With movie theater attendance in the U.S. and Canada down a whopping 20% so far this year compared with 2010, cinema operators and some studio chiefs surprisingly agree on at least one cause: The movies haven’t been very good.
“I think it all boils down to the quality of the movies,” said Gerry Lopez, chief executive of AMC Entertainment Inc., the nation’s second-largest theater chain. “This year we just haven’t had those kind of movies that cut across all quadrants of age, race and income.”
Michael Lynton, chief executive of Sony Pictures Entertainment, agreed: “So far there is just nothing terribly compelling about what we’re delivering as an industry.”
It’s an unexpected concurrence among two camps that have increasingly been at odds over changes in the business. But the current downturn in ticket sales — the worst in at least six years — is top of mind for more than 6,000 theater owners, studio executives and vendors gathered in Las Vegas this week for CinemaCon, the exhibition industry’s annual convention. More.