The new economics of blockbusters

BEFORE COVID-19AMC Hollywood was alight with franchise fever. All ten of 2019’s top-grossing films globally came from big studios and featured characters returning to the big screen. Directors such as Martin Scorsese fretted that Marvel’s superheroes would be the death of cinema. Cinema-owners would beg to differ. On March 10th , the world’s biggest chain, which has recently become a darling of retail investors, reported a 77% fall in revenues last year, and a net loss of $4.6bn, in large part because Marvel and others have postponed releases until audiences come back.The dearth of blockbusters is reshaping box-office economics. Six of last year’s top-ten money-makers worldwide were not in English. Five were Chinese and one was Japanese. This reflects Asian countries’ ability to contain outbreaks more successfully than most of the West. It also points to another twist. As big productions have retreated, smaller ones have stepped in.