BXP-2024-Feb-March-Digi-2

$6.95 / February / March 2024 

DINE-IN 

CINEMA 

SUMMIT 

2024 

A New Era for Movie Theaters, From Full-Service 

Kitchens to Cinema Entertainment Centers 

The Official Magazine of the National Association of Theatre Owners

February / March 2024 

CONTENTS 

32 

Answering the Call 

Writer/Director Gil Kenan on 

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire 

20 

Indie Focus 

Dine In Cinema Summit 2024 

24 

Shankweiler’s Next 

Generation 

Meet the New Owners of 

America’s Oldest Drive-in 

40 

Boxoffice Barometer: 

2024 Preview 

A Look at the Year Ahead 

51 

2023 in Review 

The Biggest Stories, Hits, 

Surprises, and Disappointments 

at the Box Office 


01

Contents 

INDUSTRY 

ON SCREEN 

8 

12 

14 

Salt Lake Film Society’s Tori A. 

Baker Snags Oscar Attention 

The Cinema Foundation Vice Chair 

Helps Foster the Future of Animation 

Charity Spotlight 

A Recap of Industry-Wide Charity 

Initiatives 

Trade Talk 

THEATER 

20 

24 

Indie Focus 

Dine In Cinema Summit 2024 

Shankweiler’s Next Generation 

Meet the New Owners of America’s 

Oldest Drive-in 

32 

40 

51 

70 

72 

Answering the Call 



Boxoffice Barometer: 

2024 Preview 

A Look at the Year Ahead 

2023 in Review 

The Biggest Stories, Hits, 

Surprises, and Disappointments 


Event Cinema Calendar 

A Sampling of Event Cinema 

Programming Hitting the Big 

Screen in 2024 

Booking Guide 

“This year’s big win is for 

counterprogramming, 

having a variety of movies 

across different genres 

and budget levels.” 

2023 in Review, p. 51 

02 February / March 2024

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03

BOXOFFICE MEDIA 

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Daniel Loría 

Creative Direction 

Extract Studio 

EVP Chief Administrative Officer 

Susan Rich 

VP Advertising 

Patricia Martin 

BOXOFFICE PRO 

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR 

Daniel Loría 

DEPUTY EDITOR 

Rebecca Pahle 

CHIEF ANALYST 

Shawn Robbins 

ANALYSTS 

Chad Kennerk 

Jesse Rifkin 

DATABASE 

Diogo Hausen 

CONTRIBUTORS 

Phil Contrino 

ADVERTISING 


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Association of Theatre Owners 

(NATO) since 2007. As part of this 

partnership, Boxoffice Pro is proud 

to feature exclusive columns from 

NATO while retaining full editorial 

freedom throughout its pages. 

As such, the views expressed 

in Boxoffice Pro reflect neither 

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Theatre Owners. 

Due to Covid-19, Boxoffice Pro 

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ON THE COVER 

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Memphis, TN 

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fabricated, and installed this 

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Boxoffice Pro (ISSN 0006-8527), Volume 161, Number 7, January 2024. Boxoffice Pro is published by Box 

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EXECUTIVE LETTER 

MOVING 

FORWARD 

After all was said and done, the 

domestic box office finished 2023 

with nearly $9 billion in ticket sales. That 

figure is still far from the pre-pandemic 

benchmark of $11 billion but marks a 

considerable improvement over 2021’s 

$4.4 and 2022’s $7.3 billion. This year, 

however, exhibition is facing its first 

downturn since the onset of the pandemic, 

with several industry analysts forecasting 

a decline of 10 to 15 percent in the market. 

A weakened release slate with fewer films 

scheduled for wide release continues to 

be the biggest challenge facing exhibitors 

today, a matter complicated by the impact 

of last year’s Hollywood labor strikes. Not 

an ideal situation, especially for an industry 

still on the mend from the pandemic. 

In moments like these, it’s important 

to remember that we can’t mistake an 

obstacle for a crisis. If summer 2023 

taught us anything, it’s that this industry 

can still achieve the heights it reached last 

decade. You’ll find a full accounting of last 

year’s box office hits and misses in our 

2023 in review story, taking quotes from a 

roundtable conversation between myself, 

Russ Fischer, and Rebecca Pahle that was 

featured on the weekly Boxoffice Podcast. 

In anticipation of what will likely be a 

rollercoaster year at the box office, we’ve 

compiled a quarterly breakdown of the 

films we expect to be significant earners. 

You’ll find it in our inaugural Boxoffice 

Barometer preview, in the back half of the 

magazine—analyzing upcoming releases 

by their box office potential at this juncture. 

The exhibition market is consistently 

evolving, so don’t be surprised if you 

find that many of our predictions in this 

issue fluctuate in the coming weeks. We’ll 

be adjusting this analysis throughout the 

year as we gather more data on viewing 

trends and audience demand. 

And talking about demand, this edition 

also previews one of the fastest-growing 

conventions in our industry, the 

Dine In Cinema Summit. We thank our 

advertising partners at Spotlight Cinema 

Networks for facilitating an exclusive 

interview with Matt and Amy Mader, the 

founders and organizers of the event. 

Daniel Loria 

SVP Content Strategy & Editorial Director, 

Boxoffice Pro 

A weakened release slate 

with fewer films scheduled 

for wide release continues 

to be the biggest challenge 

facing exhibitors today, 

a matter complicated by 

the impact of last year’s 

Hollywood labor strikes. 


05

Theater XX 

CRETORS 

INVENTED THE 

POPCORN 

MACHINE 

THEN JUST KEPT GOING! 

When it comes to concessions, 

it comes from Cretors. 

SINCE 1885 

06 February / March 2024 

Contact Shelly Olesen at 847.616.6901 or visit www.cretors.com

NATO 8 | Charity Spotlight 12 | Trade Talk 14 

INDUSTRY 

“This piece just sings when on the big screen. Animation 

is always extraordinary on a big screen since it’s so crisp, 

clear, and colorful.” 

NATO, p. 8 


07

Industry NATO 

SALT LAKE FILM SOCIETY’S 

TORI A. BAKER SNAGS 

OSCAR ATTENTION 

The Cinema Foundation Vice Chair Helps Foster the Future of Animation 

BY PHIL CONTRINO 

This month, NATO met up with 

Tori A. Baker, who in addition to 

serving as CEO and president of the 

Salt Lake Film Society is vice chair of 

The Cinema Foundation and a founder/ 

producer for MAST. This Salt Lake 

City-based organization provides grants, 

training, and mentorship to filmmakers 

and animators, particularly on projects 

that change minds and the world. Its 

program includes a fellowship, labs, 

mentorship, career advocacy, networking, 

contests, productions, 

and funding. 

Ninety-Five Senses, a short film produced 

through MAST, recently secured a 

spot on the shortlist the Academy Award 

for Best Animated Short Film. 

Can you talk about how Ninety- 

Five Senses came together through 

MAST? What was the development 

process like? 

I founded an artist’s mentoring project 

with Miles David Romney called MAST 

(Media Accelerator Studio), which aims 

to turn artists into artist-entrepreneurs. 

We workshopped a concept of creating 

a project with the Salt Lake Film Society 

that would mentor post-graduate emerging 

filmmakers, specifically with a focus 

on animation. Utah has a rich animation 

culture within the universities; however, 

we continued to get feedback that once 

graduation passed, talented animators 

were leaving the state of Utah for jobs. Our 

MAST vision was to turn those artists into 

artist entrepreneurs who could potentially 

create projects in Utah that would then 

create an economic infrastructure here 

that could support animation production 

in the state. We did this through a series 

of fellowship programs that mentored 

talent through labs and the production of 

this short film. 

Early in the process, we approached 

writer/director talents Jared and Jerusha 

Hess (Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre, 

the upcoming Minecraft) about being 

involved as mentors. They, of course, 

have an affinity for artists in Utah and are 

very supportive of the Film Society’s nonprofit 

mission to exhibit, create, and preserve 

cinematic experiences, so they were 

generous enough to offer their support 


NINETY-FIVE 

SENSES IS 

ANIMATED BY 

“Touch” 

Gabriella Badillo 

with Adriana Arvizu, Tamara 

Cruz, Melissa Lopez, Cristina 

Lugo, Ruben Morales, and 

Enrique Sañudo 

“Coy" 

Daniel Bruson 

"Hearing" 

Michael Grover 

"Sight" 

Dominica Harrison, 

Scott McHenry 

"Smell" 

Dallin Penman, 

Jared Matthews 

in directing this innovative approach to 

an animation project. The resulting film 

production for Ninety-Five Senses came 

about and allowed our animators to work 

with professional directors, writers, and 

actors on a production. Our animators 

were selected through our Springboard 

discovery and nurturing contests. Due 

to the work Salt Lake Film Society does 

within the Mexican community and 

other cultural outreach, SLFS also tapped 

animators within our reach who are from 

other regions internationally, including 

Gabriela Badillo, who has an extraordinary 

animation project for language 

preservation called 68 Voces. 

The most challenging part of this 

project was determining how we could 

highlight the very individual and unique 

styles of six different animators. It’s 

common for many animators to work 

on a film project, but typically all those 

animators would have to adhere to the 

style guides and looks of the design for 

the film, characters, and backgrounds. We 

intended to have a finished project that 

would highlight the differences in talents 

of each animation team, giving these animators 

a showcase piece for future work. 

So, imagine when we tasked our writers 

with this challenge how difficult it must 

have been: “Hey, please tell a story where 

six disparate styles could all make sense 

in one story!” We were not sure what to 

expect. However, our talented writers, 

Chris Bowman and Hubbel Palmer, delivered 

an extraordinary story surrounding 

the five senses and tied it together with 

one compelling character named Coy. 

They’ve since been one of four honorees 

for the 2023 Humanitas Prize, the first 

time in history that a non-Disney/Pixar 

animated short has been nominated. 

For the voiceover, it was essential to 

reach Jerusha and Jared’s vision for the 

character of Coy. It’s vital to thread the 

narrative cohesively together. We were 

humbled to have the incomparable Tim 

Blake Nelson (The Incredible Hulk, The 

Ballad of Buster Scruggs, O’ Brother Where 

Art Thou?) accept the challenge. His 

performance is extraordinary and brought 

me to tears during recording sessions. 

Does any theatrical screening of 

Ninety-Five Senses stand out to you 

as particularly memorable? 

The film has been programmed at nearly 

40 festivals throughout most of the year, 

which is fantastic because the important 

animation festivals around the globe are 

all presenting theatrically. One of our 

first screenings was at HollyShorts at the 

TCL Chinese Theatre, and we’ve screened 

worldwide. Indeed, I haven’t made any 

of the London, Ireland, or other global 

premieres, but our screenings here in the 

U.S. have been very well received, and 

the film has won a top prize at many. The 

most memorable was seeing it on the 

brand-new screen at our venue, Broadway 

Centre Cinemas, in SLC. This private 

screening for donors included the artists 

and animators, and the opportunity for all 

to hear their stories of how this extraordinary 

project came together. Since the film 

has spent most of its time in festivals, we 

are saving the theatrical release and hope 

to land in Magnolia’s annual Oscar Shorts 

presentations if nominated. Magnolia 

“The most 

challenging part 

of this project was 

determining how 

we could highlight 

the very individual 

and unique styles 

of six different 

animators.” 


09

Industry NATO 

also sometimes includes short-list films in 

their theatrical presentation. 

This piece just sings when on the big 

screen. Animation is always extraordinary 

on a big screen since it’s so crisp, clear, 

and colorful. Digital projection took this to 

the next level, even for arthouse cinemas, 

who don’t release larger studio animated 

features but have been programming 

the annual animation short film Oscar 

nominees for years, along with films from 

great artists like Hayao Miyazaki (The Boy 

and the Heron) and Ari Folman (Waltz 

with Bashir). For those who haven’t had a 

chance to see the film yet, the fact that six 

different styles of hand-drawn animation 

are presented gives us a feast of visuals. 

Some animators leaned heavily into color, 

while Daniel Bruson utilizes a watercolor 

technique in more serious tones of gray to 

anchor the film with the character Coy. 

How did you discover the film was 

shortlisted for an Oscar nomination? 

At the time, I was in a meeting with my 

film booker, Connie White, and Miles 

texted me the article from Variety. I 

could have been watching for the news 

drop, but I tend to cross my fingers and 

hope for the best. Of those nearly 40 

festival screenings, 17 have been Oscarqualifying, 

and the film has won at 12 

of them, so we had an early indication 

that it was qualified for Oscars, but 

getting on that shortlist requires a whole 

other gameplan. It is so much about 

the media, the voters, and some good 

planning with a good network and even 

better luck to get animation trades and 

voters to notice the work. Presenting 

theatrical opportunities for the film to be 

seen is critical since this film comes to 

a whole new life (as do all films) in their 

cinematic presentations. We booked 

the Laemmle Royal for some Academy 

invite screenings, and it’s screening over 

at Walt Disney Animation Studios and 

American Cinematheque; we are diligently 

putting efforts in for exposure. We 

did one Academy push in L.A. for voters 

in early November with Phil Lord and 

Chris Miller (Sony’s Spider-Verse franchise 

and The LEGO Movie) moderating 

Tim, Jared, and Jerusha’s panel following 

the screening. The shortlist was a 

goal, but what a category short animated 

film is! It’s full of some “big guns,” let 

alone the top working animators in the 

field. We did a lot of legwork to get the 

word out, mainly with earned media and 

networking, but certainly our film didn’t 

have the PR muscle some of the studios 

put behind nominations. So, from here, 

we are relying on word-of-mouth; a few 

L.A. screenings, including the one at 

Laemmle’s cinema; and doing what we 

can to give the film and these artists the 

chance to be nominated. 

What are your goals for MAST 

following this important recognition? 

Short films must get the attention of 

high-level award shows like the Academy 

Awards to ensure that talent has a pathway 

to being discovered, to keep movies fresh 

and engaging, and to find the unique and 

diverse voices that create blockbusters of 

the future. We intend to continue fostering 

new talent in animation. 

MAST is fostering four filmmakers 

and continues to nurture our previous 

cohort of six fellows. We’re in production 

on our next animation project (which is 

very tech-heavy, in contrast to the organic 

Ninety-Five Senses), with another short 

film production to be kicked off by the 

end of 2024. Since we are a 501c3 charitable 

nonprofit, our programs are supported 

by donors who love cinema. Anyone can 

support MAST and Ninety-Five Senses by 

donating at SLFStix.org/donate/mast 

“This piece just sings when on 

the big screen. Animation is 

always extraordinary on a big 

screen since it’s so crisp, clear, 

and colorful.” 


©2024 QSC, LLC all rights reserved. Q-SYS is part of QSC, LLC. QSC, LLC’s trademarks include but are not limited to Q-SYS, Q-SYS logo, 

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11

INDUSTRY CHARITY SPOTLIGHT 

CHARITY 

SPOTLIGHT 

SHOWCASE CINEMAS 

AND THE JIMMY FUND 

CELEBRATE 75 YEARS OF 

SUPPORT 

For 75 years, Showcase Cinemas and 

moviegoers have proudly supported the 

Jimmy Fund, a longtime leader in adult 

and pediatric cancer care and research. 

In 2023, Showcase moviegoers donated 

more than $100,000 to the Jimmy Fund 

by “rounding up for good” when they 

purchased movie tickets or concessions, 

purchased a limited edition 170 oz Jimmy 

Fund 75th anniversary popcorn tub, or 

made a donation in the amount of their 

choosing in theaters or online. 

Showcase Cinemas’ Jimmy Fund 

collection campaign is the longest in the 

Fund’s history, raising more than $13 million 

to support cancer care and research 

at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in 

Boston. To celebrate the historic partnership, 

Showcase also debuted a special 

trailer this year honoring 75 years of moviegoers 

giving back to The Jimmy Fund. 

SANTIKOS MOVIEGOERS 

DONATE 4,000 TOYS TO 

LOCAL CHARITIES 

Texas-based Santikos Theaters partnered 

with San Antonio CBS affiliate KENS 5 

for their annual Bill’s Elves Toy Drive. 

Viewers were encouraged to drop off 

a new, unwrapped toy at any Santikos 

theater location. In exchange for their 

donation, patrons received a free Santikos 

popcorn pass and 30-minute arcade 

card. The San Antonio, Cibolo, and New 

Braunfels communities came together 

and donated 4,000 toys. These donations 

supported six charities that serve various 

communities across the city. 

The charities included Roy Maas Youth 

Alternatives, a non-profit agency that 

provides therapeutic support and shelter 

for children to heal from the trauma of 

severe abuse and violence; SAMMinistries, 

a not-for-profit interfaith ministry whose 

mission is to help homeless families and 

children and those at risk of becoming 

homeless by offering shelter, housing, 

and services; Mission Road Ministries, a 

not-for-profit serving children and adults 

with intellectual and other developmental 

disabilities in San Antonio; SJRC Texas, 

a not-for-profit that offers healing and 

hope to children and families affected by 

trauma, abuse, and neglect; Urban Faith 

Mission, a not-for-profit that inspires 

community transformation on the westside 

of San Antonio by mentoring families 

living in urban conflict and helping 

them strive for a better future; Friends 

of the Bexar County Child Welfare Board, 

which provides services to help youth in 

foster care and advocates for abused and 

neglected children in Bexar County; and 

Methodist Children’s Hospital, which 

has grown to become one of the leading 

U.S. hospitals providing bone marrow 

and stem cell transplants for children. 

Additionally, the hospital has built a 

strong reputation for its pediatric heart 

surgery, oncology, orthopedics, neurosurgery, 

and several specialty clinics for 

children with chronic illnesses. 

“Santikos enjoys teaming up with the 

Bill’s Elves Toy Drive each year. It’s an 

easy way for our moviegoers to support 

our mission and be part of the impact. 

Our Santikos employees also look forward 

to the toy drive—they decorate their 

donation boxes and happily pitch in with 

their own toy donations,” said Valarie 

Rico, the manager of branding and strategy 

at Santikos. 

“Our Santikos employees also 

look forward to the toy drive— 

they decorate their donation 

boxes and happily pitch in 

with their own toy donations.” 


CHARITY ROUNDUP 

Larry H. Miller Megaplex Theatres 

is helping the Utah Film Commission 

with special events throughout 

2024 as Utah celebrates the first 

movies filmed in Utah in 1924, along 

with 100 years of filmmaking. The 

Sundance Film Festival returned to 

the Larry H. Miller Luxury Theatres 

at The Gateway in downtown Salt 

Lake City in January, and Larry H. 

Miller Megaplex Theatres will be 

celebrating its own anniversary this 

November as the company reaches 

25 years. 

Texas-based dine-in chain 

Studio Movie Grill’s sponsored 

a fundraising event screening of 

Mean Girls for F.E.T.C.H. (Fostering 

Empowerment Through Canine 

Help). The nonprofit helps provide 

highly trained service dogs to 

women who have endured physical 

and/or mental abuse. The service 

dogs assist in helping these women 

regain or build an independent 

and fulfilling life. Fundraising efforts 

provide and train these service 

dogs through partnerships with 

licensed service dog trainers, as 

well as provide post-placement 

tools (fetchdfw.org). 

