At Flix Brewhouse, a Texas-based luxury cinema chain, Chief Revenue Officer Chris Randleman is known as Mr. Sunshine.
The past two years and changes in the cinema business have not left much room for optimism, but Randleman remained confident that cinemas would return to their former glory.
Sure, it’s taken longer than he’d hoped, but the tills are ringing loud again at Flix Brewhouse’s nine South locations. Thanks to “Jurassic World Dominion”, “Lightyear”, “Elvis” and of course the long-running hit “Top Gun: Maverick”, the circuit recorded the most successful month in the company’s history in June.
“It was fantastic,” says Randleman. “Not only have we seen a younger and larger audience, but also the return of older viewers,” he adds, citing A24’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “Downton Abby: A New Era” as box office hits, in addition to “Top Gun : Maverick” and “Elvis”.
For exhibitors across the country, the encouraging windfall has continued with Universal’s animated Minions: The Rise of Gru, Marvel’s Thor: Love and Thunder, and Jordan Peele’s UFO thriller Nope. Impressively, the all-important summer box office generated $3.027 billion, according to Comscore, which is just 17.5% behind 2019 (the last pre-pandemic popcorn season) and 134.6% more than the same period in the year 2021 lie.
But his upbeat attitude toward the theater business is soon put to the test…again. The biggest concern for Randleman and other cinema operators? A lack of big releases to get through the dog days of summer.
“As great as the summer has been, we’ll be taking a break soon,” says Randleman. “The problem isn’t that people don’t want to go to the theatre. We don’t have any films to show in August or September.”
Even in pre-pandemic times, the start of fall tends to signal a slowdown in cinemas. August saw hit movies like 2016’s Suicide Squad, 2018’s Crazy Rich Asians and The Meg, and 2021’s Free Guy break out at the box office despite their late summer release. But cinema operators are well aware that the blues are looming after the blockbuster season.
Those fears are nothing new, Andrew Elgart, who works in management at Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill Cinema.
“August is always slow,” he says. “It’s not a Covid thing. It’s a month of ups and downs.”
Still, there were 36.5% fewer releases in 2022 compared to pre-pandemic years, according to Comscore. And despite a couple of studio releases on the calendar, there’s a noticeable — and potentially troublesome — lack of sure-fire hits until Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever launches in November. Most of the interim films could become big hits, but the mix of comedy and drama – including Viola Davis-directed historical drama The Woman King (September 16), Olivia Wilde’s stunning Don’ ‘t Worry Darling’ (Sept. 23) and Billy Eichner’s romantic comedy The Bros (Sept. 30) – must defy all odds to cement new box office records. The next movie that could potentially cost $50 million is the Warner Bros. tent pole Black Adam, a superhero adaptation starring Dwayne Johnson, which is due out October 21.
Mark O’Meara, who owns the University Mall and Cinema Arts in Fairfax, Virginia, remains cautiously optimistic.
“I hope there are some sleeper hits,” he says. He’s particularly high on Universal’s romantic comedy Ticket to Paradise, starring George Clooney and Julia Roberts, which is slated for October 21. “Those two are money,” says O’Meara.
But he admits: “I’m a bit nervous about the next few months. I don’t need giant blockbusters. It helps… but we have to have choices.”
At the Cobble Hill Cinema, Elgart says he’s particularly disappointed with the lack of family-focused content. With DC League of Super-Pets opening in late July, Sony’s Lyle Lyle Crocodile in early October is the next big movie aimed at young children and their parents — a key demographic for ticketing. “Hopefully we have a few more weeks [playing] “Minions” and “super pets,” he says.
As a complement to the movies that may or may not be attracting ticket buyers in large numbers, theater owners say crowds are power. Some exhibitors are hoping, even praying, that Netflix sees the value of the big screen. The streamer occasionally releases its new movies in select theaters, but the company’s blockbuster hopes never hit theaters nationwide. That’s because Netflix didn’t want to stick with the traditional cinema window, which has shrunk dramatically during the pandemic.
“I’m excited to see what Netflix is doing with Glass Onion, the new Knives Out movie,” Randleman says, referring to the 2019 box-office hit for opportunities to generate additional income. We’re not looking for 90-day windows to start. For them it is free money.”
Meanwhile, exhibitors like O’Meara are busy coming up with new ideas – like promotions and fun food items – to generate walk-in traffic via the titles that adorn the marquees.
“We never drank beer. Now we have beer and an oven so we can make custom pizzas, chicken breast fillets and mozzarella sticks,” he says. “People demanded it.”
Elgart says the Cobble Hill Cinema, which benefits as a local theater (“people like to get behind it,” he says), will maintain a reasonable ticket price. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the venue maintains matinee prices throughout the day.
“We keep our prices as low as possible. Our ticket prices are a few dollars lower than the theaters around us,” he says. “We’re trying to get [admissions] back where we used to be.”