Thursday, February 21, 2013

Our Fine Entertainment Conglomerates

Metacritic gives details about OFECs health and well-being:

... Collectively, it was a good 12 months for the movie industry after a couple of down years in which revenues and attendance were in decline. Total domestic box office grosses were up over 6% in 2012 (to a record $10.83 billion), while the number of tickets sold also increased by a similar percentage after falling to a 16-year low the year before. Last year actually saw the largest year-over-year percentage increase in theater attendance since 1998, though total tickets sold fell well short of the all-time record set in 2002.

Globally, while the combined grosses of the six major studios fell slightly compared to 2011's all-time record high, the results were still strong, with four of the studios surpassing the $2 billion mark. And three separate 2012 movies each collected over $1 billion worldwide, matching the record set the year before.

With overall numbers like those, it's not surprising that four of the six major distributors were able to grow their domestic business in 2012 compared to the year before. Leading the way was Sony, the year's overall leader in market share thanks to a 41% increase in domestic grosses and an even bigger increase in foreign markets. At the other end of the spectrum was Paramount, 2011's market share leader. That studio plummeted to last place in 2012 thanks to a disastrous performance in all markets that saw Paramount collecting less than half of its previous year's revenues.
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Paramount/viacom sank to the bottom of the tank, while Sony surged to the top. One interesting factoid: Disney had the highest average domestic gross for its domestic theatrical releases. The Big Six were as follows:

Average Domestic Grosses -- 2012

Disney -- $119.8 million
Warner Bros. $100.2 million
Sony Pictures -- $96.2 million
Universal -- $88.8 million
20th Century Fox -- $66.5 million
Paramount -- $62.8 million

It's good to see who's up and who's down, because it varies year-to-year. But cash flow for OFECs seem to be robust. (A pity we can't say the same for various animation and visual effects houses. But then the moolah is never spread around based on purity of heart. It's always juice and leverage that pulls in the big bucks.)

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