Hollywood’s wrapping up a massive summer at the movies. Will a change of season bring a change of fortune?
From blockbusters (The Odyssey, Spider-Man: Brand New Day) to surprise hits (Obsession, Backrooms), Hollywood has been stacking box-office wins.
“I’ve never seen Hollywood hitting on so many different categories at the same time successfully. Really unheard of,” MoviePass cofounder and CEO Stacy Spikes told me.
The success comes after a brutal few years for movies, which saw declining attendance amid the pandemic followed by the writers’ strike.
But are Hollywood’s fortunes changing, or will the success fade with our summer tans? (Earlier this year, BI’s Peter Kafka said he isn’t convinced.)
One sign pointing to staying power: Fans camped out to buy tickets for “Dune: Part Three” at Manhattan’s AMC Lincoln Square 13, home to the fancy 70-millimeter Imax format. That’s despite the movie not hitting theaters until December. It might sound excessive, but it was the right move given that demand overwhelmed AMC’s website.
I chatted with Spikes, who bought MoviePass out of bankruptcy and relaunched it in 2022, about the rebound. (And if you want the MoviePass backstory, BI’s Jason Guerrasio has a fantastic feature on its spectacular rise and fall, which HBO turned into an Emmy-nominated documentary.)
Below are some highlights from our chat:
On what’s driving the recent success: “People are finding value. They’re going more. And young people are rediscovering cinema. I think we’re past that streaming bubble. People wanna go back and do something exciting that’s out of the home that they can do that’s really not an expensive ticket, and we see it.”
On Gen Z leaning into movies: “Social media and streaming, you could get people who say, ‘Oh yeah, I saw it.’ Did you see all of it? Did you watch part of it? And we saw among the younger and online there was a desire to authenticate that you were there, that your social media was about an activity that you were actually at, your IRL event.”
On YouTube as Hollywood’s new proving ground: “It’s a place that filmmakers can really experiment and really get their traction down and figure it out. They’re getting direct feedback. They have a live focus group. And once they get the sauce right, they can go to a studio and go, ‘Look at the kind of traction that I have.'”
On why the momentum could last: “We’re really figuring out what works and getting back to market fast with content. It used to take, ‘Oh, you had a successful movie,’ it took you five years to get another one out. You’re seeing that window be two years, right? And so I think Hollywood’s getting things out faster, better, and catching up with everything.”
You can watch my entire conversation with Spikes here.
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