Last December, SMG holiday 

season charity efforts were directed 

towards assisting Toys for Tots and 

other worthy causes, such as CASA 

of Kern County, Rosie’s Adventures 

Childhood Cancer Foundation, 

Foster Hope of Sacramento, and 

the Red Sled Drive to benefit Foster 

Kids of Pinellas County. 

Studio Movie Grill sponsored an 

event at their Bakersfield location 

in early December for a special 

screening of Disney’s Wish for 55 

Horace Mann Elementary students 

who are in foster care, are homeless, 

or who struggle with behavioral 

issues. SMG Simi also invited 120 

special needs family members 

from Calvary Community Church 

to attend a special needs-friendly 

advanced screening of Wish. 

Team members from SMG were 

invited to Atlanta’s fourth annual 

StarShine gala, hosted by 

Spectrum, which supports the 

autism community through a variety 

of programs, events and resources. 

(spectrumautism.org/event/ 

starshine-gala) 

SMG Seminole hosted its second 

dog adoption event for FLUFF 

Animal Rescue (From Lonely & 

Unloved to Forever Family). 

Through community awareness, 

assistance, education, and rescue, 

FLUFF Animal Rescue aims to confront 

animal overpopulation 

and shelter overcrowding. 

UPCOMING EVENTS 

APRIL 11 

Planting hope, one child at a 

time. Join Variety - the Children’s 

Charity’s Iowa for Spirits of Spring, 

a night out at the beautiful Epic 

Event Center in Marion, Iowa. 

Attendees can sample wine, beer, 

liquor, and appetizers from local 

vendors. The evening will also 

include a silent auction, a floral 

design-off, and a specialized bike 

presentation for a child living with 

special needs. 

varietyiowa.com 

MAY 2 

Save the date! Variety the Children’s 

Charity of the Delaware Valley hosts 

its annual Black Hat Bash this May. 

varietyphila.org 

MAY 9 

Variety the Children’s Charity’s Iowa 

chapter hosts their third annual 

Sporting Clay Classic on Thursday, 

May 9 at the New Pioneer Clay 

Target Center in Waukee, Iowa. 

varietyiowa.com 

JUNE 13 

Variety’s Greater Kansas City chapter 

will host their annual Hy-Vee 

Golf Tournament on Thursday, June 

13, 2024. The event will take place 

at Raymore, Missouri’s Creekmoor 

Golf Course, with all proceeds 

going to Variety KC. 

varietykc.org 

JUNE 17 

When Variety’s Detroit chapter 

hosts the 35th edition of its annual 

Variety Kovan Golf Classic, it will be 

at a new venue: the Tam-O-Shanter 

Country Club in West Bloomfield, 

Michigan. Funds raised will benefit 

the Dr. Bradley S. Kovan memorial 

fund at Friendship Circle, the 

Jonathan Scott Kovan memorial 

fund at University of Michigan C.S. 

Mott Children’s Hospital, and Variety 

core programs serving children with 

unique and special needs. 

variety-detroit.com 


13

Industry TRADE TALK 

TRADE TALK 

ELEVATE ENTERTAINMENT 

GROUP ANNOUNCES MOVE 

TO LASER PROJECTION BY 

CINIONIC 

Laser cinema technology provider 

Cinionic and Elevate Entertainment 

Group have announced a new strategic 

partnership to refresh the Texas-based 

cinema chain’s projection fleet with Laser 

Projection by Cinionic over the next three 

years. Elevate Entertainment Group (EEG), 

formerly EVO Entertainment Group, is the 

nation’s leading and largest operator of 

cinema entertainment centers, with more 

than 200 screens across five states. 

As part of the deal, Cinionic will 

replace the circuit’s xenon projectors with 

next-generation laser solutions from the 

Barco Series 4 range, including at the premium 

large format EVX auditoriums at 

EEG’s EVO Entertainment Centers. EEG 

is also leveraging Cinionic’s enhanced 

support offerings for the project, with 

extended warranty options and network 

operations platform connectivity to 

optimize performance. 

Rollout of the new laser systems at 

EEG is already underway, beginning with 

an all-laser complex at their latest location, 

EVO Entertainment Prestonwood, 

a luxury dine-in cinema entertainment 

concept in north Dallas. 

“As film technology improves, it 

becomes increasingly important to 

ensure our cinemas are outfitted with the 

best equipment available to showcase 

everything from blockbusters to independent 

films. We’re thrilled to partner 

with Cinionic to continue delivering a 

premium moviegoing experience for our 

guests,” stated Vivek Abichandani, Vice 

President of Strategy and Corporate 

Development, EEG. 

This latest deal is the newest stage in 

the longstanding relationship between 

Cinionic and EEG, whose portfolio of 

cinemas includes EVO Entertainment, 

EVO Cinemas, ShowBiz Cinemas, Times 

Square Grand Slam, and Violet Crown 

Cinemas. With the broad rollout of Laser 

Projection by Cinionic to its theaters, audiences 

will enjoy enhanced movie presentations 

at all of EEG’s theater venues. 

“Today’s moviegoers have high expectations 

when they go to the cinema,” says 

Wim Buyens, CEO of Cinionic. “They seek 

elevated entertainment experiences that 

are unlike anything they can get at home. 

We’re proud to work with Elevate to bring 

audiences laser-powered movie presentation 

that is both visually stunning and 

more environmentally sustainable.” 


STUDIO MOVIE GRILL’S 

“IT’S ON US” CAMPAIGN 

TREATS MOVIEGOERS TO 

FREE CONCESSIONS 

Dallas-based Studio Movie Grill 

(SMG) surprised patrons across its 

20 locations during the holidays with 

the first of many “It’s On Us” activations, 

which will continue throughout 2024. The 

campaign was created to express appreciation 

for visitors at SMG by paying the 

food and beverage tab of every moviegoer 

in an auditorium during a randomly 

selected showtime. The brand covered 

over 750 guests in its first activation to 

kick off Christmas weekend. 

The “It’s on Us” campaign continues 

into 2024 with activations occurring randomly 

across all 20 locations on different 

dates and with different movie titles and 

showtimes. 

“We knew it was going to be a great 

season for holiday moviegoing,” said 

SMG’s CEO Ted Croft. “We thought, ‘What 

better way to express our gratitude to 

these guests than to pay for it?’ So we 

did. Besides planning the first activation 

around the biggest gift-giving of the year, 

I think the best part was the excitement 

of our teams to make the announcement 

to unexpecting guests at the front of the 

auditorium before the credits finished.” 

“Our outreach efforts are a big part of 

our business,” said Michael McCreary, 

SMG’s vice president of operations. 

“From the home office to our teams in the 

field, it’s ingrained into what we do and 

why we do it. The ‘It’s On Us’ giveaway 

is another example of giving back at the 

local level. We got high-fives and hugs 

from long-time guests and first-timers 

alike on the way out of the auditorium. 

It was pretty special.” 

“I like that folks were coming to 

SMG because they wanted to see one 

of these great holiday movies and we got 

to surprise them,” said Ted Low, SMG’s 

vice president of brand and marketing. 

“We later heard about birthday parties, 

anniversaries, and family traditions 

made sweeter with our activation. It’s a 

season of giving, so we decided to think 

through a customer experience at SMG 

that would wow our guests. And we’re 

going to do it again.” 

“The ‘It’s On Us’ giveaway is 

another example of giving 

back at the local level. We 

got high-fives and hugs 

from long-time guests and 

first-timers alike on the way 

out of the auditorium. It was 

pretty special.” 

REGAL ANNOUNCES 2024 

REFILLABLE POPCORN BUCKET 

AND SOFT DRINK CUP 

December 22 saw Regal introduce 

its new refillable popcorn bucket 

and soft drink cup for 2024. Guests can 

refill their collectible containers for only 

$10 on all subsequent trips to the movies 

throughout 2024 (or $6 to refill the popcorn 

bucket, $4 to refill the soft drink cup). 

Regal Crown Club (RCC) members 

can purchase the refillable bucket at 

a reduced price of $22 and $14 for the 

soft drink cup. RCC members can also 

bundle and save $4 when the two items 

are purchased together. Regal Unlimited 

subscribers will receive an additional 

10 percent off RCC rates and 10 percent 

off refills. Moviegoers without an RCC 

membership can buy the refillable 

bucket and soft drink cup for $26 and $16, 

respectively. 

“We are excited to offer refillable containers 

to enjoy your favorite concessions 

at a reduced price when seeing the latest 

blockbusters at Regal in 2024,” said John 

Curry, senior vice president of commercial 

at Regal. “These will make the perfect gift 

for all movie lovers this holiday season.” 


15

Industry TRADE TALK 

IN BRIEF 

AMC Brings Laser Projection 

to Chicago Moviegoers 

AMC Theatres has 

completed their planned 

upgrade to Laser at AMC 

projection technology at 

nearly all AMC locations in 

the greater Chicagoland 

area. Chicago is one of 

the first markets in the 

AMC circuit to receive this 

projection upgrade to 

Laser at AMC technology, 

powered by Cinionic. 

CINEWORLD GROUP 

ANNOUNCES THOMAS SONG 

AS NEW CHIEF FINANCIAL 

OFFICER 

Regal Cinemas’ parent company, 

Cineworld Group, has announced the 

appointment of Thomas Song as the new 

chief financial officer (CFO) of Cineworld 

Group. In this role, Song will oversee the 

group’s finance and accounting management 

and will lead the company’s strategic 

planning and analytics. 

Song brings over 25 years of experience 

in corporate finance, development, and 

investor relations. He most recently served 

as CFO of global hotel management company 

Aimbridge Hospitality. Previously, 

Song also served as CFO for full-service 

restaurant company Dine Brands Global, 

where he was responsible for the company’s 

overall strategic and financial management. 

Song was also a senior executive 

at Choice Hotels International, leading 

global M&A, real estate, and strategic 

partnerships. Song received his BA from 

the University of Chicago and MBA from 

Northwestern University in the Kellogg 

School of Management. 

“After an extensive search, we are 

proud to announce Tom Song as our new 

CFO,” stated Cineworld CEO Eduardo 

Acuna. “Tom provides our team with a 

history of achievement and true insights 

into financial management, analytics, 

and strategic planning. With this background, 

along with our talented finance 

team, he is the perfect leader to deliver a 

strategic financial vision that will drive 

growth and success for Cineworld Group.” 

AMC announced an 

agreement with Cinionic 

in early 2022 to install 

laser projectors in 3,500 

U.S. auditoriums through 

2026. The laser projection 

equipment and associated 

auditorium enhancements 

powering Laser at AMC 

at the 3,500 auditoriums 

have an estimated value 

of around a quarter of a 

billion dollars, with minimal 

upfront capital investment 

from AMC. 


KINEPOLIS AND CJ 4DPLEX 

EXPAND PARTNERSHIP 

WITH 21 NEW SCREENX 

AUDITORIUMS 

Kinepolis Group and CJ 4DPLEX 

announced the expansion of their 

longstanding partnership with a deal that 

will see 21 ScreenX auditoriums added 

to Kinepolis locations across Europe and 

North America. The openings, expected 

in 2024 and 2025, will bring the cinema 

chain’s total of ScreenX screens to 26, 

with Kinepolis already operating five 

ScreenX auditoriums across Europe. This 

expansion will give Kinepolis the largest 

ScreenX footprint in mainland Europe. 

In addition to the European footprint, 

the new agreement also brings four 

ScreenX locations to Kinepolis’ Canadian 

circuit (Landmark Cinemas) and three 

ScreenX locations to Kinepolis’ circuit in 

Michigan (MJR Theatres). The ScreenX 

auditoriums in Michigan will be the first 

to open in the state. Kinepolis also operates 

11 4DX auditoriums, CJ 4DPLEX’s 

multi-sensory premium format, across 

Belgium, France, Luxembourg, and Spain. 

“We are delighted to expand our partnership 

with Kinepolis Group by bringing 

even more ScreenX auditoriums to audiences 

in Europe and North America,” said 

Jongryul Kim, CEO of CJ 4DPLEX. “This 

collaboration, along with our recent opening 

of a regional office in London, underscores 

our commitment to revolutionizing 

the cinema experience and expanding our 

presence in key markets across Europe.” 

Eddy Duquenne, CEO of Kinepolis 

Group, added, “We are excited to continue 

our collaboration with CJ 4DPLEX and 

introduce 21 new ScreenX auditoriums 

to our cinema portfolio. This expansion 

shows our continued dedication to providing 

our guests with innovative and 

immersive cinematic experiences, allowing 

them to get the most out of their big 

screen experience.” 

“Kinepolis understands that immersive 

moviegoing experiences are pivotal in 

the development of the cinema industry,” 

stated Don Savant, CJ 4DPLEX’s 

chief business officer. “We’re thrilled to 

further strengthen our partnership with 

Kinepolis with the addition of 21 ScreenX 

auditoriums. With Kinepolis’ support, we 

continue to shape the future of cinema, 

offering moviegoers an incomparable 

premium theatrical experience.” 

CINERGY ENTERTAINMENT 

GROUP LAUNCHES 

MEMBERSHIP PROGRAM 

CINERGY ELITE PLUS 

On January 1, Cinergy Entertainment 

Group officially kicked off Cinergy Elite 

Plus, a subscription-based program 

offering free movie tickets, games, and 

attractions; discounts on concessions; 

and many more exclusive benefits. 

Cinergy Elite Plus is offered in several 

tiers ranging from $14.99 to $21.99 per 

month and is accepted at all Cinergy locations. 

The membership also allows members 

to reserve and purchase their tickets 

in advance without any fees through the 

Cinergy app or online. 

“Cinergy Elite Plus is not just a membership 

program, it’s a reflection of our 

commitment to delivering an unparalleled 

entertainment experience tailored to 

what appeals most to our guests,” said 

Jeff Benson, founder and CEO of Cinergy 

Entertainment Group. “For the past two 

years, we extensively researched and 

engaged with our guests through focus 

groups to understand what they truly 

wanted in a subscription package. The 

result is a first-of-its-kind monthly program 

that goes beyond the expectations of 

the typical movie membership. We believe 

in putting our guests at the center of the 

cinematic and gaming experiences, and 

Cinergy Elite Plus is a testament to that.” 

“Whether it’s the dine-in experience, 

games—or our new app—we strive to 

push boundaries with our technological 

advancements in the theater and family 

entertainment space,” said Nathan 

Hunstable, chief technology officer of 

Cinergy Entertainment Group. “With the 

introduction of our membership program 

and the integration of the mobile app 

across the Cinergy experience, guests have 

the ability to manage member benefits, 

reserve tickets, and pre-order food, ensuring 

a hassle-free, seamless, and intuitive 

guest journey.” 


17

Theater XX 

Hey, if Google, 

TikTok, and IMDb 

can count on us, 

your theater can too. 

Scan the QR code 

to find out more. 


Dine In Cinema Summit 20 | Shankweiler’s Drive-In 24 

THEATER 

“Many of our colleagues and clients are currently transitioning 

to FEC concepts and thinking of new questions.” 

Dine In Cinema Summit, p. 20 


19

Theater INDIE FOCUS 

INDIE FOCUS 

Brought to you by 

Independent cinemas are entertainment hubs, community 

centers, and overall a vibrant and essential part of the wider 

cinema ecosystem. With Indie Focus, Boxoffice Pro partners 

with Spotlight Cinema Networks to focus on the people, 

organizations, theaters, and issues at the forefront of the 

independent cinema scene. 

DINE-IN CINEMA 

SUMMIT 2024 

BY DANIEL LORIA 

The Dine In Cinema Summit is 

returning to Austin, Texas for its 

sixth edition. Bringing together leading 

cinema executives and influential vendors, 

the event has become an unmissable stop 

in exhibition’s annual event calendar. 

Spotlight Cinema Networks, proud presenting 

sponsor of the Dine In Cinema Summit, 

brings you this preview conversation 

between Boxoffice Pro’s Daniel Loria and 

event founders Matt and Amy Mader. 

This is one of my favorite events 

each year, and I’m excited to hear 

that in 2024 the summit is moving 

back to Austin, one of the most 

important cities in the world for the 

entire dine-in sector. 

Amy Mader: Yes, we are returning to our 

home stomping grounds of Austin, Texas, 

from February 5th through the 8th. We 

are excited to partake in several site visits 

during the event: Flix Brewhouse, Alamo 

Drafthouse, EVO Entertainment, and 

Moviehouse & Eatery by Cinépolis. In 

addition, we’ll have our evening parties 

around the city of Austin. The biggest 

thing we’ll introduce to the summit this 

year is adding an entire day dedicated 

to Family Entertainment Centers (FECs). 

We’ll have companies like Turfway 

Entertainment and JKRP Architects 

sharing insights on panels and educational 

seminars around the topic. It’ll be 

a perfect day for any exhibitor looking at 

different avenues for revenue to add to 

their existing properties. 

At last year’s summit, you had a policy 

where no one could say the words 

“Covid” or “pandemic,” which helped 

turn the focus to the future. What are 

the forward-looking topics you’ll be 

exploring at this year’s event? 

Matt Mader: We put that guideline 

in last year because we felt, going into 

February 2022, that we all understood 

the effects of the pandemic. It was time 

to start dealing with the reality that the 

industry was facing. It’s not that we don’t 

want to talk about what’s happened in the 

past; instead we want to focus our attention 

on what we can do going forward. 

Dating back to when we started this event 

six years ago, our guiding principle has 

always been [to explore] what the cinema 

20 

February / March 2024

Theater INDIE FOCUS 

space can add to itself to be a more attractive 

destination for the public. 

In our first year, we really pushed 

FEC concepts like bowling and arcades. 

To be honest, it didn’t go over very well, 

because many of the attendees were 

making a ton of money selling burgers 

and cocktails. “Why do we want to 

change something that is going so well? 

It’s already hard enough to run a dine-in 

theater. Now you want us to add bowling, 

laser tag, and all this other stuff?” 

Now here we are six years later, dedicating 

an entire day to FECs. Many of our 

colleagues and clients are currently transitioning 

to FEC concepts and thinking of 

new questions. How do we remodel our 

square footage? Do we still need 10 screens 

or can we get away with eight? These 

are conversations happening with every 

remodel—and that doesn’t include the 

availability of vacant lots for new builds. 

We’ve even heard of landlords renegotiating 

leases [with tenants] who want something 

more than just a dedicated movie 

theater. Six years ago, we started with: 

How do you put the best menu together to 

make your cinema more attractive? Now 

“Many of our colleagues 

and clients are currently 

transitioning to FEC concepts 

and thinking of new questions. 

How do we remodel our 

square footage? Do we still 

need 10 screens or can we 

get away with eight?” 

our conversations center around the best 

way to use your square footage. 

It’s an off-the-record event, where 

attending press—including this outlet—is 

asked to keep everything said in panel 

sessions confidential. Without revealing 

too much, one of the major pain points 

for dine-in operators I picked up on 

at last year’s event was shortcomings 

regarding point-of-sale (POS) software. 

Is that an ongoing concern? 

Matt: It’s still a concern. I think everybody 

agrees, especially the software 

providers, that it’s not an easy problem 

to solve, providing an all-in-one POS that 

targets this space. And when it comes to 

integrating features of the FEC space, it 

gets even more challenging. 

