Not Even the Avengers Can Rescue Movie Theaters
Disney's streak of blockbusters hasn't yet reversed a tough year for the box office and cinema chains such as AMC Entertainment.
Endgame for movie chains?
Photographer: David Paul Morris/BloombergWalt Disney Co. is almost single-handedly propping up the U.S. box office this year. That doesn’t bode well for the theater industry, because 2019 may be as good as it gets for Disney’s movie-making business.
Just $5.62 billion of tickets have been sold in North American movie theaters, about a 10% drop from the first half of last year, according to Box Office Mojo. Disney, which has released a blockbuster a month since March, starting with “Captain Marvel,” drove more than a third of those ticket sales. That’s by far the biggest share the company has ever taken – and that’s not including the films Disney inherited from its recent $85 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox.