Despite "The Lion King", "Spider-Man", summer box office slips 2% – Variety



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Even with an impressive number of billion dollar blockbusters, the box office in the summer of 2019 will not be one of the records.

The popcorn season, which lasted four months between May and August, generated $ 4.32 billion in ticket sales in North America, down 2% from $ 4.41 billion. last year, according to Comscore. The summer box office has certainly seen worse (in 2017, ticket sales reached their lowest level in 10 years with $ 3.84 billion). However, these uninspired returns have resulted in a decline of more than 6% in their revenues since the beginning of the year, which means that the film industry will have to rely on huge successes in the fall and in winter to compensate for this deficit.

Disney has gone on to win this summer while three films – "The Lion King", "Aladdin" and "Toy Story 4" – have grossed more than $ 1 billion worldwide during the summer. "The Lion King" is the film that generated the most revenue this summer with domestic ticket sales rising to $ 523.5 million so far. During the first weekend of September, the company owns 40% of the national box office.

But even the biggest Hollywood studio has not emerged unscathed. After merging with Fox, Disney was struggling with a handful of failures. "Dark Phoenix", "Stuber" and "The art of running in the rain" resulted in costly depreciations.

With titles such as "Once upon a time in Hollywood" and "Spider-Man: Away from home", Sony also had a promising summer. The studio has secured second place in terms of market share for the first time since 2010. It has closed the summer with $ 700 million at the national box office, Sony's biggest hit ever since 2006. "Spider-Man: Away from Home" ended Labor Day with $ 386 million.

However, a number of underperforming franchises are primarily responsible for the overall decline in ticket sales. Lionsgate's "John Wick 3" is now the most lucrative entry, and "Angel Has Fallen" has made its debut in the series: new slices of properties including "Godzilla", "Men in Black" and "The Secret" Life of Pets "has not managed to reach the box office peaks of their predecessors.

Last summer, blockbusters such as Disney's "Incredibles 2", Universal's Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and Paramount's "Mission: Impossible – Fallout" propelled ticketing revenue to impressive heights. However, the strongest period to date still belongs to 2013, when four-month revenues reached $ 4.75 billion.

After a mixed summer season, studios and exhibitors hope that tents such as "Star Wars: Skywalker Rise", another sequel to "Jumanji", "It: Chapter Two" and "Frozen 2" will increase ticket sales until the end of the year. .

Dave McNary contributed to this report.

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