The Cinematic Motion Picture News Thread

[Anders]

As of Dec. 17, the domestic box office has collected $8.58 billion, according to Comscore. That’s roughly $416 million away from $9 billion. Wherever ticket sales end up, it’s already the highest-grossing year since COVID upended the movie theater industry — far above 2022’s $7.46 billion haul and 2021’s $4.56 billion tally. But it’s not quite at pre-pandemic levels when the box office comfortably reached $10 billion to $11 billion a year. Part of the falloff is because Hollywood studios have been putting fewer films in theaters. There were 88 films released in 2023 compared to 108 in 2019 when ticket sales reached $10.5 billion.

The next two weeks will bring several high-profile releases, including Universal and Illumination’s animated “Migration,” Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell’s romantic comedy “Anyone But You,” Warner’s musical adaptation of “The Color Purple,” the DC Comics sequel “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” and A24’s sports drama “The Iron Claw.” There’s also Neon’s racing drama “Ferrari,” director George Clooney’s “The Boys in the Boat” and the literary satire “American Fiction” that will make their way to the big screen before the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve.

“The pressure is on for [these] films to deliver big to get us to $9 billion for the domestic full year,” says senior Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian.

[Anders]

https://www.imdb.com/calendar/

Several interesting movies to close out the calendar year (a few 2023 movies will also hit theaters in 2024).

[bada]

As of Dec. 17, the domestic box office has collected $8.58 billion, according to Comscore. That’s roughly $416 million away from $9 billion. Wherever ticket sales end up, it’s already the highest-grossing year since COVID upended the movie theater industry — far above 2022’s $7.46 billion haul and 2021’s $4.56 billion tally. But it’s not quite at pre-pandemic levels when the box office comfortably reached $10 billion to $11 billion a year. Part of the falloff is because Hollywood studios have been putting fewer films in theaters. There were 88 films released in 2023 compared to 108 in 2019 when ticket sales reached $10.5 billion.

The next two weeks will bring several high-profile releases, including Universal and Illumination’s animated “Migration,” Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell’s romantic comedy “Anyone But You,” Warner’s musical adaptation of “The Color Purple,” the DC Comics sequel “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” and A24’s sports drama “The Iron Claw.” There’s also Neon’s racing drama “Ferrari,” director George Clooney’s “The Boys in the Boat” and the literary satire “American Fiction” that will make their way to the big screen before the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve.

“The pressure is on for [these] films to deliver big to get us to $9 billion for the domestic full year,” says senior Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian.

More about ticket price inflation than anything else. I guess money is money but these numbers aren't a true sign of the health of the industry. A fair compassion between eras should be tickets sold. I imagine that is waaaaayyyyy down.

[tommy]

It's going to be really interesting to see how Aquaman performs.

Before the end of the year I hope to see:

The Iron Claw
Poor Things
American Fiction
Ferrari

[Anders]

As of Dec. 17, the domestic box office has collected $8.58 billion, according to Comscore. That’s roughly $416 million away from $9 billion. Wherever ticket sales end up, it’s already the highest-grossing year since COVID upended the movie theater industry — far above 2022’s $7.46 billion haul and 2021’s $4.56 billion tally. But it’s not quite at pre-pandemic levels when the box office comfortably reached $10 billion to $11 billion a year. Part of the falloff is because Hollywood studios have been putting fewer films in theaters. There were 88 films released in 2023 compared to 108 in 2019 when ticket sales reached $10.5 billion.

The next two weeks will bring several high-profile releases, including Universal and Illumination’s animated “Migration,” Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell’s romantic comedy “Anyone But You,” Warner’s musical adaptation of “The Color Purple,” the DC Comics sequel “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” and A24’s sports drama “The Iron Claw.” There’s also Neon’s racing drama “Ferrari,” director George Clooney’s “The Boys in the Boat” and the literary satire “American Fiction” that will make their way to the big screen before the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve.

“The pressure is on for [these] films to deliver big to get us to $9 billion for the domestic full year,” says senior Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian.

More about ticket price inflation than anything else. I guess money is money but these numbers aren't a true sign of the health of the industry. A fair compassion between eras should be tickets sold. I imagine that is waaaaayyyyy down.

