Cineworld, movie theaters commit to boosting content ahead of blockbuster titles

Yahoo Finance reporter Allie Canal details how movie theater companies are working to boost returns to the theaters.

Video transcript

RACHELLE AKUFFO: Now, I do want to shift gears, though, and of course, talk about the box office. It has been actually pretty quiet the past few weeks. But there are some potential blockbusters in the pipeline we can keep an eye on. So what can we expect in the fourth quarter?

ALEXANDRA CANAL: Yeah, obviously, all eyes are on the fourth quarter after a very busy third quarter at the box office. The summer season really, really strong. You're seeing on your screen now some of the estimates for Q4. That's according to Box Office Pro, $2.1 billion for Q4. Ticket sales expected with a full year haul of $7.5 billion. Some upcoming films like "Avatar," "Black Panther," those should shoulder some of that demand.

However, a big issue is going to be this lack of movie supply. And the industry is really going to have to address that in 2023 because that's been the downfall for a lot of these theater chains. Britain's Cineworld, for example, we've been talking about that company over the past month. They've struggled to climb back from pandemic lows. They filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this month. They specifically cited the lack of movie supply as one of the reasons for that.

And they recently adjusted their forecasts, saying that they expect the box office to remain below pre-pandemic levels, until at least 2025. That's certainly not a great estimate for the industry at large. However, a lot of the analysts that I've been speaking with said that as long as the industry can get back to that steady flow of supply in 2023, that should help things out. I think there was a lot of experimentation during COVID with day and date releases, but studios very committed to theaters at this point. We just need the quantity to be there.

RACHELLE AKUFFO: It's true, and it's already hard to pry people off their couches once we got comfortable with streaming as well. A big thank you to our very own Allie Canal. Have a good weekend.