Ryan Faughnder
Appearances
Apple News Today
Inside the sprint to avert a government shutdown
It was led by Moana, which grossed $221 million in five days in its opening, which is a Thanksgiving record.
Apple News Today
Inside the sprint to avert a government shutdown
All told, all the movies grossed $420 million at the box office in that five-day stretch. And that was also a Thanksgiving record. So it was a massive weekend dominated completely by those top three films. But the problem is that the overall box office environment is not as strong as it was even pre-pandemic.
Apple News Today
Inside the sprint to avert a government shutdown
They will go out for an event type of picture, the kind of movie like Wicked where it's like, OK, we're going out, we're going to dinner, we're going to get dressed up, that kind of thing. Like that is what's really driving the business and less so just kind of that old school walk up like, oh, what's going on at the movie theaters today?
Apple News Today
Inside the sprint to avert a government shutdown
I think you just get a less interesting mix of movies when every studio is trying to do basically the same thing and trying to do something that they've all done before. The phrase that I constantly hear from executives that makes me laugh a little bit is that they want something familiar with a twist. It's just a little different.
Apple News Today
Inside the sprint to avert a government shutdown
And so the studios have really dug in on this IP renaissance. And the problem is that they've started to run out of things to adapt. And you can't just regurgitate and regurgitate forever and ever.