One of the main reasons for that is continued 

operational challenges. It’s hard to 

staff appropriately when you have a single 

room in an eight-auditorium building 

that has 150 seats, with two others that 

have 100 seats. You’re going to be seating 

hundreds of people at the same time. 

Cinema operators are still looking for the 

22 


ight balance of providing good service 

while giving customers the flexibility to 

do things on their phones or at a kiosk. 

Every dine-in cinema has its own little 

tweaks on how it wants to operate and 

create the perfect experience. The POS is 

a part of that, and being a POS provider is 

very challenging, in that if you have 100 

chains using your product,each of them is 

a little different. It’s very difficult to keep 

that market happy and moving forward 

effectively. Especially when you still have 

to support them almost 24 hours a day, 

365 days a year. 

Costs are going up across the board for 

businesses, and dine-in cinemas are 

no different. We’re beginning to see 

consumer dissatisfaction when those 

costs are passed on to customers; there 

are signs of increased price sensitivity 

when it comes to movie visits. How has 

the dine-in community responded to 

this economic trend? 

Matt: I don’t know if Amy and I are the 

perfect people to answer that question, 

but I know some exhibitors I’ve talked to 

have shared that they continue to make 

more price adjustments than ever. Their 

focus, however, is more on building a 

better experience, because a better experience 

is the easiest way to justify a higher 

price. You don’t go to the best steakhouse 

in town expecting a deal on your steak. 

If you operate your dine-in cinema or 

your entertainment center the same way, 

people will be willing to pay the price as 

long as the experience is commensurate. 

There will always be people who expect 

a certain level of service if they’re paying 

$20 for a hamburger or a cheeseburger. It’s 

definitely an issue, but I don’t hear anybody 

saying: “Our customers are getting 

so irritated. All they’re doing is telling us 

we’re charging too much.” 

also raising your prices. You need to keep 

evolving. Think of it like Disney’s theme 

parks: Those tickets keep costing more, 

but their rides are constantly changing. 

People need to see the value in the experience 

they’re paying for. You can’t raise 

your prices without raising your standards. 

What can attendees to this year’s 

Dine In Cinema Summit expect to 

walk away with from the event? 

Matt: We want people to walk away from 

this event with the knowledge required to 

think differently about their challenges, 

giving them the confidence to apply what 

they learned at the summit. More importantly, 

I want everyone who attends to 

know that they’re not on their own. That’s 

why we started this six years ago; we want 

everybody—small, medium, and large 

players—to come out of this event with 

the knowledge they need to improve their 

business. 

Amy: What makes the Dine In Cinema 

Summit unique is that it isn’t a money-making 

operation. Every dollar that 

comes in from our sponsors and registration 

goes back into the summit. We 

do this as a service to the industry. I see 

that same commitment to the industry 

from partners like our presenting sponsor, 

Spotlight Cinema Networks, who have 

been fantastic to us since we launched. 

They believe in it the way we believe in 

it. That is why this event has evolved into 

something people in this industry want to 

be a part of. That’s a great feeling. 

“Spotlight is dedicated to 

supporting our partners in 

exhibition. We are thrilled 

to have been partners 

with Amy and Matt Mader 

of Venue Valet from day 

one of the Dine In Cinema 

Summit. Since many of the 

leading innovators in the 

dine-in space are part 

of the Spotlight exhibitor 

partner network, it makes 

perfect sense that we are 

the long-term presenting 

sponsor of the event and 

will help to ensure it will take 

place for years to come. The 

Dine In Cinema Summit is 

an incredible opportunity 

for exhibitors to share with 

and learn from one another, 

and we are thrilled to be a 

part of this collaborative 

experience.” 

Michael Sakin, President, 

Spotlight Cinema Networks 

Amy: It’s one thing if you go to your neighborhood 

movie theater and the chicken 

tenders and french fries go from $7.95 to 

$15.95, with no other changes. That’s how 

people get irritated. But if you sit down 

and have a creative menu in a way you 

can embed those costs where people don’t 

necessarily see them, it’s much easier to 

pull off. I think consumers are willing to 

pay a little bit more for a new and exciting 

menu item. You can’t let the experience of 

going to your theater remain stale while 


23

Theater SHANKWEILER’S DRIVE-IN 

SHANKWEILER’S 

NEXT GENERATION 

Meet the New Owners of America’s Oldest Drive-in 

BY CHAD KENNERK 

Located in Orefield, PA, 

Shankweiler’s Drive-In Theatre has 

held the distinction of being America’s 

oldest operating drive-in for most of its 

history—stretching back to well before 

the drive-in heyday. When Shankweiler’s 

opened its gates on April 15, 1934 it was 

the first drive-in in Pennsylvania and 

only the second drive-in built in America. 

Prominent hotel owner and businessman 

Wilson Shankweiler visited that earlier 

drive-in—built by Richard Hollingshead 

in Camden, New Jersey—and decided to 

bring the idea home to PA. Hollingshead’s 

invention didn’t last long, and by 1940 

America’s first drive-in was already gone. 

Shankweiler’s, on the other hand, has 

managed to weather many a storm over 

the years (including an actual hurricane) 

to remain a treasure for local moviegoers 

well into the 21st century. 

Shankweiler’s owner/operators Lauren 

McChesney and Matt McClanahan had 

long hoped to eventually operate a 

drive-in, but they didn’t anticipate purchasing 

one—especially one with such 

historic significance as Shankweiler’s. 

The theater, located just ten minutes 

from their home, had been on the market 

for six years, but given its hefty price tag, 

purchasing the historic venue hadn’t been 

on their radar. In 2022, after Shankweiler’s 

and its uncertain future was profiled on 

the local news, McClanahan and his business 

partner McChesney made the decision 

to purchase the theater under their 

existing mobile movie theater business 

The Moving Picture Company. 

Matt McClanahan’s journey in exhibition 

began on the production side, with 

a filmmaking degree and numerous 

independent productions and documentary 

features, through which he was first 

introduced to the exhibition side of the 

industry. Helping revive a drive-in theater 

in 2014 [Lehighton, PA’s Mahoning, profiled 

in our January 2024 issue] helped 

him discover his passion, and in 2019 

he co-founded the mobile pop-up The 

Moving Picture Company, hosting revival 

house screenings at breweries, wineries, 

and other small venues. When the 

pandemic hit, he had little time to adjust, 

moving from small in-person events to 

200-car drive-in screenings in a matter 

of months. The work snowballed into a 

full-time exhibition company, with partner 

Lauren McChesney working behind 

the scenes, simultaneously serving as a 

hospital social worker. Shortly thereafter, 

McChesney left the healthcare industry 

to pursue exhibition full-time, helping 

to develop the company’s business 

plan. During the height of the pandemic, 

McClanahan and McChesney partnered 

with indoor theaters for mobile screenings, 

eventually providing the duo with the 

opportunity to purchase Shankweiler’s. 

As the new owner/operators of 

Shankweiler’s, McClanahan and 

McChesney are only the fourth set of 

owners in the theater’s nearly 90-year 

history. In 1959, founder Wilson 

Shankweiler sold the theater to friend 

Bob Malkemis, who owned the drive-in 

until 1984, when it was sold to Paul and 

Susan Geissinger. After operating the 

venue for nearly 40 years, the Geissingers 

sold the theater to McClanahan and 

McChesney. As Shankweiler’s prepares 

to celebrate its 90th anniversary this year, 

Boxoffice Pro spoke with the theater’s 

newest generation of owner/operators—a 

pair to whom the space means a lot more 

than just a business. 


“Shankweiler’s is a great 

example of something that 

has grown and changed a 

lot over the years.” 

What are the origins of Shankweiler’s? 

How did this then-new form 

of exhibition make its way to 

Pennsylvania? 

Matt McClanahan: Shankweiler’s is 

a great example of something that has 

grown and changed a lot over the years. 

When it first opened, it was two telephone 

poles and a sheet. It was a very bare-bones 

start. Wilson Shankweiler owned a hotel 

with a baseball diamond behind it. He saw 

the drive-in in Camden, NJ and wanted to 

open his own, so he just repurposed that 

field and put a screen up. And that was 

it. A lot of the first features that played at 

Shankweiler’s were maybe less-than-official 

screenings. We’re probably not going 

to find any booking records for those. 

What discoveries have you made 

about the theater since purchasing it? 

Matt McClanahan: One of the few 

artifacts that was left over at the theater 

after we acquired it was an old sound 

horn that we found in storage. We dated 

it back to the mid-’30s; it was one of the 

original sound horns that the theater used. 

This was before drive-in speaker poles, 

because when Shankweiler’s was built, 

none of that infrastructure existed. It was 

nothing more than a big sound driver 

and a huge horn that they hung under 

the screen to shoot sound across the lot. 

To my knowledge, I think it’s the oldest 

surviving piece of drive-in infrastructure 

that still exists. 

Lauren McChesney: We hung it in our 

office. It’s probably about three or four 

feet [long]. We get excited when we find 

things. Every once in a while, we’ll get a 

comment on our Facebook or in an email 

that’s like, “I’m Wilson Shankweiler’s 


25


great, great granddaughter.” Or “I grew up 

there, and now I’m 98 years old.” It’s really 

neat everytime you learn something 

new about the history or the mythology 

around it. 

Matt McClanahan: That’s the thing with 

a lot of these old places—separating the 

myth from the actual history. It can get 

difficult sometimes. Especially when you 

don’t have a lot physically there to reference. 

It’s always exciting when someone 

brings a physical artifact from the theater’s 

past to us. It gives a tangible element 

to something that’s only been a story for 

us. It’s happening more and more frequently, 

which is very exciting. 

It was also one of the first drive-ins to 

have car speakers and speaker poles. 

Matt McClanahan: We got the poles in 

1948, right before the big boom. The 1950s 

were really where the explosion happened 

with the popularity of drive-ins, but they 

had been around before that. A lot of the 

drive-ins here in Pennsylvania are a little 

bit older and were built in the late ‘40s. 

We’re around New Jersey, so we’re kind of 

near that epicenter. 

Do you think that early adoption is 

why Pennsylvania maintains such a 

strong drive-in culture? 

Matt McClanahan: The people of 

Pennsylvania love routine and tradition. 

Drive-ins have been able to hold on by 

virtue of everybody taking their families 

and continuing those practices for years 

and years. We also have large rural areas 

which have permitted these theaters to 

continue existing. It’s changing a little 

bit now with everything building up so 

rapidly in our area. Shankweiler’s is in a 

residential area, so maybe it’s survived 

by virtue of being less than convenient to 

develop. 

In 1955, Hurricane Diane paved the 

way–literally–for a CinemaScope 

screen, less than two years after the 

release of the first CinemaScope film 

in 1953. That was also when the snack 

bar, restrooms, and new projection 

room were constructed. 

Matt McClanahan: It was a blessing 

in disguise, maybe. Shankweiler’s has 

“Drive-ins have been able to 

hold on by virtue of everybody 

taking their families and 

continuing those practices 

for years and years.” 

always managed to stay on the cusp in 

terms of technology for drive-ins. It was 

one of the first drive-ins to implement 

FM broadcasting to bring stereo sound to 

cars. It was also an early adopter of digital. 

It’s always kind of been lockstep with the 

industry as far as where the technology 

is going. 

One unique element of Shankweiler’s 

is that you keep the drive-in open 

year round. 

Matt McClanahan: It’s unique now in 

the context of drive-ins, but historically, 

not so much. Even here in Pennsylvania, 

many of the drive-ins around us were 

originally year-round. When these 

drive-ins were built, owner/operators 

had a mortgage and had to sustain their 

business. A lot of that meant they needed 

a cash flow year-round. We’re in that boat. 

We purchased this theater, so we have a 

mortgage and we need to keep cash flow 

going all year to sustain ourselves. 

Lauren McChesney: That’s the trend 

we’re seeing with other new owner/operators. 

Everyone refers to the winter as the 

dark time, because all the drive-ins are 

closed and there’s nothing to do, nowhere 

to go. We always thought it would be so 

cool if we had a drive-in that was open 

that we could go to [all year-round], and 

it’s also partly something that we as 

customers would have wanted. We know 

that there are other people who wish 

drive-ins were open through the winter. 

And they’re coming, so that’s exciting. 

Matt McClanahan: Out in the Midwest, 

we see that phenomenon a lot, too, in 

areas where they get far more snow 

than we do. That’s what we’re working 

on, making this a normal thing. We 

want winter to roll around and people 

to think, “The drive-in is open. Let’s see 

what they’re playing.” We really pushed 

this year to communicate that. There’s a 

period of the summer where we are open 

seven days a week and it’s wild and crazy, 

but we’re always here. 

What are some of the other initiatives 

that you’re implementing? 

Lauren McChesney: We’re trying to be a 

much larger presence by participating in 

community events and getting involved 


“Everyone refers to the winter 

as the dark time, because all 

the drive-ins are closed and 

there’s nothing to do, nowhere 

to go. We always thought it 

would be so cool if we had a 

drive-in that was open that we 

could go to [all year-round].” 

with a lot of different groups. We partner 

with local charities and businesses. 

Matt McClanahan: Also, the movies we 

play have changed. Shankweiler’s has 

always [screened] first-run movies, and 

[now] we’re a mix of first-run films and 

classics, which is a very tricky thing to 

do with one screen. But we pull it off. We 

want to make sure that every show we 

put on has intention and thought behind 

it. We’re not just going to play a movie 

because it’s new. We’ll play a movie if 

people want to see it, if we want to see it, 

but it’s got to be something that deserves 

to be on the screen. 

Lauren McChesney: We want it to be 

something special and memorable, so we 

put a lot of thought into which movies 

we’re going to play. Or we’ll add an extra 

element to make it something special, like 

getting an ice cream truck or a brewery 

to come. We did holiday matinees all 

through December, and because the 

sun sets so early, we were able to start 

the movies at five. We showed The Polar 

Express and gave everyone a little bell 

and ticket. It was just a tiny gesture, but it 

made everyone really happy. 

What are the joys of operating a 

drive-in theater? 

Lauren McChesney: For me, I love 

that people come in happy and that 

they’re having a memorable and exciting 

experience. It’s a special place that some 

people come to on a weekly basis, but for 

[other] people, this is a huge experience 

for them. We love being part of that and 

being able to make it special for them. 

That makes me very happy. 

Matt McClanahan: Shankweiler’s is in 

a unique position [in terms of] where it is 

physically. It’s convenient to a lot of cities 

and a lot of other communities. We get a 

lot of people for whom this is their first 

drive-in experience. They discovered us 

on social media or they read about us in 

an article, and they’re visiting us for the 

first time. They’re just enamored by the 

whole experience, and that’s what we 

love to see. We love to introduce people 

to something that is new, that is exciting, 

and watch that catch on again. It’s 

extremely rewarding. 

And the challenges? 

Lauren McChesney: As our needs 

change, there’s also new technologies, so 

we have to start adapting these businesses 

to grow with all of that. We had to redo 

our whole business model and rethink 

the way that things are run so that we can 

make [the theater] more profitable and 

keep it open for decades to come. 

Matt McClanahan: Drive-ins are absolutely 

a viable business in terms of generating 

an income and revenue stream. 

I would argue that they might even be 


27


“As the industry goes through 

challenges, we’re going to 

experience those things too. 

I think drive-ins are wellpositioned. 

We’re set up for 

events and to make movies 

something special.” 

better positioned than an indoor theater, 

in terms of their profitability. You can do 

a lot of daytime activities when you’re 

not running movies, [and] they’re also 

adaptable to world events. Pandemics! 

We can weather the storms. They’re an 

industry born in the Great Depression, so 

there’s a lot of things that make drive-ins 

resilient. The biggest thing with drive-ins 

now is really just the upfront costs. A 

lot of drive-ins exist in up-and-coming 

commercial districts, areas that are now 

getting built up. For drive-ins that once 

existed in a rural setting, it’s not so rural 

anymore, and land values are all creeping 

up. The cost of the physical land that 

the theater sits on, more often than not, 

prices out the value of the business sitting 

on it. When we purchased this theater, we 

had to redefine what kind of business was 

being run, because the one that was here 

couldn’t sustain the bills that we pay. 

A lot of the difficulties that the overall 

[drive-in] industry is facing are not so 

much that drive-ins are struggling, but 

that current owners don’t have a succession 

plan. For a lot of owners, this is 

a nest egg. They work their theater for 

40-50 years, then they’re ready to retire 

and they’ll sell it to the highest bidder. It 

doesn’t necessarily mean that the theater 

continues as a theater, especially when 

you have builders with deeper pockets 

buying these increasingly valued commercial 

properties. I think the biggest 

hurdle for the continuation of drive-ins 

is the previous generation’s willingness 

to work with the next generation to carry 

them on. 

What does the future hold for drive-in 

theaters? 

Lauren McChesney: Drive-ins are movie 

theaters, so we experience a lot of the 

same challenges that any other movie 

theater experiences, whether it’s the 

availability of new movies to show or 

accessibility of older movies. It’s all the 

same things that everyone is always dealing 

with. As the industry goes through 

challenges, we’re going to experience 

those things, too. I think drive-ins are 

well-positioned. We’re set up for events 

and to make movies something special. 

That’s really becoming the trend, especially 

after Barbie and Taylor Swift, with 

theaters really trying to eventize. That’s 

something that drive-ins have always 

naturally done. We’re very hopeful; we see 

a lot of drive-ins being saved by people, 

being reopened, or being newly built. We 

see a lot of people coming up with innovative 

ways to bring movies to people. We’re 

really excited to follow along and see how 

all this grows. 

Matt McClanahan: I think the most 

exciting thing about the future of 

drive-ins is how many younger people 

are coming into this field that are passionate 

about them and about this kind 

of exhibition. They’re coming into this 

with a brand new perspective of ways to 

innovate and ways to change how the 

business operates by taking a 90-year-old 

model and making it new. That’s what 

we’re doing; we’re taking something that 

has been a staple in this area for nearly 

a century and we’re making it a new 

experience. We’re getting a lot of people 

who live here locally that are just now 

discovering it for the first time. That’s 

exciting. It’s not just a business anymore. 

It’s a very special place. 

How are you planning to celebrate 

Shankweiler’s 90th anniversary? 

Lauren McChesney: I’m hoping to partner 

with some historical societies in our 

area and try to make it an event that really 

celebrates how far this drive-in has come 

and how much it’s been through over the 

years, along with where we are today. 

Matt McClanahan: Any long standing 

institution is marked by how it’s evolved. 

What we want to do is really celebrate all 

the big steps that this theater has taken 

over the years, because it’s gone through 

quite a few milestones and a lot of trials. 

It’s exciting to be here and celebrate its 

longevity and its story. 

Do you have any favorite movie 

moments at Shankweiler’s in your role 

as owner/operators? 

Matt McClanahan: We played A 

Christmas Story last year. At the end when 

Ralphie is sleeping, it pans up to the 

window and it’s snowing. A snow squall 

came through right at that scene. I was 

sitting in the production booth seeing it 

all happen. Everyone who was on the field 

is never going to forget that night. We’re 

forging core memories here. 


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29

Theater XX 

St. Jude patient 

Avyan 

Big Screen. Bigger Cause. 

