- Movie box office revenue is stronger than ever.
- There are more movies being made annually than at any other point in history.
- ‘Avenger: Endgame’ is expected to dominate the 2019 box office charts.
Even as the digital revolution transforms much of the entertainment industry movie box office receipts remain strong. In fact, total gross box office revenues have increased over a billion dollars per year over the past decade. Keep in mind that this is with more content than ever available to home viewers via streaming services and despite widespread distribution of copyrighted work via BitTorrent and the like. Domestic and global box office revenues both hit all time highs in 2018.
The conventional wisdom is that Hollywood has run out of new ideas and to be sure most of the top box office films are from well established franchises. What is somewhat counter-intuitive is that the number of films made has also continued to grow year after year. In 2009, 521 movies were released domestically in theaters. Last year, 873 movies were released. Average ticket prices have also increased in that timeframe from $7.50 in 2009 to $9.11 last year. In terms of inflation adjusted dollars this isn’t much of an increase. Adjusted for inflation, the $7.50 in 2009 would be $8.78 today. Hollywood has only tacked on 33 cents above the rate of inflation.
Theaters make a ton of money from concessions–popcorn, Cokes, nachos and the like. It’s tough to find a year over year comparison for a number of reasons–the corporate ownership of movie theaters has resulted in countless companies going into and out of business. It’s almost a cliche to gripe about movie concession prices like this article from 2009. They’ve definitely increased well beyond the rate of inflation to the point where a large popcorn, order of nachos and a drink will set you back around $25. The 2009 article cited above also mentioned that movie theater advertising generated nearly a half billion in 2007 ($456 million).
2019 BOX OFFICE PROJECTIONS: AVENGERS: ENDGAME AND EVERYTHING ELSE
In terms of what movies are expected to sell the most tickets it’s pretty much ‘deja vu all over again‘. In 2018, Avengers: Infinity War had the biggest opening weekend and was second in yearly box office revenue losing out to Black Panther by approximately $220 million. Avengers: Infinity War did a $257 million opening weekend and early tracking projections have Avengers: Endgame topping that. The same tracking data has the yearly gross for Endgame coming in slightly below Infinity War’s $678 million at $645 million.
One of the most interesting occurrences of 2018 was the relatively weak box office performance of Solo: A Star Wars Story. It did only $213 million in total revenue with a $84 million opening weekend. For those of you scoring at home, Star Wars: The Last Jedi did more business opening weekend ($220 million) than the total revenue for Solo: A Star Wars Story. The question now is whether that weakness will carry over to the forthcoming release of Star Wars: Episode IX. Both Solo: A Star Wars Story and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story are from what is known as the Star Wars Anthology Series. These are non-canonical films that don’t play a part in the long running narrative of the rest of the franchise.
Here are the official SPORTS INSIDER 2019 Movie Box Office Revenue Betting Odds:
2019 MOVIE BOX OFFICE REVENUE BETTING ODDS
MOVIE WITH TOP DOMESTIC BOX OFFICE REVENUE IN 2019
Avengers: Endgame -350
Star Wars: Episode IX +500
The Lion King +750
Captain Marvel +1500
Toy Story 4 +1500
Spider-Man: Far From Home +2500
Fast and Furious: Hobbs & Shaw +2500
Frozen 2 +3500
Aladdin +3500
Terminator: Dark Fate +5000
It-Chapter Two +5000
Dumbo +5000
The Secret Life of Pets 2 +5000
X-Men: Dark Phoenix +7500
Shazam! +7500
John Wick: Chapter 3 +7500
Pokemon Detective Pikachu +7500
Godzilla: King of the Monsters +7500
The Lego Movie 2 +7500
Hellboy +10000
Untitled Jumanji Sequel +10000
Zombieland: Double Tap +10000
The New Mutants +10000
Sonic the Hedgehog +25000
Joker +25000
Men in Black International +25000
Any Other Movie +50000
Data from BoxOfficeMojo will be used for grading
MOVIE WITH TOP DOMESTIC OPENING WEEKEND IN 2019
Avengers: Endgame -250
Star Wars: Episode IX +500
Toy Story 4 +750
The Lion King +1000
Fast and Furious: Hobbs & Shaw +1000
Spider-Man: Far From Home +1500
Captain Marvel +1500
Frozen 2 +1500
Aladdin +2500
Terminator: Dark Fate +2500
It-Chapter Two +5000
Dumbo +5000
The Secret Life of Pets 2 +5000
X-Men: Dark Phoenix +7500
Shazam! +7500
John Wick: Chapter 3 +7500
Pokemon Detective Pikachu +7500
Godzilla: King of the Monsters +7500
The Lego Movie 2 +7500
Hellboy +10000
Untitled Jumanji Sequel +10000
Zombieland: Double Tap +10000
The New Mutants +10000
Sonic the Hedgehog +25000
Joker +25000
Men in Black International +25000
Any Other Movie +50000
Data from BoxOfficeMojo will be used for grading
