Since the start of the year, the domestic box office has tallied just $866.4 million in ticket sales through Sunday, a nearly 18% drop from the same period in 2023, according to data from Comscore.
A boost at the beginning of the year could prove critical to a box office that's still struggling to reclaim $10 billion in domestic annual ticket sales, a mark last seen before the Covid pandemic.
While surprise hits like Sony's "Anyone But You" alongside Paramount's "Mean Girls" and "Bob Marley: One Love" have helped fill cinemas, the box office had few blockbuster holdovers from the holidays and limited new offerings in the new year.
Last year, the first quarter was buoyed by $263 million in ticket sales from Disney's "Avatar: The Way of Water," which hit theaters in December of the previous year.
Similarly, 2022 had more than $200 million in residual sales from Sony and Marvel's 2021 hit "Spider-Man: No Way Home."
Persons:
Warner, Paul Dergarabedian, Bob Marley, Bill Barstow
Organizations:
ANGELES, Warner Bros, Sony
Locations:
Comscore