This holiday season, movie theaters around the country and St. Jude are teaming up with some 

of your favorite entertainers and celebrities to help those facing childhood cancer and other lifethreatening 

diseases. When you donate advertising screen time to our St. Jude PSA, you’re letting 

your patrons know you’re committed to fighting childhood cancer. 

St. Jude believes that every child deserves a chance to live their best life and celebrate every 

moment. When you support St. Jude, you help make cures possible for kids with cancer around 

the world that chance. But we can’t do it without your powerful partnership. 

For more information, please visit stjude.org/theaters 

or email chance.weaver@alsac.stjude.org 

©2023 30 ALSAC/St. Jude Children’s 

February 

Research 

/ March 

Hospital 

2024 (MCC-13795)

2024 Preview 40 | 2023 in Review 51 | Event Cinema Calendar 70 | Booking Guide 72 

ON SCREEN 

“It was the thrill of my lifetime to stand back and realize 

that I was directing shoulder-to-shoulder the great names in 

ghostbusting past and present.” 

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, p. 32 


31

On Screen GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE 

ANSWERING 

THE CALL 



BY CHAD KENNERK 

32 



33


Are you troubled by strange 

noises in the middle of the 

night? Do you experience 

feelings of dread in your 

basement or attic? Then you 

know who to call. Ghostbusters became a 

cultural phenomenon in the summer of 

1984 when director Ivan Reitman’s supernatural 

comedy took the box office by 

storm. Nearly forty years later, filmmakers 

Jason Reitman (son of Ivan, who died 

in February 2022) and Gil Kenan brought 

the Ectomobile–and the franchise–roaring 

back to life, providing a much-needed 

boost to box office recovery in 2021. 

Ghostbusters: Afterlife landed among the 

top ten highest-grossing movies of the 

year at the domestic box office, earning 

$129.3 million in ticket sales. 

A fitting homage and continuation 

of the original film and its 1989 sequel, 

Ghostbusters: Afterlife introduced a 

vibrant new set of characters to carry the 

story forward alongside the legends of 

ghostbusting. As Afterlife director Jason 

Reitman shared with Boxoffice Pro in 

our 2021 interview, “There’s a reverence 

that was a part of the work. That had to be 

a part of the work.” That admiration for 

the franchise and its legacy continues in 

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, once again 

co-written by Jason Reitman and Gil 

Kenan, with Kenan taking his turn in the 

director’s chair. 

Writer/director Gil Kenan has the kind 

of Lana Turner soda fountain discovery 

story that every film school student 

dreams of. After having his student short 

film The Lark screened at the Director’s 

Guild of America as a part of the UCLA 

Spotlight Awards, he was signed to a major 

talent agency and soon landed the role of 

directing the 2006 film Monster House—a 

film produced and presented by Robert 

Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg—before 

going on to direct films such as City of 

Ember, 2015’s Poltergeist remake, and A Boy 

Called Christmas. Like his writing and producing 

partner Jason Reitman, Kenan has 

his own special connection to Ghostbusters: 

it was the first movie he saw in cinemas 

after moving to the U.S. at age seven. 

Kenan straps on his proton pack again 

as something strange arrives in your 

neighborhood theater this March 29, courtesy 

of Sony. In this new film, an ancient 

artifact unleashes a new force of evil into 

the world, leading the Spengler family 

back to the iconic New York City firehouse 

to team up with the original Ghostbusters 

to save the world from a second Ice Age. 

Boxoffice Pro picked up the phone and 

called Ghostbusters’ Gil Kenan with all 

of our supernatural elimination queries. 

Kenan spoke with reverence for the late 

Ivan Reitman’s work and how much he 


elishes the opportunity to continue 

the story that he started with Jason in 

Afterlife. In addition to bringing the story 

back to its New York City roots, writer/ 

director Kenan shares how he’s been 

considering the theatrical experience of 

Frozen Empire from week one. 

I was at the theater recently and at 

the moment of the firehouse reveal in 

the Frozen Empire trailer, a boy rows 

ahead of me gasped and shouted, 

“Ghostbusters!” 

I am that boy! [Laughs.] 

It sums up what adult fans are all 

feeling internally. 

I felt that every single day making this 

movie. 

It’s also a great example of what 

the theatrical experience of Afterlife 

was like, where multiple generations 

got to come together and further 

explore this universe. 

It’s been so thrilling on a lot of different 

levels for me. Being there for the ride 

as a writer on Afterlife, I got to see how 

authentic and meaningful the roots of 

Ghostbusters are to the fans and the people 

who have held these characters in their 

hearts and imaginations since 1984. I got 

to go around the world with that film and 

see just what a connection the world of 

Ghostbusters has with its fans. I felt it. For 

me, in 1984, it was a threshold moviegoing 

experience. We had just moved to Los 

Angeles, and it was the first movie I saw in 

a big movie theater. I remember the crosshairs 

[of the film] being aimed directly 

at me and the audience. It triggered all 

the instincts that have defined the way I 

tell stories. The blend of terror, suspense, 

comedy, wonder, and classic movie magic 

felt like a formative experience for me. So I 

understand that kid yelling “Ghostbusters!” 

in the theater more than you will ever 

know. I channel that instinct every day 

while working on this story. 

Audiences of all ages now know 

and are invested in the legacy 

characters and the next generation 

of characters from Afterlife. 

The most startling and important discovery 

with Afterlife was how resilient the 

shoulders of Phoebe Spengler [played by 

Mckenna Grace] are as a vehicle for the 

stories of this franchise going forward. 

We believed in Phoebe and her family. It 

was a world of characters that felt like 

a natural extension of our passion for 

Ghostbusters; that felt like they would 

allow us to have these stories breathe 

going forward, to branch the mythology 

and the world of Ghostbusters in new 

directions. As we hinted at the end of 

Afterlife, bringing them into Manhattan, 

to the epicenter and the heart of classic 

ghostbusting, meant that we could now 

take a big step forward in terms of scale, 

stakes, and the obstacles our heroes face. 

Right: Director Gil 

Kenan (left) with 

co-writer Jason 

Reitman on the set 

of Ghostbusters: 

Frozen Empire 

“It was a world of characters 

that felt like a natural 

extension of our passion for 

Ghostbusters; that felt like they 

would allow us to have these 

stories breathe going forward, 

to branch the mythology and 

the world of Ghostbusters in 

new directions.” 


35


You approached writing Afterlife 

with Jason as fans and lovers of 

Ghostbusters. Were the two of you 

able to return to that same pure form 

of storytelling in writing the sequel? 

[Laughs.] Your question makes me 

remember a moment when we were 

writing this new film and returning to 

that original passion as fans. I remember 

trying to work out a pivotal set piece in 

this new film, and we reached for the 

best tool we had to solve it: a Lego set of 

the firehouse that we have in our office. I 

remember us lying on the floor with this 

Lego set, moving our character figurines 

within the floors. Somebody walked into 

the room to ask us a question, and it was 

about as pure a moment of storytelling 

as you can imagine: two grown-ass men 

lying on the floor playing with a Lego set. 

It captures just how pure of a storytelling 

experience this is. We could view [the 

filmmaking process] with so much of that 

original spark of excitement and movie 

passion. The first film animated us in 

“I remember trying to work out 

a pivotal set piece in this new 

film, and we reached for the 

best tool we had to solve it: a 

Lego set of the firehouse that 

we have in our office.” 

very different ways. Obviously, Jason’s 

point of view on the first film was sitting 

three inches to the side of the director’s 

chair, where his dad was sitting. For me, it 

might as well have been 1,000 miles away, 

even though it was only 10 miles away in 

Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, where I saw 

it play for the first time. It was the same 

respect, excitement, and sense of what 

was possible through these characters. 

Jason followed in his father’s 

footsteps, taking on the director’s 

chair for Afterlife, and now you move 

into that chair. How did you hash out 

the directing responsibilities this time 

around? 

It felt like a natural handing off of the 

baton. We are filmmakers first and consider 

writing a part of the filmmaking 

process. We both came up as directors. 

We met while I was editing my first film, 

Monster House, and he was editing his 

first film, Thank You for Smoking. We 

were both climbing that same mountain 


for the first time, and our friendship 

began there and then. It’s a conversation 

we’ve been having over the years as we’ve 

been writing—even before we wrote 

Ghostbusters: Afterlife—“You take this 

one, I take this one. And we’ll write them 

together.” All I’ll say is that it did feel as 

thrilling, as frightening, and as fulfilling 

as I hoped. It was largely possible because 

Jason, as my creative partner and collaborator, 

was an impeccable producer on this 

film. I felt his support, his confidence in 

me, and his enthusiasm for the work—the 

performances and the moments we were 

capturing on set—in a way that made all 

this possible. It’s strengthened our creative 

bond. I wouldn’t have known that 

until after having crossed the rubicon as a 

director on this film. 

When filming A Boy Called Christmas, 

you went to the Arctic Circle, and 

now the Arctic is arriving in New York 

City. You’ve previously talked about 

striving for location sets and actual 

builds. What was the worldbuilding 

process like in bringing the 

Ghostbusters back home to NYC? 

It’s ingrained in the DNA of Ghostbusters 

to have as much of the performance 

happen in as real an environment as 

possible. We built enormous sets for this 

film—beautifully detailed, expansive 

environments. The firehouse interior 

was built out in London to incredibly 

exact detail by our production designer, 

Eve Stewart. As was done in the original 

1984 Ghostbusters film, there is a 

movie sleight of hand that happens in 

the interplay between filming location 

and story location. Fans will know that 

in 1984, the interior of the firehouse 

was in downtown Los Angeles while 

the exteriors were in New York City. To 

your point, it was critical that in the 

moments of heightened action (where 

Ecto-1 is called on to engage with some 

supernatural threats in this story) that 

every single one of those moments was 

filmed, not just with the actual car on 

“It’s ingrained in the DNA 

of Ghostbusters to have as 

much of the performance 

happen in as real an 

environment as possible. We 

built enormous sets for this 

film—beautifully detailed, 

expansive environments.” 


37


actual streets, but in Manhattan. That 

creates a sense of reality and movie 

magic that you just can’t put into words. 

You know it the second it comes on the 

screen: you’re watching something real, 

visceral, and authentic. You get that sense 

of slight danger, the grit on the street and 

buildings, even onlookers craning their 

necks as the car goes past. It feels like 

Ghostbusters. It’s part of the DNA of these 

stories, so it was crucial for me that we got 

all of that. 

What can you share about 

reassembling this iteration of the 

ghostbusting crew and bringing this 

ensemble cast back together? 

It’s a big cast—always a thrilling challenge 

for a director—but also an embarrassment 

of riches. There are so many talented performers. 

A lot of the work had to happen 

for us at the writing stage to ensure we 

were creating a balanced platform for 

these incredible performers to do their 

jobs. It was the thrill of my lifetime to 

stand back and realize that I was directing 

shoulder-to-shoulder the great names in 

ghostbusting past and present. I can’t tell 

you how wondrous it is for me to be the 

person who calls action on the legends of 

ghostbusting in a scene that Jason and 

I conceived of, where they’re facing off 

against a new and terrifying villain that 

feels like a classic Ghostbusters threat. In 

that way, it feels the fulfillment of all of 

the hopes and dreams we have as storytellers; 

it allows you to take characters you 

have tremendous respect and love for and 

give them a story worthy of their abilities. 

Ghostbusters films are meant to be 

seen on the big screen. How did you 

design sequences for the theatrical 

experience? 

Ivan set the bar very high with his 


“It was the thrill of my 

lifetime to stand back and 

realize that I was directing 

shoulder-to-shoulder the 

great names in ghostbusting 

past and present.” 

Ghostbusters films. Making sure that 

Frozen Empire is a thrill for audiences on 

a large canvas is a direct nod to the templates 

that Ivan created with Ghostbusters 

in 1984 and Ghostbusters II in 1989. And 

one that Jason so beautifully hit with 

Afterlife. These are big screen experiences, 

designed that way from the beginning—in 

lens selection, in the way that action is 

conceived of, and in the way that we allow 

the camera to move through this world. 

I was screening dailies projected in a 

movie theater from week one on this film, 

because it’s not enough to review dailies 

like we usually do on an iPad screen or 

even in the editing room. Something 

important, different, and magical happens 

when you project on a large screen. 

It creates a different equation for an 

audience, including the people making 

the film. It’s very integral to the way that 

this film was conceived. It was written as 

a big screen experience, it was created as 

one, and now, as I’m editing and finishing 

the film, in every instance we are going to 

a large screen to set the experience to the 

right parameters for our audience. 

Growing up, did you have a favorite 

Ghostbusters toy or product? 

I was really into the weird-ass toys Kenner 

made [for the animated TV show “The 

Real Ghostbusters”]. We have somebody 

on our team, Eric Reich, who is a master 

Ghostbusters archivist. He knows all the 

names, but I just remember there was a 

police officer character whose stomach 

would flip up and change his expression 

to a ghostly one. [For the record, the 

Haunted Human figure was called X-Cop 

Ghost.] I remember that being such a thrill 

as a terrifying Ghostbusters toy. I love that 

Kenner line. We watched many episodes 

of “The Real Ghostbusters” as we were 

beginning to hatch this story. We did that 

because we knew those stories were not 

beholden to the original mythology. They 

weren’t afraid of getting weird and wild 

and going off the beaten path. We wanted 

to embrace those instincts in writing this 

new chapter of the saga. Those toys and 

what they stood for are in the DNA of 

Frozen Empire, a movie that I hope will 

spawn a whole new generation of weird 

toys for the children of tomorrow. 

AT THE MOVIES 

WITH GIL KENAN 

Was there one particular 

moviegoing moment 

growing up that inspired 

your interest in filmmaking? 

The one that comes most 

readily to mind is my dad 

taking me to watch Time 

Bandits when I was young. 

The movie experience was 

so persuasive, so visceral 

for me. It was the first time 

I started to think about 

it existing beyond just a 

story I watched. I became 

curious about who those 

people were after that film. 

I could point to The Empire 

Strikes Back as a pivotal 

moviegoing experience. 

My grandfather took me 

to see it and fell asleep 

the second we sat down 

in the movie theater. It 

was a double feature, so I 

felt like I experienced it all 

on my own. It was thrilling 

and dangerous. I felt that 

way in 1984 when I saw 

Ghostbusters as my first 

American moviegoing 

experience. It blew my 

mind. I felt like it was the 

first scary and funny—and 

very American—that I saw 

after moving there. The 7th 

Voyage of Sinbad was a 

pivotal experience for me. I 

saw a 16 mm projected print 

of that in my elementary 

school gymnasium when 

I was a kid. It terrified me 

and made me think about 

what’s possible through 

movie magic. I’m made up 

of the fragments of magical 

experiences I’ve had in a 

movie theater growing up. 


39

On Screen 2024 PREVIEW 

BOXOFFICE 

BAROMETER: 

2024 PREVIEW 

Exhibition’s pandemic recovery effort is expected to hit a 

road bump in 2024, with industry analysts predicting a 10 

percent decline from 2023’s theatrical earnings. Another year of 

inconsistent titles across major studios and an overall decrease 

in titles scheduled to hit theaters will likely present the domestic 

market with its first down year since 2020. Despite adversity, 

cinemas worldwide will rally around the titles that can break 

through in the market. Boxoffice Pro previews the best bets 

scheduled to hit theaters in 2024. 


Q1 2024 

After two consecutive years of reaping the benefits of carryover 

hits like Sony’s Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) and 20th 

Century Studios’ Avatar: The Way of Water (2022), exhibition is 

bracing for a drop in momentum over Q1 due to a weaker holiday 

2023 slate. There are fewer than a handful of new releases over 

January and February with the potential to hit the hundred 

million-dollar benchmark. The first true hits of 2024 won’t arrive 

until March, when we expect strong runs from two titles originally 

scheduled for release in Q4 2023: Warner Bros.’ Dune: Part 

Two and Sony’s Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. 

Argylle 

MEAN GIRLS 

January 12 (Paramount) 

Paramount’s adaptation of 

the Mean Girls stage musical 

enters the market following 

the positive reception of 

Warner Bros.’ Wonka and The 

Color Purple at the box office. 

Other recent musicals, however, 

haven’t fared as well. We 

believe Mean Girls has enough 

goodwill from audiences who 

love the original film and 

fans of the stage musical to 

make a positive impact in an 

otherwise challenging month 

of January. 

ARGYLLE 

February 2 (Apple/Universal) 

Apple teams with Universal 

for the theatrical release of 

this spy caper starring Henry 

Cavill. Matthew Vaughn 

directs, with early marketing 

materials suggesting a similar 

tone to the filmmaker’s 

popular Kingsman series. 

Potential: $100M 

Mean Girls 



41

On Screen 2024 PREVIEW 

BOB MARLEY: 

ONE LOVE 

February 14 (Paramount) 

Early footage screened at 

CinemaCon 2023 showed 

promise for this title, based on 

the life of Bob Marley. Musical 

biopics have had trouble 

breaking out at the box 

office lately, Sony’s Whitney 

Houston: I Wanna Dance with 

Somebody (2022) coming to 

mind as a notable misfire. 


Bob Marley: One Love 

Dune: Part Two 

MADAME WEB 

February 14 (Sony) 

The first of Sony’s three 

upcoming superhero films 

from the Spider-Man-adjacent 

cinematic universe—in other 

words, Sony is releasing three 

Spider-Man movies in 2024, 

and none have Spider-Man 

in them. Madame Web isn’t 

expected to hit a high ceiling, 

but it could find a connection 

with audiences looking for a 

palate cleanser following 2023’s 

dismal superhero offerings. 


DUNE: PART TWO 

March 1 (Warner Bros.) 

It’s hard to make direct comparisons 

to this film’s predecessor 

when forecasting its 

box office potential. Released 

during the pandemic after 

several release delays, Denis 

Villeneuve’s Dune earned 

$108 million when it opened 

simultaneously on streaming 

HBO Max in 2021. The theatrically 

exclusive sequel should 

improve those figures. 

Potential: $100-200M 

KUNG FU PANDA 4 

March 8 (Universal) 

It’s been eight years since 

the release of the last Kung 

Fu Panda movie. The third 

entry in the series stopped 

its domestic run just shy of 

$150 million, but this property 

has enjoyed enough staying 

power on home entertainment 

platforms to warrant another 

strong run in its return to 

theaters. 


GHOSTBUSTERS: 

FROZEN EMPIRE 

March 22 (Sony) 

Initially scheduled for a 

Christmas 2023 release, 

Sony’s follow-up to 2021’s 

Ghostbusters: Afterlife has 

the potential to relaunch 

the beloved ‘80s classic as 

a new standalone franchise. 

Returning to the original’s 

New York City setting should 

provide enough nostalgia to 

fill theaters at the end of the 

quarter. 




Summer 2023 showed what the true power of a full theatrical studio 

slate could bring to the industry, matching the season’s prepandemic 

figures for the first time since 2020. This year’s summer 

movie season won’t be in full swing until a packed Memorial Day 

weekend leads into a robust June slate of titles. There won’t be a 

Barbenheimer to fall back on, but moviegoers will have their pick 

of options at the multiplex throughout the season. 

THE FALL GUY 

May 3 (Apple/Universal) 

Universal is confident enough 

in this stunt guy-inspired 

comedy-action flick to give 

it an early summer release. If 

the studio’s 2023 CinemaCon 

presentation is any indication, 

we can expect a full-throttle 

theatrical marketing campaign 

to help propel this Ryan 

Gosling vehicle in May. 


