Hollywood loves a good comeback story. Only this time, the story is Hollywood itself.
U.S. domestic box office revenue is up 23% so far this year compared with 2025, marking the strongest first quarter since the pandemic, according to the Los Angeles Times, which cited data from Comscore.
Fueling the surge is a string of box office hits, including Project Hail Mary, Hoppers, and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and more potential blockbusters are on the way, including Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey and Dune: Part III.
Luis Olloqui, CEO of the Mexico-based cinema chain Cinépolis, told the Times that first-quarter revenue was 4% to 5% higher than anticipated, and the mood among theater owners is generally positive.
“We’re getting into that cadence we needed in terms of having good movies, different types of movies being released every weekend,” Olloqui said. “This year in general, we’re feeling more confident, more optimistic.”
Domestic movie ticket sales hit an all-time high of $11.9 billion in 2018, followed by $11.3 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered many theaters and kept would-be moviegoers at home, accelerating the rise of streaming.
Since then, theaters have struggled to regain their footing as annual ticket sales have yet to reach the $9 billion mark, according to Box Office Mojo.
Now, at the current pace, $9 billion is well within reach this year.
“Audiences are voting with their wallets,” Jim Orr, head of domestic distribution at Universal Pictures, told Variety. “The films that have come along recently have been able to appeal to a broad range of people.”
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