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 Entertainment | July 2005 
Movie Box Office Seen Rising After Slack Summer
 Gina Keating - Reuters
| | The screenplay by Jackson, Walsh (three-time Oscar winner) and Boyens (Academy Award winner) is based on the original story by Merian C. Cooper and Edgar Wallace, which became the classic 1933 RKO Radio Pictures film, directed by adventurers Cooper and Ernest B. Schoesdack. The RKO King Kong has been designated by the National Film Registry of the United States Library of Congress as one of the 100 Greatest Films and chosen by that organization for permanent preservation as a national treasure. |
Film industry insiders are optimistic that movie ticket sales will rebound in the second half of the year after a summer slump as more and better-quality films hit theaters.
Regal Entertainment Group CEO Mike Campbell told Reuters in a recent interview that exhibitors were counting on a strong slate of fourth-quarter films to drive box office revenue past last year's totals.
Exhibitors were expecting the year-end box office charge to be led by Universal's "King Kong," from "Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson; Warner Bros' "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"; and Walt Disney Co's "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe."
Campbell, head of the No. 1 U.S. movie theater chain, said that even without a breakout hit, ticket revenue was likely to rise because studios are releasing 15 to 20 more films during the year-end period.
Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc., a box office tracking company, agreed: "It looks very, very good for the end of the year but again we have a lot of ground to make up."
The industry emerged this month from a 19-week box office slump that saw revenue decline by more than 7 percent and attendance fall by 10 percent below last year's figures, according to Exhibitor Relations data.
Box office revenue in the weekend of July 8 ticked up slightly over last year's figures for the opening of Twentieth Century Fox's "Fantastic Four." The following weekend revenue rose 7.5 percent from the previous year on the debut of Warner Bros.' "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," Dergarabedian said.
Campbell said he believed the attendance downturn was cyclical and tied to consumers' lack of interest in this year's crop of films.
On the revenue side, Campbell pointed out that exhibitors have had a half dozen fewer films to screen so far this year, and no independent hits like last year's "The Passion of the Christ," which grossed $371 million domestically before closing July 29, 2004, and "Fahrenheit 9/11," which took in $119 million domestically before closing Oct. 28, 2004.
But sales fell off last year in the fourth quarter with no "tent pole" films to drive attendance, Dergarabedian said.
"We were kind of ending with a whimper last year," he said.
Pixar Animation Studios Inc's "The Incredibles" dominated the 2004 year-end box office with a very successful $70-million opening weekend, followed by DreamWorks Animation SKG's "Shark Tale" with a $48-million debut.
Dergarabedian said in comparison, "Potter," "King Kong" and "Narnia" "are looking like huge movies at this point." |
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