IF 

May 17 (Paramount) 

You’d be forgiven for confusing 

this Paramount title 

for a live-action Pixar film 

at first glance. Director 

John Krasinski returns to 

Paramount after launching 

a pair of critically acclaimed 

and commercially successful 

Quiet Place movies with an 

irreverent family comedy 

about a kid’s imaginary friend 

coming to life. 


GODZILLA X KONG: 

THE NEW EMPIRE 

March 29 (Warner Bros.) 

Former foes, current friends, 

future lovers? Our guess is as 

good as yours regarding the 

direction that Legendary and 

Warner Bros.’ MonsterVerse 

takes in the wake of 2021’s 

Godzilla vs. Kong. There should 

be enough interest from fans 

for this franchise to stand out 

in an otherwise dreary collection 

of April releases. 


If 


43

on screen 2024 PREVIEW 

The Garfield Movie 

FURIOSA 

May 24 (Warner Bros.) 

One of the year’s most anticipated 

movies (at least among 

our staff), George Miller’s 

follow-up to Mad Max: Fury 

Road (2015) ditches Mad Max 

altogether in a prequel that 

gives Charlize Theron’s Furiosa 

character top-billing. The role 

is recast with Anya Taylor- 

Joy stepping in as a younger 

version of the character, a turn 

that could potentially elevate 

Taylor-Joy to A-list status. Fury 

Road grossed $154 million in its 

domestic release and is often 

cited by critics as one of the best 

studio movies of the last decade. 


KINGDOM OF THE 

PLANET OF THE APES 

May 24 (20th Century Studios) 

A survivor of the Fox-Disney 

merger, the Planet of the Apes 

reboot that kicked off with 

2011’s Rise of the Planet of the 

Apes has quietly emerged 

as an action franchise that 

consistently delivers at the 

box office. The last entry in 

the series, 2017’s War for the 

Planet of the Apes, brought in 

$146 million in North America. 

We’re expecting a similar 

result for this year’s title. 


THE GARFIELD 

MOVIE 

May 24 (Sony) 

The last time Chris Pratt 

took over the central speaking 

role in a family-friendly animated 

film, he walked away 

with the number 2 film of the 

year at the domestic box office. 

It may not be The Super Mario 

Bros., but we’re not writing 

off the theatrical appeal of 

The Garfield Movie. 

Potential: $200M+ 

BALLERINA 

June 7 (Lionsgate) 

Spin-offs are tricky to pull off, 

but Lionsgate has everything 

in its favor to launch this John 

Wick offshoot starring Ana de 

Armas. John Wick: Chapter 4 

is coming off a franchise-high 

box office tally of $187 million in 

North America. Lionsgate could 

have a $100 million hit as long 

as Ballerina can deliver with the 

caliber of action set-pieces that 

made John Wick a fan-favorite. 

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes 



BAD BOYS 4 

(Official Title TBD) 

June 14 (Sony) 

Stars Will Smith and Martin 

Lawrence have the curious 

honor of launching the last 

studio blockbuster whose 

run was uninterrupted by 

the Covid-19 pandemic with 

2020’s Bad Boys for Life. 

They’re back with a (currently 

untitled) Bad Boys sequel this 

summer, looking to top the 

$206 million domestic haul 

from their last outing. 


INSIDE OUT 2 

June 14 (Disney) 

Will audiences at long last 

respond to the exclusive 

release of a new Pixar film in 

theaters? Or will the damage 

from Disney’s pandemic-era 

streaming priorities continue 

to haunt the once-vaunted 

animation studio? Disney and 

Pixar should finally put their 

cold streak at the summer box 

office behind them with the 

release of this animated sequel. 


A QUIET PLACE: 

DAY ONE 

June 28 (Paramount) 

The two prior entries in 

Paramount’s A Quiet Place 

series have crossed the $150 

million mark. Both a prequel 

and spin-off, A Quiet Place: 

Day One will take the franchise 

in a new direction under the 

helm of Pig director Michael 

Sarnoski. 


HORIZON: AN 

AMERICAN SAGA 

June 28 (Lionsgate) 

Few things are as romantic in 

this industry as an established 

star betting the house on a risky, 

high-profile project. Kevin 

Costner’s been on both the winning 

and losing ends of those 

bets throughout his career. Now 

in a post-”Yellowstone” career 

renaissance, Costner is back 

with another passion project: a 

multi-part Civil War saga, with 

the first two films scheduled to 

release within months of each 

other over the summer. 


Inside Out 2 


45



We’re expecting two contenders for the highest-grossing movie 

of the year to come out over the third quarter. The Fourth of 

July weekend will see the release of Universal’s Despicable Me 4, 

which should be a major draw for families throughout the rest of 

the summer. Later that month, the first R-rated movie in Disney’s 

Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) will see Ryan Reynolds’ 

Deadpool team-up with Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine in the currently 

untitled third entry of the Deadpool franchise. Closing out 

the quarter, Tim Burton returns as director with rising star Jenna 

Ortega for the long-awaited sequel to 1988’s Beetlejuice. 

DESPICABLE ME 4 

July 3 (Universal) 

Universal has built a box 

office juggernaut between 

its Despicable Me films and 

Minions sequels. The main 

franchise returns with its 

fourth installment this 

summer, hoping to clear the 

$200 million mark domestically 

like the trio of films that 

preceded it. 


TWISTERS 

July 19 (Universal) 

The biggest question about 

this sequel to 1996’s disaster 

flick Twister is why it didn’t 

find its way to theaters sooner. 

Better late than never—and 

a mid-summer release is perfect 

for what promises to be 

a thrilling popcorn movie 

best enjoyed with an extralarge 

soda in an air-conditioned 

theater. 

DEADPOOL 3 


July 26 (Disney) 

The only Marvel Cinematic 

Universe title scheduled to 

release in 2024 can’t come 

soon enough. Disney’s box 

office struggles with its Marvel 

titles were one of the biggest 

stories of 2023. Is it superhero 

fatigue, or has the MCU been 

stretched too thin across 

multiple series and films? 

This Deadpool sequel should 

be immune to either of those 

concerns, promising to be a 

much-needed palate cleanser 

for audiences looking to fall 

back in love with Disney’s 

superhero films. 



Untitled Deadpool Sequel 


HORIZON: AN 

AMERICAN SAGA 

PART 2 

August 16 (Warner Bros.) 

We still have doubts about 

this release date, pending the 

results from the first entry of 

Kevin Costner’s Civil War-era 

saga, set to release earlier in 

the summer. If it sticks, Warner 

Bros. could potentially bookend 

a busy summer movie season 

with this two-part cinematic 

spectacle. 


KRAVEN THE 

HUNTER 

August 30 (Sony) 

Release delays have plagued 

this anti-hero entry in Sony’s 

Spider-Man-Without-Spider- 

Man Cinematic Universe. 

Billed as a gritty action movie, 

it serves as a stark contrast 

to Sony’s other superhero 

features. That tonal shift 

will either be the film’s most 

significant flaw or strength. 

We get the feeling Kraven 

the Hunter will either sink or 

swim at the box office, nothing 

in between. 


BEETLEJUICE 2 

September 6 (Warner Bros.) 

Legacy sequels fell short of 

expectations at the 2023 box 

office, with the latest Indiana 

Jones and Mission: Impossible 

sequels failing to meet the 

industry’s lofty expectations. 

This Beetlejuice sequel— 

coming 36 years after the 

original—has one thing going 

for it: the emergence of rising 

star Jenna Ortega. Tim Burton 

is back in the director’s chair 

for what we believe can be an 

important September hit at 

the box office. 


TRANSFORMERS 

ONE 

September 13 (Paramount) 

Paramount found its 

once-mighty Transformers 

franchise revitalized with 

the better-than-expected 

Transformers: Rise of the 

Beasts last year. As an animated 

feature, Transformers 

One will be a departure from 

its live-action films—but the 

studio has already found a 

successful comparable title in 

the similar success of 2023’s 

animated Teenage Mutant 

Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. 



47



We’re expecting a strong spring through the finish line in the 

fourth quarter, with a handful of releases showing potential to 

rank among the year’s best earners. The quarter has more blockbuster 

hopefuls than any other in 2024. It’s a diverse slate, too: 

from family-friendly titles like Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Wicked: Part 

One, Karate Kid, and Mufasa: The Lion King to the ever-dependable 

young male demographic with Gladiator 2, Joker: Folie à 

Deux, and the third entry in Sony’s Venom series. 

JOKER: FOLIE À 

DEUX 

October 4 (Warner Bros.) 

No one expected director 

Todd Phillips’ stand-alone 

take on Batman’s arch-nemesis 

to become the highest-grossing 

R-rated film of 

all-time, but that’s precisely 

the benchmark set by Joker in 

2019. The sequel brings back 

Joaquin Phoenix in the title 

role, this time accompanied 

by Lady Gaga as a co-star in 

a film being described as a 

musically-inspired follow-up. 


SMILE 2 

October 18 (Paramount) 

A sequel to 2022’s Smile, we’re 

expecting this entry to surpass 

the original’s $105 million 

domestic run. An October 

debut should give us plenty of 

viral marketing moments in 

the lead-up to its release. 


Joker (2019) 


MUFASA: 

THE LION KING 

December 20 (Disney) 

Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021) 

Moonlight director Barry 

Jenkins is attached to helm 

this prequel to 2019’s The Lion 

King. Its predecessor currently 

ranks 16th on the list of the 

highest-earning films of all 

time domestically. Based on 

its pedigree alone, Mufasa 

should keep theaters packed 

through the holiday season 

and well into January. 


VENOM 3 


November 8 (Sony) 

The two prior Venom films each 

grossed $213.5M at the domestic 

box office. That figure is a realistic 

benchmark for the third 

entry in the series, Sony’s most 

successful effort at launching a 

Spider-Man-adjacent franchise. 


GLADIATOR 2 

November 22 (Paramount) 

Director Ridley Scott is back 

at the helm for this sequel to 

his Academy Award-winning 

sword & sandal epic, Gladiator 

(2000). Production has 

resumed on the project following 

the disruption of the 2023 

writers’ and actors’ strikes, with 

Paramount setting its sights on 

a Thanksgiving release. 


WICKED: PART ONE 

November 27 (Universal) 

Musicals have had an inconsistent 

impact at the box office 

in recent years—but if there’s 

one with the potential to reach 

blockbuster status, it’s this one. 

Universal split its film adaptation 

of the stage musical in two 

parts, the first half scheduled 

to launch in theaters over 

Thanksgiving weekend. 


KARATE KID (2024) 

December 13 (Sony) 

Ralph Macchio, the star of 

1984’s original Karate Kid, will 

be teaming up with Jackie 

Chan, who anchored the film’s 

2010 remake, in the theatrical 

relaunch of this property. 

Riding high from the highly 

popular “Cobra Kai” show 

on Netflix, this iteration of 

Karate Kid has the potential 

of reaching a bigger audience 

than any of its predecessors. 


Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022) 

SONIC THE 

HEDGEHOG 3 

December 20 (Paramount) 

The current video game 

movie golden age owes a lot 

to the pioneering success 

of Paramount’s Sonic the 

Hedgehog series, which realized 

the genre’s box office 

potential after years of costly 

studio misfires. The first 

two films in the series easily 

crossed the $100 million mark, 

a benchmark we’re expecting 

this film to surpass as well. 



49

Theater XX 

Stay up to date on all 

things CinemaCon 

with the Boxoffice 

Podcast. 

Tune in each day during the week of CinemaCon to get the 

latest news on the cinema industry’s biggest event of the year. 

Scan the QR code to listen 

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2023 IN 

REVIEW 

The Biggest Stories, Hits, Surprises, and Disappointments at 

the Box Office. Boxoffice Pro Staff Share Insights on Another 

Eventful Year for Theatrical Exhibition. 

36 

The Biggest Stories of the Year 


36 

The Ten Highest-Grossing Movies 

at the Domestic Box Office 

36 

The Ten Highest-Grossing 

Movies at the Gobal Box Office 


51

On Screen 2023 IN REVIEW 

THE BIGGEST 

STORIES OF 

THE YEAR 


“This year’s big win is for 

counterprogramming, 

having a variety of movies 

across different genres 

and budget levels.” 

BARBENHEIMER 

The success of Barbie and Oppenheimer 

coming out over the same weekend—both 

igniting enthusiasm, not just around 

movies, but around going to the movies…it 

didn’t used to be weird to have two wildly 

disparate movies come out on the same 

weekend. We’re back to getting more 

options at the multiplex. This year’s big 

win is for counterprogramming, having a 

variety of movies across different genres 

and budget levels. – Rebecca Pahle 

It’s not just counterprogramming; 

people were really into seeing those two 

specific movies together because of their 

ironic pairing. That tells me people still 

like going to the movies and are excited to 

go to something that feels like an event— 

and Barbenheimer felt like an event. It 

was an event that was created organically, 

not something the studios colluded 

to create. It happened because people 

wanted it to happen, which is incredibly 

rare—and especially rare in the current 

environment. – Russ Fischer 

My biggest takeaway from the 

Barbenheimer phenomenon wasn’t about 

the two individual films themselves. It 

was that the focus of the whole affair 

centered around moviegoing…There was 

a worldwide buy-in to the concept from 

people wanting to participate in this. 

Everyone in this industry wants to repeat 

it, but you can’t box something like this 

up. It’s not formulaic. It’s going to be hard 

to find a moment like this again. It was 

lightning in a bottle. – Daniel Loria 

THE DECLINE OF THE 

SUPERHERO & THE RISE OF 

THE VIDEO GAME MOVIE 

Superhero movies have gone from as 

close to a guarantee as you could have at 

the box office to something with a high 

floor but a low ceiling—and when we get 

to the DCEU movies, those proved not 

even to have a high floor anymore. As 

these superhero movies struggle more 

than they used to at the box office, video 

game movies—which famously used to 

be a big challenge for studios to develop 

successfully—seem to be getting much 

more traction. We saw Paramount’s two 

Sonic movies bring in new audiences, 

and Universal’s The Super Mario Bros. 

Movie finished 2023 as the number two 

film of the year. – Daniel Loria 

After decades of people trying to make 

video game movies work, we’re finally 

starting to see them live up to their box 

office potential. Sony has Uncharted, 

Paramount has Sonic, and Universal 

made a statement this year with both 

The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Five 

Nights at Freddy’s. The secret sauce here 

seems to be that we needed an audience 

of Zoomers who grew up with these games 

and have nostalgia for them. People who 

grew up playing the games waited years to 

see these characters on the big screen. Five 

Nights at Freddy’s opened to $85 million in 

North America, despite opening day-anddate 

on Peacock for subscribers. That’s not 

something anyone could have predicted. 

– Rebecca Pahle 


53


You can’t discount the Zoomer audience, 

especially when you look at Five Nights 

at Freddy’s. That’s a massive part of that 

film’s success. I think a big component 

of this video game movie renaissance is 

simply getting it right: making a movie 

that looks like the game you are basing it 

on. It goes back to Sonic, when Paramount 

released a trailer that the fans hated. They 

went back and reworked how the character 

looked on screen! I’m very resistant 

to the idea that fans know best regarding 

these properties; I don’t believe that’s true. 

But when it comes to video game movies, 

you need to make them in a way that 

they’re not just recognizable to audiences 

but make them in a way that relies on 

their participation in the development of 

those stories. Games are participatory in 

a way that other media is not. There’s a 

different connection to video game characters, 

a different involvement with those 

experiences. Five Nights at Freddy’s shows 

that you can change the story around, and 

the fans will probably still be on your side 

as long as the movie retains the look and 

feel of the game. – Russ Fischer 

“I think a big component 

of this video game movie 

renaissance is simply getting 

it right: making a movie 

that looks like the game 

you are basing it on.” 

BIGGEST BOX OFFICE HIT 

OF THE YEAR: BARBIE 

(Warner Bros.) 

As soon as we got to Warner Bros.’ 

CinemaCon presentation and saw Andrew 

Cripps and Jeff Goldstein walk out in 

bright hot pink suits and saw the footage 

reveal with Margot Robbie and Ryan 

Gosling on stage, that’s when Rebecca and 

I turned to each other in the press section 

of the Colosseum at Ceasars Palace and 

realized this is going to be the movie we’re 

going to be talking about for the rest of 

the year. We came into this year without 

a clear pick for a film that could hit $500 

million domestically; Barbie stepped up 

and grossed over $635 million in North 

America alone. – Daniel Loria 

BEST THEATRICAL 

MARKETING CAMPAIGN OF 

THE YEAR: BARBIE 

(Warner Bros.) 

I realized how big this movie could be 

when I saw the line of people waiting to 

take pictures with those life-sized Barbie 

lightboxes at CinemaCon. I remember 

seeing that and imagining how moviegoers 

would react to them at their local theater. 

– Rebecca Pahle 

It almost felt like a throwback to the ‘90s: 

a summer release with a hit soundtrack 

and toy tie-ins that felt like a global cultural 

event you could only experience at 

the movies. I hadn’t seen something like 

that in decades. – Daniel Loria 


“From the get-go, [Angel 

Studios] showed a 

willingness to work handin-hand 

with cinemas in 

the release of this film—and 

we can see the impact that 

had at the box office.“ 

BEST THEATRICAL 

MARKETING CAMPAIGN 

OF THE YEAR – 

HONORABLE MENTION: 

SOUND OF FREEDOM 

(Angel Studios) 

We need to single out the grassroots 

marketing campaign for something 

like Sound of Freedom, a title none of us 

expected to hit the way it did and ended 

up cracking the top 10 domestically. 

This movie came out of nowhere, released 

over a crowded July 4 weekend, and broke 

out through word of mouth and 

the support of independent theater 

owners. Hometown exhibitors were crucial 

to this film’s success. It’s an essential 

lesson for the rest of the industry: instead 

of alienating independent cinema owners 

and making their lives impossible, if you 

reach out and work with them—give 

them everything they need to make your 

film a success—they will work as hard as 

they can to make sure the film succeeds. 

– Daniel Loria 

BIGGEST BOX OFFICE 

SURPRISE OF THE YEAR: 


(Angel Studios) 

We first heard about Sound of Freedom 

at CinemaCon, when they played the 

trailer at one of the luncheons and 

made the risky decision to begin rolling 

it out over the Fourth of July weekend. 

From the get-go, [Angel Studios] showed a 

willingness to work hand-in-hand 

with cinemas in the release of this film— 

and we can see the impact that had at 

the box office. – Rebecca Pahle 


55



SURPRISE OF THE YEAR – 

HONORABLE MENTION: 

TAYLOR SWIFT: THE 

ERAS TOUR 

(AMC Distribution) 

It sounds weird that a Taylor Swift concert 

movie would be considered a surprise at 

the box office, but this movie was nowhere 

near the schedule at the start of the year. 

