Dinosaurs and superheroes are back to resurrect the summer box office

Tom Cruise is getting ready to walk the Cannes red carpet, Marvel’s next feature is selling out quickly, and a new dinosaur adventure is looming large on the summer movie schedule.

As movie theatre owners gather with Hollywood studios this week in Las Vegas for the annual CinemaCon convention, this gives them hope that their industry is finally returning to normal.

“Clearly, we have cause to be optimistic,” Cineworld Chief Executive Mooky Greidinger said in an interview, citing “Jurassic World: Dominion” and “Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness” as examples.

The COVID-19 epidemic destroyed Cineworld, AMC Entertainment, and other theatre operators, and they are currently struggling to restore business to pre-pandemic levels.

Because Hollywood is releasing fewer films than in an usual summer, the busiest season for moviegoing, a small number of big-budget sequels will have to do the heavy lifting this year.

“This is more of a rebuilding summer,” Jeff Bock, senior media analyst at Exhibitor Relations Co., said. “It’s all about sequels, superheroes, and dinosaurs,” says the author.

Bock predicts that studios will release 40% fewer films in 2019 than they did in the pre-pandemic summer, when 48 pictures were released from May through Labor Day in early September. This year, there will be 29 wide releases over the same time period.

During the epidemic, filming was disrupted, which contributed to the drop. In addition, some genres, such as romantic comedies, are increasingly likely to be streamed.