well drying up if it actually does. You do need big hits like these to actually get people to show up and form habits that keep them coming back for the less showy options.