Perhaps reports of moviegoing’s death have been greatly exaggerated — fresh off the biggest weekend in box office history, powered by “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and “The Odyssey,” the latest contribution to the healthiest box office year in recent memory.
But are local cineplexes reaping the benefits? For four theater operators across America who spoke to Page Six Hollywood, it feels like their business has once again found its footing after challenges from Covid.
Take Chris Johnson, CEO of Illinois’ Classic Cinemas, who says his company of 16 theaters and 144 screens has finally matched, and even begun to outpace, its weekly attendance of 2019.
Jared Rasic of Oregon’s Tin Pan Theater recalls the bleak scene immediately following the pandemic: “We could only have six people in the theater. There was a period where I was behind the bar in a mask, pouring beer for six people. That felt like we were stacking chairs on the Titanic,” he says.
Now, the arthouse cinema is consistently filling seats for films of all kinds, from new releases like “The Invite” to classics like “Pulp Fiction.”
As Johnson points out, their business isn’t just box office — it’s regular attendance. So he’s been hard at work decking out his theaters with comfortable reclining seats, improving the overall experience and encouraging repeat visits.
“I always joke that this whole idea of streaming brought movies to the living room. Well, we reclined our entire circuit and put recliners in our theaters, so now we have the living room in the theater,” Johnson says. “If you reinvest, if you take the time to listen to the guest, you’re going to see people come and come in droves.”
At Classic Cinemas over the weekend, Friday was already at 87% capacity before the day began with over 50,000 tickets sold for “Spider-Man” ahead of its opening. “I don’t see how this is not our biggest feature of all time,” Johnson says.
For Dr. Susan Kerns of Milwaukee Film, which operates the historic Oriental and Downer Theatres, the high quality of this year’s movies has had a massive impact on business. “Before July, our box office numbers were up about 20%, because of all the great films coming out of Hollywood this year: Things like ‘Project Hail Mary,’ ‘Backrooms,’ the surprise of ‘Obsession,’ obviously ‘Toy Story 5.’ All of those things set us up for a really robust year, even before ‘The Odyssey.’”
When Ryan Gosling was promoting “Project Hail Mary,” he told audiences of theaters, “It’s not your job to keep them open, it’s our job to make things that make it worth you coming out.”
Becky Dupuis of Montana’s Polson Theatres agrees. “We certainly had some time there where we had a few great movies, but a lot of the stuff in between was not probably our best stuff.” This year’s fare has been of a scale that demands to be seen on a big screen, she says. “These big productions like ‘Spider Man’ and ‘The Odyssey’ are just not the same when you see them on your phone.”
And it doesn’t hurt that the studios are stepping up to bring audiences back with longer theatrical exclusivity windows, either.
Kerns cites “Obsession” as the perfect case study, as word of mouth propelled the film to a massive box office run — something that likely couldn’t have happened if it was pushed to a streamer after only a couple of weeks. “A certain subset was really anticipating that film, but then they saw it and they told their friends, and then the next weekend it started to really blow up, and then it played for weeks in such a strong way,” she says. “That possibility is out there, probably for many more films, if the studios give them a little bit more room to breathe in the theaters before putting them on streaming platforms.”
Both Kerns and Rasic also cite young people as a driving force behind stronger business this year: “17 to 25 year olds right now are very much pushing back against tech and really, really getting into physical media, really getting into analog,” Rasic says, laughing as he recalls a recent screening of director Karim Aïnouz‘s satirical dark comedy “Rosebush Pruning” with an unexpected audience of teens.
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