Number of movie tickets sold in the United States and Canada from 1980 to 2023 (in millions)
Characteristic Number of tickets sold in millions
2023 825.2
2022 812.79
2021 492.34
2020 221.76


Year Tickets Sold Total Box Office Total Inflation
Adjusted Box Office Average
Ticket Price
2023 859,781,342 $9,053,497,531 $9,053,497,531 $10.53
2022 705,165,585 $7,425,395,659 $7,425,395,742 $10.53
2021 434,050,409 $4,514,125,766 $4,570,550,814 $10.40
2020 211,112,593 $1,986,571,369 $2,223,015,613 $9.41
2019 1,227,673,842 $11,245,494,999 $12,927,405,558 $9.16
2018 1,310,743,155 $11,940,872,673 $13,802,125,430 $9.11
2017 1,225,554,388 $10,993,225,666 $12,905,087,714 $8.97
2016 1,302,214,707 $11,264,160,449 $13,712,320,860 $8.65
2015 1,323,104,760 $11,153,776,110 $13,932,293,117 $8.43

[VinylGuy]

It's going to be really interesting to see how Aquaman performs.

Before the end of the year I hope to see:

The Iron Claw
Poor Things
American Fiction
Ferrari

It would be very surprising if Aquaman does a great box office

[BurtReynolds]

As of Dec. 17, the domestic box office has collected $8.58 billion, according to Comscore. That’s roughly $416 million away from $9 billion. Wherever ticket sales end up, it’s already the highest-grossing year since COVID upended the movie theater industry — far above 2022’s $7.46 billion haul and 2021’s $4.56 billion tally. But it’s not quite at pre-pandemic levels when the box office comfortably reached $10 billion to $11 billion a year. Part of the falloff is because Hollywood studios have been putting fewer films in theaters. There were 88 films released in 2023 compared to 108 in 2019 when ticket sales reached $10.5 billion.

The next two weeks will bring several high-profile releases, including Universal and Illumination’s animated “Migration,” Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell’s romantic comedy “Anyone But You,” Warner’s musical adaptation of “The Color Purple,” the DC Comics sequel “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” and A24’s sports drama “The Iron Claw.” There’s also Neon’s racing drama “Ferrari,” director George Clooney’s “The Boys in the Boat” and the literary satire “American Fiction” that will make their way to the big screen before the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve.

“The pressure is on for [these] films to deliver big to get us to $9 billion for the domestic full year,” says senior Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian.

More about ticket price inflation than anything else. I guess money is money but these numbers aren't a true sign of the health of the industry. A fair compassion between eras should be tickets sold. I imagine that is waaaaayyyyy down.

Number of movie tickets sold in the United States and Canada from 1980 to 2023 (in millions)
Characteristic Number of tickets sold in millions
2023 825.2
2022 812.79
2021 492.34
2020 221.76


Year Tickets Sold Total Box Office Total Inflation
Adjusted Box Office Average
Ticket Price
2023 859,781,342 $9,053,497,531 $9,053,497,531 $10.53
2022 705,165,585 $7,425,395,659 $7,425,395,742 $10.53
2021 434,050,409 $4,514,125,766 $4,570,550,814 $10.40
2020 211,112,593 $1,986,571,369 $2,223,015,613 $9.41
2019 1,227,673,842 $11,245,494,999 $12,927,405,558 $9.16
2018 1,310,743,155 $11,940,872,673 $13,802,125,430 $9.11
2017 1,225,554,388 $10,993,225,666 $12,905,087,714 $8.97
2016 1,302,214,707 $11,264,160,449 $13,712,320,860 $8.65
2015 1,323,104,760 $11,153,776,110 $13,932,293,117 $8.43

take it to the box office talk thread

[tommy]

It's going to be really interesting to see how Aquaman performs.

Before the end of the year I hope to see:

The Iron Claw
Poor Things
American Fiction
Ferrari

It would be very surprising if Aquaman does a great box office

It doesn't have a lot of competition and people seem to really like James Wan. We'll see, I think it will probably flop, but maybe it's got a chance if it's actually good.

[Jorge]

It's tracking to be a gigantic flop

[E.H. Ruddock]

Jason Momoa deserves better

[Jorge]

The DCEU is just so, so dead. People are way the fuck over it.

[epilogue]

Enter James Fucking Gunn

[VinylGuy]

Its going to bomb probably because Warner and DC kinda make it hard for these movies to be successful anyway.

[bart]

yeah really seems like dc is gonna end up under water with this one

[Ello Sailor]

[bart]

get me a job at Variety

[bart]

But for real that movie looked really bad in the trailer

[wease]

Jason Momoa deserves better

He chose his fate.

He also should’ve been Namor.

[BurtReynolds]

Can't we just see it as a stand alone movie, rather than part of a dead franchise? For Mamoa's sake!

[tommy]

Jason Momoa deserves better

He chose his fate.

He also should’ve been Namor.

I just looked at his IMDB and he's in mostly crappy movies. He was good in Fast X though.