US Box Office Set To Hit 1982 Sales Mark - In 2021

While 2021 may be the year the U.S. finally corrals the COVID-19 pandemic, it may take movie theaters a long time to advance past the 1980’s in revenue.

According to Bloomberg, via Boxoffice Pro, total sales at the U.S. Box Office could max out at $6 billion dollars this year. That’s the same level it reached in 1982, adjusting for inflation.

That puts into perspective just how hard the movie theater business has been hit. In one year, the total box office tally plummeted from $11.3 billion (2019) to nearly half that amount in 2020.

AMC Entertainment CEO Adam Aron is focusing on the bright side, however, noting that the chain is “no longer in survival mode as cities such as New York and Los Angeles begin reopening theaters.” The market appears to agree with him, as AMC’s stock spiked up 30.99% to $11.16 this week.

Yet the world has permanently changed after this coronavirus pandemic. Most importantly, streaming now has much deeper roots with both TV and movie audiences. How will that play out in theater box offices? It remains to be seen.

For its part, Warner Bros. expects to continue with day-and-date releases for the foreseeable future, debuting new movies on both big and small screens on the same day.

So while AMC’s stock is currently up, some analysts like Wedbush’s Michael Pachter say it is “dramatically overvalued.”