Movie going was nearly dead, but 2018 meant revival for the Hollywood industry.
By this time last year, we were ready to declare the death of movie going, as ticket sales dropped to its lowest level in a quarter-century.
This box-office meltdown meant to many that the movie industry was failing to renew itself as competition lashes in, but it looks like Hollywood got the message just in time.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the April-June corridor domestic box-office of 2018 posted its biggest quarter in history, with an estimated $3.33 billion, boosting the industry overall revenue up 12.8%.
June itself picked up a historic $1.268 billion, a 19% increase over the same month in 2017, beating the record set in 2013, when June revenue closed in at $1.236 billion.
Disney and Pixar’s Incredibles 2 and Universal’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, which have grossed an estimated $439.7 million and $264.8 million to date, respectively, leaded the start of the relieving boost that Hollywood enjoys, others have followed.
How to bounce back? Proving the Hollywood resilience
It has been a rough couple of years for the movie industry.
As sexual misconduct allegations and accusations of lack of diversity shook the core of the film industry in America, Hollywood was set to face facts and an inevitable transformation.
According to CNN Money, there are two reasons that explain the Hollywood rebound:
- The industry understood diversity: Films with diverse casts or ones that touch on race relations resonated with movie fans this summer. “Ocean’s 8,” an all-female sequel to “Ocean’s Eleven,” made $138 million domestically, topping the box office on its opening weekend in June. Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman” has made $26 million over its first two weeks, which is the most for a Lee film since 2006’s “Inside Man.” “Crazy Rich Asians”, with feature a predominately Asian cast, exceeded all expectations and locked a $5.2 million on opening weekend.
- You can always count on Disney: Disney will account for roughly a 35% market share of the overall summer box office of 2018. Blockbusters like “The Incredibles 2”, “Solo: A Star Wars Story”, and Marvel’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp” collected a minimum of $213 million in its opening weekend (which was the revenue of “Solo”, the lowest income of a Disney movie this summer). These movies helped build a strong economic base for cinemas and movie studios.
The long-term challenges are pushing the industry to adapt and overcome, but it has been too slow to embrace changing viewer habits, some analysts say. Nevertheless, 2018 may be the year when we learn we mustn’t underestimate Hollywood, especially after a rough year.
Labor Day weekend wraps up the all-important summer box-office in the U.S., and it seems the season has left big bucks for the industry, and big lessons for audiences and critics alike.
