This summer, Americans remembered that the couch wasn’t the only setting to enjoy cinema. The US domestic box office notched a record $4.76 billion haul from May through Labor Day, according to Rentrak, signifying a recovery from a multi-year slump.
The summer box office was up almost 30% from last year, beating the previous record of $4.755 billion from 2013. Here’s what powered Hollywood’s hot summer:
- Sequels ran the show. Spider-Man: Brand New Day was the top blockbuster of the summer, earning $923 million in the US. Toy Story 5 and Devil Wears Prada 2 rode the nostalgia wave to collect $480 million and $221 million, respectively.
- IMAX 70mm blew it out of the water. Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey was the summer’s second-highest-grossing movie at $589 million domestically.
- Gen Z flocked to watch breakout hits. Word of mouth propelled indie horror flicks Obsession and Backrooms to gross $263 million and $197 million domestically, on budgets of $750k and $10 million, respectively.
But a few releases stumbled: Disney’s $250 million live-action Moana flopped, as did DC’s Superman follow-up Supergirl and Amazon MGM’s Masters of the Universe.
There’s a caveat. Adjusted for inflation, the box office was still down 17% from the pre-Covid summer of 2019. Analysts say that a constant stream of exciting releases aimed at diverse audiences is needed to make moviegoing a habit for consumers.—SK
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