This movie ended up on the schedule after 

Hollywood’s two labor strikes derailed 

the momentum we had built over the 

summer, filling a void left by films that 

left the schedule, like Sony’s Kraven the 

Hunter and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, 

and Warner Bros.’ Dune Part Two. That is 

when AMC came in with a groundbreaking 

new partnership with Taylor Swift herself 

to put this movie out in theaters…This 

happened because exhibition put in the 

effort to make it happen, building on lessons 

learned during those hard pandemic 

years. When you cannot rely on studios to 

put out movies, you need to find a way to 

rely on yourself to make movie theaters a 

destination. – Daniel Loria 

THEATRICAL DISTRIBUTOR 

OF THE YEAR: UNIVERSAL 

Universal kicked off the year with sleeper 

hit M3gan and kept finding ways to overperform 

throughout the year, including 

with new-to-film properties like Fight 

Night at Freddy’s. They did a tremendous 

job with their half of the Barbenheimer 

phenomenon. A movie like Oppenheimer 

is a much tougher marketing lift than 

Barbie, which comes with a built-in marketing 

hook. – Rebecca Pahle 

The fact that a movie like Oppenheimer 

can gross $326 million domestically is 

something that we have to highlight. You 

just don’t see that in today’s industry: a 

dialogue-driven three-hour-long drama 

set in the 1940s, essentially a movie about 

a group of guys in lab coats talking about 

science in the desert. This movie made 

nearly a billion dollars worldwide thanks 

to Universal’s support. – Daniel Loria 


“What I like about Angel 

Studios is that they’re not 

distracted by producing 

crossover hits with each 

film; it’s about activating 

and engaging the sizable 

audience base their films 

already have.” 

The partnership with Illumination has 

to be one of the best business deals that 

Universal has ever made. The Super Mario 

Bros. Movie was a huge hit. They also did 

very well by Christopher Nolan…it’s bold 

that they went forward with that movie 

and gave it an extensive summer marketing 

campaign. It is not something many 

other studios would have done, even for a 

filmmaker with the recognizance factor of 

Christopher Nolan. The movie benefited 

from it, and so did everyone else around 

its release. – Russ Fischer 

THEATRICAL DISTRIBUTOR 

OF THE YEAR – HONORABLE 

MENTION: ANGEL STUDIOS 

This was the year Angel Studios entered 

the mainstream. They are now a real 

presence at the multiplex…We are giving 

this accolade based on the strength of 

Sound of Freedom at the box office, along 

with its innovative release model in counterprogramming 

the title over the July 4 

weekend with a pay-it-forward campaign… 

but that doesn’t mean we expect all their 

future releases to hit that high water 

mark. What I like about Angel Studios is 

that they’re not distracted by producing 

crossover hits with each film; it’s about 

activating and engaging the sizable audience 

base their films already have. That 

has always been the failed promise of 

faith-based films at the box office, their 

inability to reach their intended audience—regardless 

of their crossover potential. 

We may look back at Sound of Freedom 

as an outlier, but I don’t think Angel 

Studios is trying to replicate that crossover 

success with all their releases. As long 

as they can consistently appeal to their 

audience base, Angel Studios will continue 

playing an essential role for movie theaters 

nationwide. – Daniel Loria 


DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE 

YEAR: THE MARVELS 

(Disney) 

I know there are all sorts of caveats and 

asterisks we can bring in whenever we 

talk about a box office disappointment of 

this scale, but we cannot possibly see the 

performance of The Marvels as anything 

other than disastrous. To go from Captain 

Marvel being a $1.1 billion movie to The 

Marvels grossing $200 million worldwide, 

that’s an alarm that goes beyond the 

issues we’re experiencing with superhero 

movies at the box office. Disney isn’t 

immune to this trend; we’re seeing signs 

of it with Warner Bros.’ lame-duck DCEU, 

and I have some concerns about how 

this may play out with Sony’s upcoming 

Spider-Man-Without-Spider-Man superhero 

movies in 2024. – Daniel Loria 


57


THE TEN HIGHEST- 

GROSSING MOVIES 

AT THE BOX OFFICE: 

DOMESTIC 

Theatrical exhibition crossed another critical milestone in its 

quest to recover the ground lost at the box office during the 

Covid-19 pandemic, crossing $8 billion in earnings by the end 

of 2023. A summer movie season on par with pre-pandemic box 

office receipts was crucial in mitigating a soft release schedule 

in the back half of the year caused by Hollywood’s labor strikes. 

As a result, none of this year’s top ten films at the domestic box 

office were released after July. 

1 

BARBIE 

Studio: Warner Bros. 

Release Date: July 21 

Total (2023): $636.2M 

Opening Weekend: $162.0M 

2023 will go down in cinema history as 

the Year of Barbie. Not only did Greta 

Gerwig’s adaptation of Mattel’s flagship 

toy line take the year’s top spot at the box 

office, both domestically and globally, 

but it became a major cultural touchpoint, 

with audiences responding to the 

meme-ability of Barbie and the threehour 

biopic Oppenheimer sharing the 

same release date. 

Barbie distributor Warner Bros. and the 

exhibition community were on the ball 

here, working together well in advance 

of the film’s July release to plan an 

eye-catching, innovative, and positively 

ubiquitous marketing campaign that was 

so wide-ranging—there seemingly wasn’t a 

company that didn’t want to partner with 

Mattel and Warner Bros. for some branded 

Barbie merch–that the SAG-AFTRA/ 

AMPTP strike cutting off the stars’ media 

appearances in Barbie’s final pre-release 

stretch didn’t seem to make much of a 

negative impact on box office. With Barbie, 

the conversation was about not just the 

movie but also moviegoing, with cinemas 

offering special events and merchandise 

and audiences eating up the opportunity 

to dress in all-pink for screenings. 

Five months after its initial release, 

Barbie had yet to leave theaters entirely 

(as of December 29, the film was still 

screening at 16 locations). Week-to-week 

drops throughout the film’s run were 

incredibly modest, with only two weekends 

between the film’s July 21 debut 

and the end of the year seeing drops 

steeper than -60 percent. Along the way, 

Barbie broke–or, with other films in the 

marketplace, helped to break—a spate 

of industry records, among them the 

record for the highest-grossing summer 

weekend on record; the second highest-grossing 

weekend, regardless of 

season, for top Canadian exhibitor 

Cineplex; the best week in terms of admission 

revenue in AMC’s 103-year history, 

and the highest-grossing domestic earner 

for studio Warner Bros., an accolade it 

earned after only a month in cinemas. 


2 

THE SUPER MARIO BROS. 

MOVIE 

Studio: Universal Pictures 

Release Date: April 5 

Domestic Total (2023): $574.9M 

Domestic Opening Weekend: $146.3M 

For decades following the 1993 release of 

Super Mario Bros., the first theatrically 

released feature based on a video game, 

the “video game adaptation” sub-genre 

of cinema seemed positively cursed, with 

one video game franchise after another– 

Assassin’s Creed, Mortal Kombat, Prince 

of Persia, Doom, Street Fighter, Warcraft, 

and more–failing to inspire an unequivocal 

box office smash. The tides started to 

change in recent years with films such as 

Pokémon Detective Pikachu (2019), Sonic 

the Hedgehog (2020) and its 2022 sequel, 

and 2022’s Uncharted, which–in the case 

of the final three films–helped the industry 

in its still-ongoing recovery from the 

Covid-19 pandemic. 

Then came The Super Mario Bros. 

Movie, which snagged the record for 

the highest opening for a video game 

adaptation (more than doubling prior 

record-holder Sonic the Hedgehog 2)—and 

then, less than a week later, became the 

highest-grossing video game adaptation 

ever. Its $375.6 million global opening 

also gave Universal the largest-ever 

opening for an animated film, pushing 

2019’s Frozen II out of the top spot. It took 

four weekends for The Super Mario Bros. 

Movie to become 2023’s first billion-dollar 

global grosser. The film currently sits as 

Universal’s third highest-grossing domestic 

release of all time, behind only the 

2015 pair of Jurassic World and Furious 7. 


59


3 

SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE 

SPIDER-VERSE 

Studios: Sony, Columbia Pictures 

Release Date: June 2 



Directed by Joaquim Dos 

Santos, Kemp Powers, and 

Justin K. Thompson and 

based on the Marvel comic 

books, the film opened to 

$120.6 million, over three 

times the opening of its 

2018 predecessor. 

4 

GUARDIANS OF THE 

GALAXY VOL. 3 

Studios: Walt Disney Studios, Marvel Studios 

Release Date: May 5 



Following 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the 

Spider-Verse ($190.2M domestic/$384.2M 

global), Miles Morales returned for 

the next chapter of the Oscar-winning 

Spider-Verse saga. Directed by Joaquim 

Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin 

K. Thompson and based on the Marvel 

comic books, the film opened to $120.6 

million, over three times the opening of 

its 2018 predecessor. In its sophomore 

frame, the sequel surpassed the original’s 

$190.1 million final total. The conclusion 

of the trilogy, Spider-Man: Beyond the 

Spider-Verse, is currently in production. 

Marvel has had its share of ups and 

downs this year, with Guardians of the 

Galaxy Vol. 3 ending the James Gunndirected 

trilogy on a high note. The film’s 

domestic take of $358.9 million only saw 

a slight diminishing return compared to 

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which finished 

its domestic run in 2017 with $389.8 

million. Nearly six years after the second 

installment, the Guardians gang returned 

for a final hurrah in a mission leading 

to the end of the space-faring superhero 

team as we know them (especially now 

that James Gunn is co-CEO of rival DC 

Studios). Not counting the Guardians’ 

various appearances in other MCU films, 

the Guardians trilogy has earned over 

$1 billion domestically and $2.4 billion 

worldwide. 


5 

OPPENHEIMER 

Studio: Universal Pictures 




In the second half of summer 2023’s 

most significant double act, Christopher 

Nolan’s Oppenheimer proved the perfect 

counterprogrammer against Warner 

Bros.’ crowd-pleasing behemoth Barbie. 

The Barbenheimer phenomenon fueled 

North America’s fourth-largest box office 

weekend in history, with AMC Theatres, 

Cinemark, and Cineplex all reporting July 

21-23 as their biggest summer box office 

weekend ever. AMC also reported that 

Saturday the 22nd marked the company’s 

fifth-best single-day ticket revenue in 

its history and their second-best concessions 

revenue day, behind only the 

first Saturday in theaters for Avengers: 

Endgame. According to The Boxoffice 

Company’s Showtimes Dashboard, Barbie 

and Oppenheimer combined to claim 45 

percent of all showtimes in the United 

States over opening weekend—a particular 

feat considering Oppenheimer’s threehour 

running time. 

Before Barbenheimer’s historic bow, 

NATO projected over 200K moviegoers 

were set to enjoy the films as a same-day 

double feature over its opening weekend. 

Oppenheimer opened to an Imax record of 

26.2 percent of the domestic box office from 

411 screens. The figure marked a $51,000 

per screen average for the film at Imax 

locations in the United States and Canada. 

Celluloid screenings were also in high 

demand for Oppenheimer, with 140 opening-weekend 

screens showing the title in 

70mm, including 25 in Imax 70mm. Six percent 

of the film’s domestic opening weekend 

came from those 140 screens, with 2 

percent of the total domestic gross coming 

from the 25 Imax 70mm screens alone. The 

film also ranks as the third highest-grossing 

domestic film of Christopher Nolan’s 

career, after The Dark Knight ($534.9M) and 

The Dark Knight Rises ($448.1M). 

6 

THE LITTLE MERMAID 

Studio: Walt Disney Studios 

Release Date: May 26 



2019 remains the banner year as far 

as Disney’s recent spate of remakes is 

concerned, with both The Lion King and 

Aladdin charting in the domestic top ten, 

The Lion King in second place behind 

fellow Disney release Avengers: Endgame. 

Between The Lion King and Aladdin, the 

domestic theatrical run of The Little 

Mermaid bears more in common with the 

latter: a sub-$100 million opening ($91.5M 

in the case of Aladdin, slightly less than 

Mermaid’s lower-than-expectations 

$95.5M) that rode impressive holds to a 

spot in the yearly top ten. 

As an indicator that the industry has 

not yet returned to its pre-pandemic 

heights, The Little Mermaid topped out 

with just under $300M domestically, 

compared to Aladdin’s eventual $355.5 

million take. One thing in Mermaid’s 

corner was the relative lack of films 

geared toward young female audiences 

between its late May release and the July 

21 bow of Barbie; Mermaid’s main competition 

for that demographic was Disney/ 

Pixar’s Elemental, which similarly had a 

modest debut followed by strong holds, 

and DreamWorks/Sony’s Ruby Gillman: 

Teenage Kraken, which fizzled at the box 

office due in part to a practically non-existent 

marketing campaign. 


61


7 

AVATAR: THE WAY OF 

WATER (2022) 

Studios: Walt Disney, 20th Century Studios 

Release Date: December 16, 2022 

Domestic Total: $684.0M 

Domestic Total (2023 Only): $283.0M 

Domestic Opening Weekend (2022): 

$134.1M 

it again showed the all-audience appeal 

Cameron’s career of blockbusters has 

been known for. The lack of competition 

entering 2023 contributed to a healthy 

runway for the sequel, which delivered 

over 41 percent of its total domestic gross 

within the first few months of the year. 

8 

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: 

QUANTUMANIA 

Studios: Walt Disney Studios, Marvel Studios 

Release Date: June 15 



Of the three MCU movies to hit theaters in 

2023, the third film in the Ant-Man trilogy 

stands firmly in the middle both in terms 

of release date and domestic haul–while 

falling well short of Guardians of the 

Galaxy Vol. 3’s $358.9M domestic take, it 

far surpassed the $84.4 million earned in 

2023 by November release The Marvels. 

Though outgrossing the $180.2 million 

domestic haul of the first Ant-Man film 

(released in 2015), Quantumania ended 

the year neck-and-neck with the second 

film in the trilogy, 2018’s Ant-Man and the 

Wasp ($216.6M). By the end of 2023, the 

main story surrounding Quantumania 

was not its box office, but the criminal 

trial of Jonathan Majors, who had his 

MCU theatrical debut in Quantumania as 

the villainous Kang—and who has since 

been let go from the franchise. 

After a thirteen-year wait since the original 

film’s phenomenal $749.8 million 

initial domestic run, James Cameron 

finally delivered the first of his planned 

Avatar sequels at the tail end of 2022. It 

still holds the sixth biggest December 

opening in history—and the largest 

outside of the Marvel and Star Wars 

franchises. Not adhering to the typical 

front-loaded nature of most sequels, The 

Way of Water posted strong holds over 

the Christmas and New Year’s corridor as 

The lack of competition 

entering 2023 contributed 

to a healthy runway for the 

sequel, which delivered 

over 41 percent of its total 

domestic gross within the 

first few months of the year. 


9 

JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 

Studio: Lionsgate 

Release Date: March 24 



It’s been years since the heyday of 

Lionsgate—when, between the years of 

2008 and 2015, the studio made bank with 

the Twilight and Hunger Games franchises, 

landing multiple films in year-end 

domestic top ten lists and essentially 

functioning as another major studio 

alongside the more storied likes of Warner 

Bros., Universal, and Sony. More recently, 

the studio has struggled to launch a marquee 

franchise–with the one exception 

being John Wick, a consistent earner for 

Lionsgate and, with its fourth installment, 

the source of its one entry in the yearly 

domestic top ten. Following its March 

release, John Wick: Chapter 4 became the 

highest opener in the franchise and its 

highest domestic and global earner. 

Worth noting, Lionsgate’s Hunger 

Games franchise had something of a 

comeback in 2023, with prequel/spinoff 

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of 

Songbirds & Snakes riding respectable 

holds to a domestic gross of nearly $160 

million by the end of 2023, making it the 

14th-highest domestic earner of the year. 

Following its March release, 

John Wick: Chapter 4 became 

the highest opener in the 

franchise and its highest 

domestic and global earner. 

10 


Studio: Angel Studios 




If Barbie is the biggest earner of 2023, 

Sound of Freedom is the biggest surprise. 

This low-budget drama opened over a 

competitive July 4 weekend, squaring up 

against Disney’s Indiana Jones and the Dial 

of Destiny with around 2,000 fewer screens. 

Sound of Freedom didn’t beat Indy straight 

off—it came in at a still surprisingly high 

#4 spot on its opening weekend, with Dial 

of Destiny at number one–but throughout 

the smaller film’s run it managed to 

outgross both Indiana Jones and the Dial 

of Destiny and Mission: Impossible - Dead 

Reckoning Part One domestically, sneaking 

past the juggernaut success of Taylor 

Swift’s Eras Tour concert film to snag the 

year’s #10 spot. 

Sound of Freedom’s success can be 

attributed in large part to distributor Angel 

Studios’ ability to mobilize the faith-based 

crowd, with which it already enjoyed a 

strong relationship due to previous work 

on 2023’s His Only Son and the blockbuster 

web series “The Chosen,” among other 

projects. Piloted with His Only Son, Angel 

Studios’ pay-it-forward system—where 

moviegoers are encouraged to buy a ticket 

for someone else to see the film—took off 

with Sound of Freedom, generating both 

sales and headlines within and outside 

trade entertainment outlets. 


63


THE TEN HIGHEST- 

GROSSING MOVIES 

AT THE BOX OFFICE: 

GLOBAL 

2023 left us with a transitional year at 

the global box office. The continued 

success of established franchises 

like Disney’s Marvel Cinematic 

Universe, Universal’s Fast series, 

and Paramount’s Mission: Impossible 

films was balanced by the dominance 

of new or relaunched IP like Warner 

Bros.’ Barbie and Universal’s The 

Super Mario Bros. Movie. The year’s 

highlight came with Universal’s release 

of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, 

which grossed an astounding $950 

million worldwide. 


1 

BARBIE 


International Total (2023): $809.4M 

Global Total (2023): $1.44B 

The world was in love with Barbie in 2023, 

with the Warner Bros. release notching 

the top spot on year-end lists in the U.K., 

Argentina, Spain, Italy, Poland, Australia, 

and Brazil. Barbie’s box office run made 

it Warner Bros.’ highest-grossing movie of 

all time globally and third highest-grossing 

both in all international markets 

combined and specifically in European 

markets; it was also the highest-grossing 

Warner Bros. title in a whopping 44 

international markets, including the 

U.K., Italy, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, 

Argentina, and Poland. Moving into 2024, 

Barbie ranks 14 on the list of top lifetime 

worldwide earners. 

2 

THE SUPER MARIO BROS. 

MOVIE 


International Total (2023): $787M 

Global Total (2023): $1.36B 

The Super Mario Bros. is the second-highest-grossing 

film of 2023 on both the 

domestic and international charts, with 

the animated video game adaptation outperforming 

Barbie in several key international 

markets, including Mexico, France 

(where it ranked second, behind the 

December 2022 release Avatar: The Way of 

Water), and Japan—where it became the 

biggest Universal animation release of all 

time. Other records include the biggest 

global opening for an animated film of all 

time (Mario’s $375.6M passing Frozen II’s 

$358M), the biggest opening for animation 

studio Illumination of all time (no small 

feat, given the worldwide popularity of the 

Minions franchise), and the biggest opening 

of all time for a video game adaptation. 

In its first weekend alone–the weekend 

ending April 9, when it was released in 

North America and 70 international markets—the 

film’s international haul passed 

the total international grosses of several 

recent animated titles, including Encanto, 

Lightyear, and DC League of Super-Pets. 

Other records include the 

biggest global opening for 

an animated film of all time 

(Mario’s $375.6M passing 

Frozen II’s $358M), the biggest 

opening for animation studio 

Illumination of all time. 


