by Howard Kiedaisch

 DCDC, our performance is driven by the number of films released rather than the actual box office results.  That is because DCDC charges on a per delivery basis, and DCDC does not benefit from the sale of tickets.  However, as an important member of the supply chain, DCDC clearly needs there to be a healthy box office environment as that translates to strong revenue for both our content and exhibitor customers.     

However, we’ve seen strong results from “Avatar: The Way of Water” which is the big driver so far this year representing 39% of the year-to-date box office for only the 6th film of all time to surpass the $2 billion worldwide gross mark while still continuing to perform.  However, that is not the only game in town as other winning titles in 2023 domestic market include:

• M3GAN, a horror film is up to $83m, which is a great result from a new IP that will now become a franchise.

• A Man Called Otto is up to $46m which shows the older audience will still show up when the product is right for them.

• Puss and Boots: The Last Wish, a release from last year, continues to run and is up to $141m delivering over $10.6m in box office last weekend, despite currently being available on PVOD

• Not to mention other new titles like Gerard Butler’s Plane ($25.4m so far) and the newly released techno-thriller Missing, which did $9.3m opening weekend.

Though 2022 was not as big a leap toward recovery as everyone had hoped, it has been widely reported within the industry that the number of titles released in 2022 was down compared to pre-pandemic years.  Specifically, there were 112 “wide releases” (titles released on more than 2,000 screens) in 2019 vs. only 71 in 2022.  On a per title basis, the average box office for a wide release in both years was around $91m.  Therefore, there is no reason not to believe that if there were more films, 2022 would have been a better year.

This lack of product was the result of various issues including studios putting titles directly to streaming, production hold-ups due to the pandemic, a post-production backlog slowing completion of film projects and overall conservatism in willingness to release big, expensive films while it was not clear that audiences were fully back to the cinema yet.   

However, looking ahead to the rest of this year, we see there are already over 100 wide release films on the schedule.   Since it’s only January, it’s likely others will be dropping into the calendar as we move through the year.  Therefore I predict that though 2023 won’t be as strong as 2019, it will be closer to that level than to the 2022 box office performance.  There’s a long list of great product coming out this year, so get out and go buy a ticket!