Movie Theaters
Industry Profile Report
Dive Deep into the industry with a 25+ page industry report (pdf format) including the following chapters
Industry Overview Current Conditions, Industry Structure, How Firms Operate, Industry Trends, Credit Underwriting & Risks, and Industry Forecast.
Call Preparation Call Prep Questions, Industry Terms, and Weblinks.
Financial Insights Working Capital, Capital Financing, Business Valuation, and Financial Benchmarks.
Industry Profile Excerpts
Industry Overview
The 1,750 movie theater firms in the US provide entertainment venues that exhibit motion pictures or videos. They operate about 41,000 movie screens at over 5,800 cinema sites. Major sources of revenue include ticket sales, concessions, and merchandise resale. Some theaters specialize in a particular genre, such as foreign, art house, and documentary films.
Dependence on Movie Production Industry
Movie theaters depend on the production houses and distributors to develop appealing motion pictures and support releases with marketing and advertising.
Conversion to Digital
The film industry’s conversion from celluloid to digital projection technology involved considerable costs, and created significant financial obstacles for small, independent theaters.
Industry size & Structure
The average movie theater employs 30 people and generates $3.4 million dollars.
- There are over 4,100 cinema sites in the US that employ 122,000 workers.
- There are about 41,000 movie screens in the US - about 1.3% of these are outdoor screens.
- The industry is concentrated; the top 50 firms account for about 80% of industry sales.
- Large companies include Regal Entertainment, AMC Entertainment, and Cinemark Holdings.
Industry Forecast
Movie Theaters Industry Growth
Recent Developments
Nov 8, 2024 - Summer Box Office Revenue Decreases
- Domestic box office revenue for summer 2024 was estimated at $3.67 billion, down 10.3% year over year, according to Comscore. “The valleys have been more pronounced in recent years, and we continue to see shifting consumer habits impact certain types of films," said analyst Shawn Robbins of Box Office Theory. "That trend is poised to continue through fall, with a stronger post-summer release slate than we’ve seen since before the pandemic.”
- About 33% of TikTok users said that the social media platform was the reason they went to watch a new movie in theaters, according to TikTok. Users are more than 44% more likely than non-users to go to the movies at least once per month. Some 42% said that they looked up showtimes after finding a new movie on TikTok and 36% said that they purchased a ticket. Movies and TV is the 4th most viewed content category across TikTok, which has about 170 million users in the US.
- The unique architecture of movie theaters may help them avoid closure during lean times, according to The Wall Street Journal. Movie theaters are built with a sloped concrete floor for stadium seating to provide a clear view of the movie for all viewers. They also have no windows, which makes it difficult to convert them to another purpose. Retail landlords may not be able to use movie theaters for anything else unless they demolish them, so they often agree to rent reductions rather than leaving the spaces vacant when theater chains go into bankruptcy or leases are up for renewal.
- Movie theater industry employment remained significantly below pre-pandemic levels during the first nine months of 2024, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Personal consumption expenditures, an indicator of expenditures on entertainment, increased slightly during the first six months of 2024, according to the US Bureau of Bureau of Economic Analysis. Movie theaters sales are forecast to increase at a 7.12% compounded annual rate from 2024 to 2028, faster than the growth of the overall economy, according to Inforum and the Interindustry Economic Research Fund, Inc.
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