- The U.S. box office continues to stay ahead of last year's pace after Angry Birds and Captain America: Civil War performed well over their opening weekend. Both films were comfortably over $30M level (domestic) for the weekend.
- Next week could be even stronger with X-Men: Apocalyse set to debut. The superhero mashup has already earned more than $100M in the 75 global markets where it has opened (ranking #1 in 71 markets).
- The U.S. box office YTD tally of $4.229B through May 22 is up 5.6% from the level of last year and 11.7% higher than the running total in 2014 through the same weekend.
- Looking ahead, exhibitors hope to cash in even more on theater and format upgrades after reporting strong concessions revenue growth in Q1 (AMC was a leader with a 21% Y/Y jump or +6% per patron). Movie ticket prices have also trickled higher, averaging $8.58 this year sector-wide.
- Looking even further ahead, despite some dabbling with a shortened release window and Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) introducing some movies on the big screen, the industry has stayed relatively consolidated in preventing a major disruption to its model such as the The Screening Room (see prior coverage) aims to unveil.
- Related stocks: CKEC, AMC, CNK, RLD, IMAX, RDI, MCS, NCMI.