North American exhibitors have suffered through a hair-raising first two months of the year, with a thin slate of new releases and a diminutive box office. The domestic market, which includes the U.S. and Canada, has generated only 82% of the total from the same two months in 2023, and 62% of gross from January and February 2019. Hopefully, the upturn resulting from March releases DUNE: PART TWO and KUNG FU PANDA 4 have marked an end to these dark days.
Cineplex, Canada’s largest exhibitor, announced its box office receipts for January and February, with evidence that it has outperformed the average North American box office. Their key to this relative success is income from foreign titles, which contributed 20% of the total gross. Two of Cineplex’s top ten films in January and February were the Bollywood titles with FIGHTER and WARNING 2. FIGHTER was particularly successful, becoming one of its best-performing Bollywood films of all time.
Cineplex serves as an interesting case study during this difficult period. After a rough start to the year, the “cinema is dead” refrain is resurfacing. However, Cineplex’s results show that when compelling movies are presented, people will turn to theatres to enjoy them. Unlike Hollywood, Bollywood studios did not suffer from labor strikes last year and kept cranking out work.
For Canada, a country with a relatively higher percentage of the population coming from India and other South Asian countries, these Bollywood titles have been particularly impactful. China has also seen record-breaking grosses thus far in 2024, indicating that the box office is directly linked to the quality and quantity of content. This should give exhibitors hope for better days ahead, as the back half of 2024 is filling up with new releases from major studios.