Despite the OTT boom during the pandemic, the US market seems to be robust for big-ticket Hollywood films when it comes to film exhibition and viewership.
North America’s top theater chains like AMC, Regal, Cinemark, Cineplex, and Marcus are planning to strengthen their respective companies as the entertainment industry looks forward to summer 2022 and beyond.
America’s third largest cinema chain Cinemamark’s monthly membership program, ‘Movie Club,’ has surpassed 1 million active members with more than 3000 members per theatre. For the unversed, the top five theatre chains in the North America include:
1. AMC – 7850 screens
2. Regal – 6851 screens
3. Cinemark – 4426 screens
4. Cineplex Entertainment – 1676 screens
5. Marcus Theaters Corp – 1066 screens
For the US-Indians living in America and loads of migrants who live and work in big cities, cinema is their favorite part-time gig. The films are praised to the skies, and local trade experts often quote US collections to gauge the success of a movie.
Incidentally, the Cinemark theatre chain is the biggest contributor to Indian films in the US. Cinemark’s ‘consistent focus on multi-cultural films highlighted the success of epic RRR after 2017’s Baahubali 2: The Conclusion, the second highest-grossing Indian title in North America.
To put it in a better perspective, a SS Rajamouli film can do $14 million business in the US pretty easily, and top star films do a business of $2-3 million if it gets a HIT talk. Tier-2 stars like Nani movies are hitting the $1 million mark on a regular basis depending on the talk.
