Despite a fantastic Christmas at the box office, 81 million people didnt buy movie tickets this year. Not only were this years domestic admissions of 1.259 billion off 6% from 2013s 1.34B, but the number of tickets sold hit their lowest level since 1995 when 1.211B people went to the cinema. Calculations are based on this years 3Q ticket price average of $8.12 from the National Association of Theater Owners, just a penny off from 2013s $8.13. The upside is that thanks to Christmas, 2014 crossed $10 billion with a current estimated running cume for January 1-December 28 of $10.22B per Rentrak Theatrical. Some of the major studios are still on holiday with final figures set to be released on January 5. Here at Deadline were weighing 2014 according to the fiscal year of January 1-December 31, and well be providing updates about the year along the way (studios tend to include the first weekend of January in their previous years hauls). Through Sunday, six studios have made in excess of $1B Fox, Disney, Warner Bros., Sony, Paramount and Universal a scenario not unlike 2013. Here we give a rundown of the majors and the mini-majors this year.
Insiders attribute the down year to lackluster product and the lack of even bigger tentpoles versus ticket prices, which remained level. And thats not a line: According to Rentrak, 25 major studio titles moved off this years release schedule including Universals Furious 7 (previously dated July 11), Disney/Pixars The Good Dinosaur (May 30), Focus Features Fifty Shades Of Grey (August 1), Disneys George Clooney starrer Tomorrowland (December 12), the Wachowskis Jupiter Ascending (July 18) and Universals Minions (December 19) titles which collectively could have pushed 2014 over last year. Even Open Road/Worldview Entertainments horror film Green Inferno from cult director Eli Roth was pulled from the slow post Labor Day frame (leaving zero new wide titles) a period when a horror title could have easily generated some green from bored teens.
Nonetheless, distrib chiefs arent fretting that theyve lost moviegoers, particularly the prime young male 18-24 demo to such distractions as videogames and viral videos. More goods news: 2014 is the sixth year in a row to surpass $10B, and this year is running 3% higher than 2011. When broaching the subject about the off year with distribution chiefs, theyd rather take a 5% dip at the domestic B.O. any time. Says Universal distrib chief Nikki Rocco, Youre gonna have good years and youre gonna have bad years.
20th Century Fox currently has a lock on the No. 1 spot at the 2014 box office with $1.769B, +66% over 2013s full year, driven largely by eight $100M+-grossing tentpoles (four more than last year) which repped 72% of its annual take: X-Men Days Of Future Past ($233.9M), Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes ($208.5M), DreamWorks Animations How To Train Your Dragon 2 ($177M), Gone Girl (Director David Finchers highest grosser at $166M), Rio 2 ($131.5M), YA novel adaptation The Fault In Our Stars ($124.9M), DreamWorks Animations Mr. Peabody & Sherman ($111.5M), and another YA novel-to-screen The Mazerunner ($102M). Further bolstering Fox were 17 new titles in the marketplace this year compared to 14 a year ago. The studio also wowed in making thrifty budgeted films work stateside, read the $40M The Other Woman ($83.9M domestic B.O.) and the $17M budgeted August surprise Lets Be Cops which legged its way to $82.4M. Arguably, Foxs sole U.S./Canada misfires which need to rely on overseas to bail them out were the $145M price tagged (on DreamWorks Animations shoulders) Mr. Peabody & Sherman ($272.9M worldwide B.O.) as well as the $140M 3D Moses story Exodus: Gods And Kings. The Ridley Scott-directed film recently matched its budget in worldwide ticket sales ($52.5 domestic+$97.1M oseas=$149.6M global).
http://deadline.com/2014/12/2014-box-office-hollywood-studios-20th-century-fox-admissions-1201338183/
A lot more at the link. Kinda surprising considering I felt this was a pretty good year for movies.