Hollywood expected a blockbuster summer, but moviegoers didn't show. This year's North American box office turned in its weakest summer performance since 1981—adjusted for inflation and if you overlook the pandemic years. As the New York Times reports, those results are raising uncomfortable questions: "Is it time for Hollywood to concede that a lot of moviegoers in North America are never coming back? That movie theaters have permanently lost [20%] to 25% of their customers?"
Only two weeks all summer saw ticket sales top $300 million, a sharp drop from 2019, when that number was hit nine times (again, adjusted for inflation). In the Times' view, movies have gotten tougher to widely market due to "media fragmentation," and it draws a dotted line between that challenge and Hollywood's current reliance on franchises. Sequels, remakes, and spinoffs made up 20 of the 26 films that managed to gross at least $20 million over the summer. But the results are diminishing: More than half of this summer's franchise releases failed to match the box office takes of their predecessors.
All in all, the Los Angeles Times reports the summer box office (defined as the first weekend of May through Labor Day) grossed $3.67 billion in the US and Canada, a hair below 2024's $3.68 billion. Per the paper, "The numbers are even more sobering compared with 2023's Barbenheimer-fueled summer sum of $4 billion, a target the industry used to hit routinely." Indeed, CNBC reports the box office topped the $4 billion mark seven of the eight summers between 2012 and 2019.
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