65


The partnership with 

Illumination has to be one 

of the best business deals 

that Universal has ever 

made. The Super Mario 

Bros. Movie was a huge hit. 

3 

OPPENHEIMER 

Domestic Total (2023): $326M 


Global Total (2023): $952M 

Barbie and The Super Mario Bros. Movie 

are 2023’s top two earners of the year, 

both domestically and globally; it’s only 

at spot number three that the two lists 

start to diverge, with Christopher Nolan’s 

Oppenheimer coming in at number three 

on the global list and number five domestically. 

Globally, Nolan’s latest came in at just 

under a billion dollars–no small feat for a 

three-hour-long, dialogue-heavy biopic 

based on a historical figure. Oppenheimer 

took in 65.7 percent of its global cume 

from international markets, with the U.K. , 

China, Germany, France, and Italy as the 

film’s top five non-domestic markets. 

Globally, as well as domestically, premium 

formats helped drive Oppenheimer’s 

success; Imax reports that the film was its 

highest global earner of the year, its $185M 

cume in the format going a long way to 

pushing Imax over the edge to achieve 

only the third $1B year in the company’s 

history. Oppenheimer’s $35M first-weekend 

earnings on 740 Imax screens worldwide 

represents Imax’s biggest share ever of a 

film’s global opening weekend box office, 

with 20 percent of total receipts. In looking 

at top lifetime grosses for movies rated R by 

the MPA, Oppenheimer holds the second 

spot globally, just behind 2019’s Joker. 

4 

GUARDIANS OF THE 

GALAXY VOL. 3 



Global Total (2023): $845.5M 

The final volume of James Gunn’s trilogy 

was the Marvel box office highlight of 

2023, generating nearly $225 million 

more internationally than Marvel 

Studios’ Q1 release, Ant-Man and the 

Wasp: Quantumania, which finished at 

$261.5 million internationally and $476 

million globally (and number ten on 

this list.) The third outing of the rag-tag 

Guardians team brought in more internationally 

than its immediate predecessor, 

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 ($473.9M). 

It was just over $18 million shy of the 

second volume’s global total. 

5 

FAST X 




The tenth film in the Fast & Furious saga, 

not counting the 2019 spinoff Fast & 

Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, continued 

the franchise’s trend of international 

success, achieving 79.3 percent of its total 

gross overseas. Although the film overall 

didn’t find as much box office success as 

its predecessor, F9 ($726.2M worldwide), 

it did surpass the last film’s international 

take by over 3 percent. 


6 

SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS 

THE SPIDER-VERSE 




Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp 

Powers, and Justin K. Thompson, Spider- 

Man: Across the Spider-Verse opened to 

$88.1 million internationally, earning 55 

percent of its predecessor’s global total 

from the break. At the time of release, 

Imax reported a $20M debut and the 

second-biggest global animated opening 

of all time, placing it behind April’s The 

Super Mario Bros. Movie, which opened to 

$21.6M in the premium format. 

In China, 16.5 percent of the film’s 

opening weekend box office came from 

Imax screens, representing only 1 percent 

of the country’s overall screen count. In 

a press release, Imax’s CEO Rich Gelfond 

said, “Animation has emerged as a powerful 

engine of growth for our global box 

office, and we are focused on capitalizing 

on this opportunity as filmmakers continue 

to raise the bar for the genre.” 

In China, 16.5 percent of 

the film’s opening weekend 

box office came from Imax 

screens, representing only 

1 percent of the country’s 

overall screen count. 


67


8 

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - 

DEAD RECKONING PART 

ONE 




7 

THE LITTLE MERMAID 

The seventh entry in Paramount’s 

long-running action franchise, Mission: 

Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part 

One, led the box office on its opening 

weekend with a global opening of $235M. 

Expectations for the title were high 

given the performance of Tom Cruise’s 

2022 release Top Gun: Maverick (which 

wisely featured the trailer for the Mission: 

Impossible sequel) and the global high 

mark for the franchise’s previous installment, 

2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout 

($791.6M). 

Although the title arrived slightly 

below forecasting, Mission: Impossible — 

Dead Reckoning Part One still managed 

to achieve the biggest opening for the 

franchise with an international debut of 

$155 million and a five-day domestic total 

of $80 million. Imax also reported its best 

global opening ever for the Cruise franchise, 

with $25 million worldwide. The 

Mission: Impossible franchise has generated 

over $4.1 billion globally, with the 

next chapter expected to arrive in 2025. 




Disney’s latest live-action remake of an 

animated classic opened to $68 million 

internationally in late May, claiming the 

number one spot over its debut week in 

France, Italy, Spain, the U.K., Australia, 

and Mexico; two weeks later, it would 

open at #1 in Japan, where it would 

eventually become the highest-grossing 

Disney release of the year. Internationally, 

as in the North American market, the film 

on balance enjoyed modest week-on-week 

holds, notching second-week drops of 

under -25 percent in key markets such as 

the U.K., Germany, and Brazil. 

Disney’s latest live-action 

remake of an animated 

classic opened to $68 million 

internationally in late May, 

claiming the number one 

spot over its debut week 

in France, Italy, Spain, the 

U.K., Australia, and Mexico. 


9 

ELEMENTAL 




Despite an initially low opening, 

Elemental went on to strong holds at the 

box office last summer. The 27th animated 

feature film from Pixar was directed 

by Peter Sohn, who previously helmed 

Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur ($332.2M 

global). Internationally, Elemental opened 

with just $15 million overseas and $44.5 

million globally, which was -48 percent 

below the opening of Lightyear ($85.6M)— 

the first post-Covid theatrical Disney/ 

Pixar release and one that struggled to 

find a theatrical audience. Strong word 

of mouth and strong holdovers would 

eventually lead to a global total more than 

two times that of Lightyear’s take and the 

biggest global figure for a Pixar film since 

2019’s Toy Story 4. 

Despite being the lowestgrossing 

entry in the Ant-Man 

series, Quantumania stands out 

as one of the few bright spots 

of a dismal year for superhero 

films at the box office. 

10 

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: 

QUANTUMANIA 



Global Total (2023): $476M 

Rounding out the global top ten of 2023 at 

the box office, Disney’s third stand-alone 

entry featuring Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man 

superhero finished its run with $476 

million in worldwide ticket sales. Despite 

being the lowest-grossing entry in the 

Ant-Man series, Quantumania stands 

out as one of the few bright spots of a 

dismal year for superhero films at the 

box office. China led the way in overseas 

markets with a $39 million run, more 

than 75 percent below the performance of 

2018’s Ant-Man and the Wasp in the same 

market. The film fared better in markets 

like the U.K. and Mexico, where it saw 

gradual improvement over the results of 

its immediate predecessor. 


69

On Screen EVENT CINEMA CALENDAR 

EVENT CINEMA 

CALENDAR 

Updated through January 10, 2024 

Contact distributors for latest listings 

STEEL MAGNOLIAS 35TH 

ANNIVERSARY - FATHOM’S BIG 

SCREEN CLASSICS 20 

May 5, May 8 

Genre: Classics 

THE MET LIVE IN HD: MADAMA 

BUTTERFLY ENCORE 

May 11, May 15 

Genre: Performing Arts 

THE MUPPET MOVIE 45TH 

ANNIVERSARY: 2024 FATHOM’S 

BIG SCREEN CLASSICS BONUS 

EVENT 

Jun. 2, Jun. 3 


SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER 

& UNCUT 25TH ANNIVERSARY - 

FATHOM’S BIG SCREEN CLASSICS 

2024 

Jun. 23, Jun. 26 


Blazing Saddles 50th Anniversary 

THE NEVERENDING STORY 40TH 


SCREEN CLASSICS 2024 

Jul. 21, Jul. 22 


FATHOM EVENTS 

fathomevents.com 

855-473-4612 

THE CHOSEN: SEASON 4 

EPISODES 1-3 

Feb. 1 - Feb. 14 

Genre: Faith/Inspirational 

MY FAIR LADY 60TH 



Feb. 4, Feb. 5 



EPISODES 4-6 

Feb. 15 - Feb. 28 



EPISODES 7-8 

Feb. 29 - Mar. 7 


LABYRINTH - FATHOM’S BIG 


Mar. 6, Mar. 10 


THE MET LIVE IN HD: LA FORZA 

DEL DESTINO 

Mar. 9, Mar. 13 


FORTY-SEVEN DAYS WITH JESUS 

Mar. 11, Mar. 12, Mar. 14 


IRENA’S VOW 

Mar. 18, Mar. 19 


THE ARK AND THE DARKNESS 

Mar. 20, Mar. 21 


THE MET LIVE IN HD: ROMÉO ET 

JULIETTE ENCORE 

Mar. 23, Mar. 27 


GONE WITH THE WIND 85TH 



Apr. 7, Apr. 8, Apr. 10 


THE MET LIVE IN HD: LA RONDINE 

ENCORE 

Apr. 20, Apr. 24 


REAR WINDOW 70TH 



Aug. 25, Aug. 28 


BLAZING SADDLES 50TH 



Sept. 15, Sept. 18 


MEAN GIRLS 20TH ANNIVERSARY 

- FATHOM’S BIG SCREEN 

CLASSICS 2024 

Oct. 3, Oct. 6 


THE FIFTH ELEMENT - FATHOM’S 

BIG SCREEN CLASSICS 2024 

Nov. 17, Nov. 20 



WHITE CHRISTMAS 70TH 



Dec. 15, Dec. 16 


BIBLE CINEMA ROADSHOW: THE 

7 CHURCHES OF REVELATION: 

TIMES OF DECEPTION 

Mar. 17 


THE MET: LIVE IN HD 2023-24 

SEASON: LA FORZA DEL DESTINO 

(U.K.) 

Mar. 9 


THE MET: LIVE IN HD 2023-2024 

SEASON: MADAMA BUTTERFLY 

(U.K.) 

May 11 


ICONIC RELEASING 

iconicreleasing.com 

AXCN: PAPRIKA SATOSHI KON 

FEST 

Feb. 7-11 

Genre: Anime 

UFC 299: O’MALLEY VS. VERA 2 

Mar. 9 

Genre: Live Sports 

BIBLE CINEMA ROADSHOW: THE 

7 CHURCHES OF REVELATION: 

TIMES OF FIRE 

Mar. 10 


THE PRANK 

Mar. 15 

Genre: Comedy 

UNTITLED ICONIC MUSIC EVENT 

Mar. 21 

Genre: Music 

UNTITLED NICOLE RICHIE FILM 

Apr. 12 

UFC 300 

Apr. 13 

Genre: Live Sports 

SILENT SYNCED: SUNRISE: 

A SONG OF TWO HUMANS 

May 2024 


TRAFALGAR RELEASING 

trafalgar-releasing.com 

THE ROYAL BALLET 2023-24: 

MANON (U.K./INT’L) 

Feb. 7 



SEASON: ROMÉO ET JULIETTE 

(U.K.) 

Mar. 23 


THE ROYAL OPERA 2023-24: 

MADAMA BUTTERFLY (U.K./INT’L) 

Mar. 26 



MACMILLAN CELEBRATED (U.K.) 

Apr. 9 



SEASON: LA RONDINE (U.K.) 

Apr. 20 



CARMEN 

May 1 



THE WINTER’S TALE (U.K.) 

May 22 


SADLER’S WELLS AND UNIVERSAL 

MUSIC UK: MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE 

(U.K.) 

May 30 



ANDREA CHÉNIER (U.K./INT’L) 

Jun. 11 


your complete cinema solution 


71

on screen BOOKING GUIDE 

BOOKING 

GUIDE 

Release calendar for theatrical 

distribution in North America 

Release dates are updated through January 10, 2024. 

Please consult distributors to confirm latest listings. 

20TH CENTURY STUDIOS 

310-369-1000 

212-556-2400 

THE FIRST OMEN 

Fri, 4/5/24 WIDE 

Stars: Nell Tiger Free, 

Tawfeek Barhom 

Director: Arkasha Stevenson 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Hor 

KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF 

THE APES 

Fri, 5/24/24 WIDE 

Stars: Owen Teague, Freya Allan 

Director: Wes Ball 

Rating: NR 

Genre: SF 

UNTITLED ALIEN EVENT MOVIE 

Fri, 8/16/24 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: SF 

THE AMATEUR 

Fri, 11/8/24 WIDE 

Stars: Rachel Brosnahan, 

Caitríona Balfe 

Director: James Hawes 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act/Thr 

A24 

646-568-6015 

LOVE LIES BLEEDING 


Stars: Kristen Stewart, Katy O’Brian 

Director: Rose Glass 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Rom/Thr 

CIVIL WAR 

Fri, 4/26/24 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Thr 

Specs: Dolby Vis/Atmos 

AMAZON MGM 

310-724-5678 

Ask for Distribution 

RICKY STANICKY 

Thurs, 3/7/24 LTD 

Stars: Zac Efron, Jermaine Fowler 

Director: Peter Farrelly 

Rating: R 

Genre: Com 

CHALLENGERS 

Fri, 4/26/24 WIDE 

Stars: Zendaya, Josh O’Connor 

Director: Luca Guadagnino 

Rating: R 

Genre: Dra 

Specs: Dolby Atmos 

FLINT STRONG 


Stars: Ryan Destiny, 

Brian Tyree Henry 

Director: Rachel Morrison 

Rating: PG-13 

Genre: Dra 

RED ONE 

Fri, 11/15/24 WIDE 

Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans 

Director: Jake Kasdan 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act/Adv/Com/Fam 

ANGEL STUDIOS 

CABRINI 

Fri, 3/8/24 LTD 

Stars: Cristiana Dell’Anna, 

David Morse 

Director: Alejandro Monteverde 

Rating: PG-13 

Genre: Dra 

BRAINSTORM MEDIA 

MARMALADE 

Fri, 2/9/24 LTD 

Stars: Joe Keery, Camila Morrone 

Director: Keir O’Donnell 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Thr/Rom 

AVATAR 3 

Fri, 12/19/25 WIDE 

Director: James Cameron 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act/Fan/SF 

AVATAR 4 

Fri, 12/21/29 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act/Adv/SF 

AVATAR 5 

Fri, 12/19/31 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act/Fan/SF 

KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES 

Fri, 5/24/24 WIDE 


INSIDE OUT 2 

Fri, 6/14/24 WIDE 

BLEECKER STREET 

OUT OF DARKNESS 

Fri, 2/9/24 LTD 

Stars: Safia Oakley-Green, 

Kit Young 

Director: Andrew Cumming 

Rating: R 

Genre: Hor 

DISNEY 

818-560-1000 

Ask for Distribution 

INSIDE OUT 2 

Fri, 6/14/24 WIDE 

Director: Kelsey Mann 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 

UNTITLED DEADPOOL MOVIE 

Fri, 7/26/24 WIDE 

Stars: Ryan Reynolds, 

Hugh Jackman 

Director: Shawn Levy 

Rating: NR 


MUFASA: THE LION KING 

Fri, 12/20/24 WIDE 

Director: Barry Jenkins 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 

CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW 

WORLD 

Fri, 2/14/25 WIDE 

Stars: Anthony Mackie, 

Harrison Ford 

Director: Julius Onah 

Rating: NR 


UNTITLED DISNEY 2025 1 


Rating: NR 

DISNEY’S SNOW WHITE 

Fri, 3/21/25 WIDE 

Stars: Rachel Zegler, Gal Gadot 

Director: Marc Webb 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Fan 

FANTASTIC FOUR 


Director: Matt Shakman 

Rating: NR 



Fri, 5/23/25 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

ELIO 

Fri, 6/13/25 WIDE 

Stars: America Ferrera, 

Jameela Jamil 

Director: Adrian Molina 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 

MOANA 

Fri, 6/27/25 WIDE 

Stars: Dwayne Johnson 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Adv/Mus 

THUNDERBOLTS 

Fri, 7/25/25 WIDE 

Stars: David Harbour, 

Hannah John-Kamen 

Director: Jake Schreier 

Rating: NR 




Rating: NR 

BLADE 

Fri, 11/7/25 WIDE 

Stars: Mahershala Ali 

Rating: NR 


UNTITLED DISNEY ANIMATION 

2025 

Wed, 11/26/25 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 


Fri, 1/16/26 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

UNTITLED MARVEL 2026 1 

Fri, 2/13/26 WIDE 

Rating: NR 


UNTITLED PIXAR 2026 1 


Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 


Fri, 3/27/26 WIDE 

Rating: NR 


Fri, 4/17/26 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

AVENGERS: THE KANG DYNASTY 


Director: Destin Daniel Cretton 

Rating: NR 


UNTITLED STAR WARS 2026 1 

Fri, 5/22/26 WIDE 

Rating: NR 


UNTITLED PIXAR 2026 2 

Fri, 6/19/26 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 


Fri, 7/10/26 WIDE 

Genre: NR 


Fri, 7/24/26 WIDE 

Rating: NR 



73



Fri, 8/14/26 WIDE 

Rating: NR 


Fri, 9/18/26 WIDE 

Rating: NR 


Fri, 11/6/26 WIDE 

Rating: NR 


UNTITLED DISNEY ANIMATION 

2026 

Fri, 11/25/26 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 

UNTITLED STAR WARS 2026 2 

Fri, 12/18/26 WIDE 

Rating: NR 


AVENGERS: SECRET WARS 


Rating: NR 


DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS 

Fri, 2/23/24 WIDE 

UNTITLED STAR WARS 2027 

Fri, 12/17/27 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: SF/Fan 

FOCUS FEATURES 

BACK TO BLACK 

Fri, 5/10/24 LTD 

Stars: Marisa Abela, Jack O’Connell 

Director: Sam Taylor-Johnson 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Dra 

STOPMOTION 

Fri, 2/23/24 LTD 

Stars: Aisling Franciosi, Stella Gonet 

Director: Robert Morgan 

Rating: R 

Genre: Hor 

IMAGINARY 


Stars: DeWanda Wise, Betty Buckley 

Director: Jeff Wadlow 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Hor 

LISA FRANKENSTEIN 


Stars: Kathryn Newton, Cole Sprouse 

Director: Zelda Williams 

Rating: PG-13 

Genre: Hor/Com 

DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS 

Fri, 2/23/24 WIDE 

Stars: Margaret Qualley, 

Geraldine Viswanathan 

Director: Ethan Coen 

Rating: R 

Genre: Com 

THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF 

MAGICAL NEGROES 

Fri, 3/22/24 WIDE 

Stars: Justice Smith, David Alan Grier 

Director: Kobi Libii 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Com 

THE BIKERIDERS 

Fri, 6/21/24 WIDE 

Stars: Boyd Holbrook, Tom Hardy 

Director: Jeff Nichols 

Rating: R 

Genre: Dra 

TOUCH 

Fri, 7/12/24 LTD 

Stars: Egill Ólafsson, Kōki 

Director: Baltasar Kormákur 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Rom/Dra 

NOSFERATU 

Fri, 12/25/24 WIDE 

Stars: Bill Skarsgård, Nicholas Hoult 

Director: Robert Eggers 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Hor/Com 

