The pandemic has affected almost all economic sectors, but leisure has been one of the hardest hit. 2021 started as the year of hope, with the first vaccine supplies arriving in the West with the promise of returning to normalcy, but the film industry has lagged behind recovering pre-pandemic business figures.
Despite the fact that many films were postponed from 2020 to 2021 to take advantage of the return of the public to theaters, and that film sagas have once again dominated the billboard, only in a few exceptions have the films managed to look at the 2019 figures from you to you as far as box office is concerned.
Worldwide, the box office triumph fell on the last to arrive. The latest Spider-Man movie was released just two weeks before the end of the year and it grossed 1.4 billion worldwide, according to data from Box Office Mojo. Although it has surpassed its predecessors and still has time in theaters, the leader of Marvel in collection, Avengers: Endgame, doubles it, with $ 2.8 billion raised in spring 2019.
The second highest grossing film of the year was The Battle at Changjin Lake, a Chinese film that tells a bloody episode of the Korean War. Of its 900 million dollars raised, practically all of it comes from China itself, with just 350,000 dollars raised in the US, while it has not even been released in Spain. Something similar happens with the also Chinese Hi, Mom, which ranks third on the podium.
Worldwide, the top 10 are completed by three other films related to Marvel, the last films of the sagas of James Bond Y Fast and Furious and of Detective Chinatown, and the monstrous crossover Godzilla vs. Kong.
Spain, still 60% below 2019
The Spanish sector fails to take off. According to data from the specialized portal TaquillaEspaña, Spanish cinemas raised 251.2 million euros that, although it far exceeds the 171 million of the previous year, it remains 59.6% below the 624 million that entered theaters by tickets in 2019.
The most positive thing is that a upward trend throughout the year and in December the levels of December 2019 were almost reached in a few weeks, which may invite optimism for the coming months.
As for the films, the sequel to Spider-Man dominates again with 17.5 million collected in our country, followed by Fast & Furious 9 (9.5 million) and Venom 2 (8.9 million). Spanish comedy A full train: Destination Asturias It is in fourth position with 8.5 million pocketed, but you have to go down to thirteenth place to find another national film (Way Down, 5.5 million).
The US does not go back
If the recovery is costing in Spain, in the United States the situation seems even worse. Its box office has fallen by 60.5% compared to 2019 and closed 2021 with $ 4,557 million, according to figures from Comscore. Of course, it doubles the income from tickets for the year 2020.
Again, Spider-Man is at the top of the rankings (572 million until the end of the year). But here the bet of the distributors is more evident than anywhere else: in the top 10 there is only one movie (the last one, Free Guy) that is not part of a series or saga of films, and those related to Marvel are five of the first six.
The streaming, the other great culprit
But the problem is not limited to the economic impact of the coronavirus. Attendance at movie theaters was already trending downward previously -The US raised the same in 2016 and 2019 despite the rise in ticket prices-, largely due to the growing reception of the streaming payment on platforms such as Netflix or HBO.
Among the powerful, the last to arrive was Disney +, which was born almost at the same time as the pandemic and which in two years has reached the 118 million subscribers worldwide, according to the company’s November data. Netflix reaches 214 million, HBO and HBO Max have almost 70 million subscribers and other services such as Apple TV or Amazon Prime Video have not recently released data officially.
In addition, the trend towards simultaneous release in cinemas and platforms seems to be settling. Warner already did it with all its big premieres last year, airing them on HBO, while Disney + did it with Cruella The Black widow. It is estimated that with the latter lost 600 million dollars for doing so because of piracy (according to the specialized media Deadline), so it is not on the agenda to repeat this modality.
What is going to be tried is to leave the movie theaters aside. Pixar has announced that its next premiere, Turning Red, will go directly to Disney + and with no extra charges for subscribers despite its theatrical release scheduled for March. It can only be seen on the big screen in countries where there is no platform for streaming from Walt Disney. The reasons for the change, at the moment, have not been made public.
What’s to come in 2022
If something works, don’t change it. The bet to make big box office figures in 2022 will continue to be the sagas, remakes, reboots and other substitutes for original ideas.
In the superhero genre we will witness a new version of the Gotham vigilante, The Batman. Also from DC / Warner Bros will arrive Black Adam (Shazam’s villain) and Flash – perhaps also the Aquaman film-, while Marvel will premiere the second part of Doctor Strange and of Black Panther, the fourth of Thor, and the sequel to the hit animated Spider-Man movie.
Other premieres will be the reboot from the horror saga Scream, the film version of the video game Uncharted and also of Sonic, the sequel to the movie Downton Abbey, a third part of the Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Animals, the solo film dedicated to the long-awaited Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story, the third part of Jurassic World, recovery 36 years after Top Gun starring Tom Cruise himself, who will also repeat as the fireproof Ethan Hunt in Mission Impossible 7.
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