IFC FILMS 

bookings@ifcfilms.com 

THE TASTE OF THINGS 

Fri, 2/9/24 LTD 

Stars: Juliette Binoche, 

Benoît Magimel 

Director: Tran Anh Hung 

Rating: PG-13 

Genre: Rom 

LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL 

Fri, 3/22/24 LTD 

Stars: David Dastmalchian, 

Laura Gordon 

Directors: Cameron Cairns, 

Colin Cairns 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Hor 

LIONSGATE 

310-309-8400 

SCRAMBLED 

Fri, 2/2/24 LTD 

Stars: Leah McKendrick, Ego Nwodim 

Director: Leah McKendrick 

Rating: R 

Genre: Com/Dra 

FLOAT 

Fri, 2/9/24 LTD 

Stars: Andrea Bang, Robbie Amell 

Director: Sherren Lee 

Rating: PG-13 

Genre: Rom 

ORDINARY ANGELS 

Fri, 2/23/24 WIDE 

Stars: Hilary Swank, Alan Ritchson 

Director: Jon Gunn 

Rating: PG 

Genre: Rom, Dra 

ARTHUR THE KING 

Fri, 3/15/24 WIDE 

Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Simu Liu 

Director: Simon Cellan Jones 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Adv 

THE MINISTRY OF 

UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE 

Fri, 4/19/24 WIDE 

Stars: Henry Cavill, Eiza González 

Director: Guy Ritchie 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act/Com 

UNSUNG HERO 

Fri, 4/26/24 WIDE 

Stars: Joel Smallbone, Daisy Betts 

Directors: Richard Ramsey, 

Joel Smallbone 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Dra 

THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 1 

Fri, 5/17/24 WIDE 

Stars: Madelaine Petsch, 

Froy Gutierrez 

Director: Renny Harlin 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Hor 


BALLERINA 


Stars: Ana de Armas, 

Anjelica Huston 

Director: Len Wiseman 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act 

BORDERLANDS 


Stars: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart 

Director: Eli Roth 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act/SF 

UNTITLED SAW XI 

Fri, 9/27/24 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Hor 

WHITE BIRD: A WONDER STORY 

Fri, 10/4/24 WIDE 

Stars: Bryce Gheisar, Ariella Glaser 

Director: Marc Forster 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Dra/Fam 

THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT 

EVER 

Fri, 11/15/24 WIDE 

Director: Dallas Jenkins 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Fam/Dra 

MAGNOLIA PICTURES 

212-379-9704 

Neal Block: nblock@magpictures.com 

THE PROMISED LAND 

Fri, 2/2/24 LTD 

Stars: Mads Mikkelsen, 

Amanda Collin 

Director: Nikolaj Arcel 

Rating: R 

Genre: Dra 

DO NOT EXPECT TOO MUCH 

FROM THE END OF THE WORLD 

Fri, 3/22/24 LTD 

Stars: Ilinca Manolache, 

Ovidiu Pîrsan 

Director: Radu Jude 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Com 

MUSIC BOX FILMS 

GLITTER & DOOM 

Fri, 3/8/24 LTD 

Stars: Alex Diaz, Alan Cammish 

Director: Tom Gustafson 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Rom 

NOVA VENTO 

ENTERTAINMENT 

ADAM THE FIRST 

Fri, 2/14/24 LTD 

Stars: Oakes Fegley, 

David Duchovny 

Director: Irving Franco 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Dra 

PARAMOUNT 

323-956-5000 

BOB MARLEY: ONE LOVE 

Wed, 2/14/24 WIDE 

Stars: Kingsley Ben-Adir, 

Lashana Lynch 

Director: Reinaldo Marcus Green 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Bio 

IF 

Fri, 5/17/24 WIDE 

Stars: John Krasinski, Ryan Reynolds 

Director: John Krasinski 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Com/Fan 

A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE 

Fri, 6/28/24 WIDE 

Director: Michael Sarnoski 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Hor 

Specs: Imax 

TRANSFORMERS ONE 

Fri, 9/13/24 WIDE 

Stars: Chris Hemsworth, 

Scarlett Johansson 

Director: Josh Cooley 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 

UNTITLED SMILE SEQUEL 

Fri, 10/18/24 WIDE 

Director: Parker Finn 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Hor 

UNTITLED GLADIATOR SEQUEL 

Fri, 11/22/24 WIDE 

Stars: Paul Mescal 

Director: Ridley Scott 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act/Dra 

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3 

Fri, 12/20/24 WIDE 

Director: Jeff Fowler 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act 

THE SMURFS MOVIE 

Fri, 2/14/24 WIDE 

Stars: Rihanna 

Director: Chris Miller 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani/Mus 

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 8 

Fri, 5/23/25 WIDE 

Stars: Tom Cruise 

Director: Christopher McQuarrie 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act 

Specs: Imax 

UNTITLED AANG AVATAR FILM 

Fri, 10/10/25 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: 

SEARCH FOR SQUAREPANTS 

Fri, 10/19/25 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 

OSCILLOSCOPE 

LABORATORIES 

212-219-4029 

GOD & COUNTRY 

Fri, 2/16/24 LTD 

Director: Dan Partland 

Rating: PG-13 

Genre: Doc 

2024 OSCAR NOMINATED SHORT 

FILMS 

Fri, 2/16/24 LTD 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Dra/Doc/Ani 

THE FEELING THAT THE TIME FOR 

DOING SOMETHING HAS PASSED 

Fri, 4/26/24 LTD 

Stars: Joanna Arnow, Scott Cohen 

Director: Joanna Arnow 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Com 

MUBI 

HOW TO HAVE SEX 

Fri, 2/2/24 LTD 

Stars: Mia McKenna-Bruce, 

Lara Peake 

Director: Molly Manning Walker 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Dra 

THE PROMISED LAND 

Fri, 2/2/24 LTD 


75


ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS 

323.882.8490 

THE MONK AND THE GUN 

Fri, 2/9/24 LTD 

Stars: Tandin Wangchuk, 

Harry Einhor 

Director: Pawo Choyning Dorji 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Dra 

DREAMER 

Fri, 4/5/25 LTD 

Stars: Alfredo Castro, 

Paulina Gaitan 

Director: Mohit Ramchandani 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Thr 

FIREBRAND 

Fri, 6/21/25 LTD 

Stars: Alicia Vikander, Jude Law 

Director: Karim Aïnouz 

Rating: NR 

SONY 

212-833-8500 

COLEEN HOOVER’S IT ENDS 

WITH US 


Stars: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni 

Director: Justin Baldon 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Rom/Dra 

MADAME WEB 

Wed, 2/14/24 WIDE 

Stars: Dakota Johnson 

Director: S.J. Clarkson 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act/Adv/Fan 

Imax, Dolby Atmos 

DEMON SLAYER: KIMETSU 

NO YAIBA – TO THE HASHIRA 

TRAINING 

Fri, 2/23/24 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 

Specs: Imax 

GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE 

Fri, 3/22/24 WIDE 

Stars: Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon 

Director: Gil Kenan 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act/Com/SF 

Specs: Imax, Dolby Vis/Atmos 

HORRORSCOPE 

Fri, 5/10/24 WIDE 

Stars: Harriet Slater, Adain Bradley 

Directors: Spenser Cohen, 

Anna Halberg 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Hor 

THE GARFIELD MOVIE 

Fri, 5/24/24 WIDE 

Stars: Chris Pratt, Samuel L. Jackson 

Director: Mark Dindal 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 

UNTITLED BAD BOYS SEQUEL 

Fri, 6/14/24 WIDE 

Stars: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence 

Directors: Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act 

Specs: Imax 

UNTITLED SCARLETT JOHANSSON 

/CHANNING TATUM FILM 

Fri, 7/12/24 WIDE 

Stars: Scarlett Johansson, 

Channing Tatum 

Rating: NR 

HAROLD AND THE PURPLE 

CRAYON 


Stars: Zachary Levi, 

Zooey Deschanel 

Director: Carlos Saldanha 

Rating: PG 

Genre: Fam 

THE FORGE 

Fri, 8/23/24 WIDE 

Director: Alex Kendrick 

Rating: NR 

KRAVEN THE HUNTER 

Fri, 8/30/24 WIDE 

Stars: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, 

Russell Crowe 

Director: J.C. Chandor 

Rating: NR 



WOLFS 

Fri, 9/20/24 WIDE 

Stars: Brad Pitt, George Clooney 

Director: Jon Watts 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Thr 

UNTITLED VENOM SEQUEL 

Fri, 11/8/24 WIDE 

Stars: Tom Hardy 

Director: Kelly Marcel 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act/Adv/Fan 

Specs: Imax 

KARATE KID 

Fri, 12/13/24 WIDE 

Stars: Jackie Chan, Ralph Macchio 

Director: Jonathan Entwistle 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act 

Specs: Dolby Atmos 

PADDINGTON IN PERU 

Fri, 1/17/25 WIDE 

Stars: Olivia Colman, 

Antonio Banderas 

Director: Dougal Wilson 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Fam 

UNTITLED SONY/MARVEL LIVE 

ACTION 2025 

Fri, 6/27/25 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act/SF 

Specs: Imax 

SONY PICTURES CLASSICS 

Tom Prassis 

212-833-4981 

AMÉLIE 

Fri, 2/14/24 LTD 

Stars: Audrey Tatou, 

Mathieu Kassovitz 

Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet 

Rating: R 

Genre: Rom/Com 

THEY SHOT THE PIANO PLAYER 

Fri, 2/23/24 LTD 

Stars: Jeff Goldblum, Tony Ramos 

Directors: Fernando Trueba, 

Javier Mariscal 

Rating: PG-13 

Genre: Ani 

SHAYDA 

Fri, 3/1/24 LTD 

Stars: Zar Amir-Ebrahimi, 

Leah Purcell 

Director: Noora Niasari 

Rating: PG-13 

Genre: Dra 

MADAME WEB 

Wed, 2/14/24 WIDE 


UNTITLED UNIVERSAL EVENT FILM 

2025 3 

Wed, 7/2/25 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

UNTITLED UNIVERSAL ANIMATED 

EVENT FILM 2025 

Fri, 9/26/25 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 

UNTITLED BLUMHOUSE EVENT 

FILM 2025 2 

Fri, 10/17/25 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

UNTITLED UNIVERSAL FAMILY 


Fri, 11/21/25 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Fam 

ARGYLLE 


WICKED PART 2 

Wed, 11/26/25 WIDE 

Stars: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo 

Director: Jon M. Chu 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Mus 

UNIVERSAL 

818-777-1000 

ARGYLLE 


Stars: Henry Cavill, John Cena 

Director: Matthew Vaughn 

Rating: PG-13 



KUNG FU PANDA 4 


Stars: Jack Black 

Director: Mike Mitchell 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 

Specs: Dolby Vis/Atmos 


2024 1 


Director: M. Night Shyamalan 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Thr 

UNTITLED MONSTER THRILLER 

DIRECTED BY RADIO SILENCE 

Fri, 4/19/24 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Thr 

THE FALL GUY 


Stars: Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt 

Director: David Leitch 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act 


DESPICABLE ME 4 


Stars: Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig 

Director: Chris Renaud 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 

TWISTERS 

Fri, 7/19/24 WIDE 

Director: Lee Isaac Chung 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act/Adv 

SPEAK NO EVIL 


Stars: James McAvoy, 

Mackenzie Davis 

Director: James Watkins 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Hor 

UNTITLED BLUMHOUSE 

PRODUCTIONS PROJECT 2024 1 

Fri, 9/13/24 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Hor 

THE WILD ROBOT 

Fri, 9/20/24 WIDE 

Director: Chris Sanders 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 

WOLF MAN 

Fri, 10/25/24 WIDE 

Stars: Christopher Abbott 

Director: Leigh Whannell 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Hor 

WICKED PART 1 

Wed, 11/27/24 WIDE 

Stars: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo 

Director: Jon M. Chu 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Mus 

UNTITLED FOURTH FILM 

DIRECTED BY JORDAN PEELE 

Wed, 12/25/24 WIDE 

Director: Jordan Peele 

Rating: NR 

M3GAN 2.0 

Fri, 1/17/25 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Thr/Hor 


2025 1 

Fri, 2/14/25 WIDE 

Rating: NR 


2025 2 

Fri, 4/11/25 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

THE EXORCIST: DECEIVER 

Fri, 4/18/25 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 

Fri, 6/13/25 WIDE 

Director: Dean DeBlois 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act 

THE BLACK PHONE 2 

Fri, 6/27/25 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Hor 


2026 1 

Fri, 1/16/26 WIDE 

Rating: NR 


2026 2 

Fri, 2/13/26 WIDE 

Rating: NR 


FILM 2026 1 

Fri, 3/13/26 WIDE 

Rating: NR 


2026 3 


Rating: NR 


2026 4 

Fri, 6/12/26 WIDE 

Rating: NR 


2026 5 


Rating: NR 

UNTITLED UNIVERSAL ANIMATED 


Fri, 9/25/26 WIDE 


FILM 2026 2 

Fri, 10/16/26 WIDE 

Rating: NR 


77



2026 6 

Fri, 11/13/26 WIDE 

Rating: NR 


2026 7 

Wed, 12/23/26 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

UTOPIA 

DRIFT 

Fri, 2/9/24 LTD 

Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Alia Shawkat 

Director: Anthony Chen 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Dra 

FEMME 

Fri, 3/22/24 LTD 

Stars: Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, 

George MacKay 

Directors: Sam H. Freeman, 

Ng Choon Ping 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Thr 

WARNER BROS. 

818-977-1850 



Stars: Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya 

Director: Denis Villeneuve 

Rating: PG-13 

Genre: SF 


GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW 

EMPIRE 

Fri, 3/29/24 WIDE 

Stars: Bryan Tyree Henry, 

Dan Stevens 

Director: Adam Wingard 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act/SF 

Specs: Imax 

FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA 

Fri, 5/24/24 WIDE 

Stars: Anya Taylor-Joy, 

Chris Hemsworth 

Director: George Miller 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act 

THE WATCHERS 


Director: Ishana Night Shyamalan 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Thr 

UNTITLED DC EVENT FILM 2024 

Fri, 6/21/24 WIDE 

Rating: NR 



HORIZON: AN AMERICAN SAGA 

CHAPTER 1 

Fri, 6/28/24 WIDE 

Stars: Kevin Costner, Sienna Miller 

Director: Kevin Costner 

Rating: NR 

UNTITLED NEW LINE HORROR 

EVENT FILM 2024 1 

Fri, 7/12/24 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Hor 

TRAP 


Director: M. Night Shyamalan 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Thr 

HORIZON: AN AMERICAN SAGA 

CHAPTER 2 

Fri, 8/16/24 WIDE 

Director: Kevin Costner 

Rating: NR 

BEETLEUICE 2 


Stars: Michael Keaton, Jenna Ortega 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Com 

JOKER: FOLIE À DEUX 

Fri, 10/4/24 WIDE 

Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga 

Director: Todd Phillips 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Dra/Thr 

ALTO KNIGHTS 

Fri, 11/22/24 WIDE 

Stars: Robert De Niro, Debra Messing 

Director: Barry Levinson 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Dra 

UNTITLED WB EVENT FILM 2024 

Fri, 11/22/24 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE 

WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM 

Fri, 12/13/24 WIDE 

Director: Kenji Kamiyama 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani/Fan 

UNTITLED NEW LINE EVENT FILM 

2024 4 

Fri, 12/20/24 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

MINECRAFT 


Stars: Jason Momoa, Jack Black 

Director: Jared Hess 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Ani 

SUPERMAN: LEGACY 

Fri, 7/25/25 WIDE 

Stars: David Corenswet, 

Rachel Brosnahan 

Director: James Gunn 

Rating: NR 

Genre: Act/ADv 

THE BATMAN PART II 

Fri, 10/3/25 WIDE 

Stars: Robert Pattinson 

Director: Matt Reeves 

Rating: NR 


UNTITLED WB EVENT FILM 2025 

Fri, 12/19/25 WIDE 

Rating: NR 

WELL GO USA 

ENTERTAINMENT 

theatrical@wellgousa.com 

MONOLITH 

Fri, 2/16/24 WIDE 

Stars: Lily Sullivan 

Director: Matt Vesely 

Rating: R 

Genre: SF/Thr 


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Image Credits & Acknowledgments 

Cover: Photo Courtesy Proctor Co. 

Page 1: Courtesy of Sony Pictures. © 2024 Sony Pictures. 

All Rights Reserved. 

Page 2: Copyright: © 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. 

All Rights Reserved. Photo Credit: Dale Robinette 

Pages 7-10: Courtesy Film and Media Alliance of Southern Utah 

Page 12: Courtesy of SMG 

Page 13: Courtesy of Showcase Cinemas 

Page 14: Courtesy Cinionic 

Page 15–16: Courtesy Regal 

Page 17: Courtesy Kinepolis Group 

Pages 19–20, 22–23: Courtesy Cinépolis 

Pages 24–28: Courtesy of Shankweiler’s Drive-In Theatre 

Pages 31–39: Courtesy of Sony Pictures. © 2024 Sony 

Pictures. All Rights Reserved. 

Page 40: Jojo Whilden/Paramount © 2023 Paramount Pictures. 

Page 41: Courtesy Universal 

Page 42: ©2023 Paramount Pictures. All Right Reserved.; 

© 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved. 

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Page 44: Photo © 2023 Project G Productions, LLC; 

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2023 20th 

Century Studios. All Rights Reserved. 

Page 45: © 2023 Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved. 

Page 46: Photo by Jay Maidment. © 2023 MARVEL. 

Page 47: Beetlejuice / Transformers XX 

Page 48: Photo courtesy Niko Tavernise / TIFF 

Page 49: Photo courtesy Sony Pictures Entertainment; 

Photo courtesy Paramount Pictures & Sega 

Page 51: Copyright: © 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. 

All Rights Reserved. Photo Credit: Jaap Buitendijk 

Page 52: Photo © Universal Pictures 

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Inc. All Rights Reserved. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner 

Bros. Pictures 

Page 54: © 2023 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved. 

Page 55: Photo Courtesy Angel Studios 

Page 56: © 2023 Nintendo and Universal Studios 

Page 57: Photo by Laura Radford. © 2023 MARVEL. 

Page 58: © 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. 

All Rights Reserved. Photo Credit: Jaap Buitendijk 

Page 59: © 2022 CTMG Inc. All Rights Reserved. Photos 

by Sony Pictures Animation, courtesy of Sony Pictures. 

Page 60: Photo by Jessica Miglio. © 2023 MARVEL.; 

© 2022 CTMG Inc. All Rights Reserved. Photos by Sony 

Pictures Animation, courtesy of Sony Pictures. 

Page 61: Photo courtesy Universal Pictures; © 2021 Disney 

Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 

Page 62: © 2022 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved. 

Photo by Jay Maidment. © 2022 MARVEL. 

Page 63: Photo Courtesy Lionsgate; Photo Courtesy 

Angel Studios 

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Rights Reserved. Photo Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures 

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Page 66: Photo by Jessica Miglio. © 2023 MARVEL. 

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Animation, courtesy of Sony Pictures. 

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Page 75: © Henrik Ohsten, Zentropa. Photo courtesy of 

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Page 77: Peter Mountain/Universal Pictures; Apple Original 

Films; and Marv 

Page 78: © 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights 

Reserved. 

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