Exhibition giant Cinemark reported revenue of $541 million, down 7 percent year-over-year from $579 million, for the first quarter of 2025 and swung to a quarterly loss of $39 million, compared to a year-earlier profit of $25 million.
But the company touted: “North American industry box office momentum accelerated in April, nearly doubling year-over-year, leading into a blockbuster summer film slate.”
Quarterly admissions revenue decreased 8.9 percent to $264.1 million, while concession revenue dropped 6.2 percent to $210.4 million, as Cinemark posted a 7.8 percent decrease in attendance to 36.6 million patrons. Worldwide average ticket price came in at $7.22, and concession revenue per patron amounted to $5.75.
The company also posted quarterly adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), another profitability metric, of $36.4 million, down from $70.7 million in the year-ago period.
“Cinemark once again delivered outsized box office results in the first quarter, surpassing industry benchmarks both domestically and internationally, despite a suppressed box office environment that was impacted by lingering effects of the 2023 Hollywood strikes,” CEO Sean Gamble said in the press release. “We continue to expect a favorable rebound in our industry’s recovery trajectory this year, and the second quarter is already pacing well ahead of 2024’s box office results, showcasing the strong, sustained enthusiasm consumers have for experiencing a diverse range of compelling, well-marketed films in theaters.”
He added: “As we look ahead, we remain highly encouraged about the future direction of our industry and company based on resilient consumer trends, a continued resurgence of wide release volume, Cinemark’s advantaged financial and competitive positions, and meaningful opportunities we have to generate incremental value creation through our ongoing strategic initiatives.”
On the earnings call, Gamble said momentum starting picking up with A Minecraft Movie, which deliveredCinemark’s highest three-day opening of all time for a family film, and continued with the faith-based film King of Kings, Sinners and The Accountant 2.
Moving forward, Gamble said that he also expects Cinemark and the film industry would be able to continue on an upswing during “an uncertain and evolving macroeconomic landscape,” due to the fact that in six of the past eight recesssions, North American box office has grown. “Based on our observations during strained economic periods, people continue to pursue out of experiences, and they tend to prioritize value and affordability,” he said.
Concluded Gamble: “Considering the health of our company and our positive outlook, we paid our first dividend since the pandemic during the quarter and executed $200 million of share repurchases. This marks our first-ever stock buyback program and has put us out in front of managing potential dilution related to our upcoming convertible notes settlement.”
The box office is headed for a record-breaking sewing bee over the long Memorial Day weekend.
According to tracking, the combination of Disney’s live-action redo of Lilo & Stitch and Paramount’s Tom Cruise-starrer Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning could mark another Barbenheimer moment for both Hollywood and hungry theater owners.
Lilo & Stitch is headed for a four-day domestic debut of $120 million, one of the best showings ever for Disney’s live-action reimaginings, according to those with access to data from leading firm the National Research Group. The leading research firm also gives ranges in addition to a target number; in this case, it is $110 million to $130 million.
M:I, meanwhile, is on course for a franchise-best $80 million debut, which would more than make up for the lackluster $54.7 million bow of the previous film in the series, as well as zoom past the record $61.2 million three-day launch of Mission: Impossible — Fallout. NRG’s range is $72 million to $88 million. Keep in mind, Memorial Day weekend is a four-day gross. Also, both Disney and Paramount have three weeks to unleash their biggest marketing pushes yet.
If tracking proves correct, the combination of the two films could deliver the biggest Memorial Day weekend in history in terms of overall ticket sales, not adjusted for inflation. The crown currently belongs to the $306 million in ticket sales collected in 2013 when Fast & Furious 6 zoomed to $117 million, followed by The Hangover Part III with $50 million.
And it would also mark the best showing for two Memorial Day titles going up against each other. In 2007, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End opened to $140 million over the holiday frame, followed by Shrek the Third with $67 million.
There’s still no official moniker for the mash-up for Stitch & M:I as there was for Barbenheimer (Stitch on a Mission? Stitchion?), but for Cruise, it’s a coming-full-circle moment.
In late July 2023, when the box office was still struggling to recover from the pandemic and grappling with the impact of the strikes, the combination of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan‘s Oscar-winning Oppenheimer ignited moviegoing (studio execs always say that rising tides lift all boats). Despite opening on the same weekend, Barbie dazzled with a $162 million debut, while Nolan’s movie took in $82.4 million, a virtually unheard of number for an adult biographical drama.
Cruise — who has become Hollywood’s theatrical ambassador in the post-pandemic era — himself urged consumers to turn out for Oppenheimer and Barbie, even as he had his own movie to promote, Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One. The tentpole, which had opened two weeks earlier, ended up being a major disappointment, with Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie going back to the drawing board and renaming the film for next installment, rather than calling it Dead Reckoning Part Two.
Their efforts appear to be paying off, according to tracking. Materials for Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning is resonating with its target audience in a major way. Ditto for Lilo & Stitch, about an irresistible dog-like alien named Stitch who befriends a lonely girl. It’s popping with families, teenage girls and younger woman who grew up on the 2002 animated film. That’s welcome news for Disney’s live-action efforts after Snow White stumbled earlier this year.
This weekend, Disney and Marvel Studios kick off the summer box office with Thunderbolts*.
Lightning has struck many times for Marvel Studios at the box office before Kevin Feige‘s superhero studio went through some turbulent times in recent years. Now comes another chance.
Later this week, Thunderbolts* kicks off the summer box office in a pivotal moment for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Directed by Jake Schreier, the film brings together a band of dysfunctional outsiders — and lesser-known comic book characters — who discover their potential to be heroes when working together.
Tracking suggests the movie will open in the $70 million to $73 million range domestically, and $160 million to $175 million globally, against a $180 million production budget before marketing. Prior to the pandemic, that would have been considered not so great for an MCU title kicking off summer. But times have changed, with tracking becoming more unreliable. Also, the Disney-owned Marvel is stressing these aren’t well-known characters.
If word-of-mouth is strong, all bets are off. The unexpected spring bloom currently underway at the box office — led by Ryan Coogler’s sleeper sensation Sinners — proves that people want the communal experience of watching a film together.
Not long ago, year-to-date box office revenue was lagging badly behind the same corridor in 2024. Then two weekends ago, revenue was up by 2 percent. Now it’s up more than 11 percent.
Thunderbolts*‘ ensemble cast features Florence Pugh (Yelena Belova), Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes), Wyatt Russell (John Walker), David Harbour (Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian), Lewis Pullman (Bob), Hannah John-Kamen (Ghost), Olga Kurylenko (Taskmaster) and Julia Louis-Dreyfus (CIA director Valentine Allegra de Fontaine).
“Florence Pugh and Sebastian Stan lead a gratifyingly fresh and soulful Marvel adventure,” The Hollywood Reporter chief critic David Rooney writes in his review. “While a handful of the characters and the actors playing them have appeared in previous entries, there’s a disarming freshness to this first-time assembly, not to mention something even more unexpected: heart. That’s due to an appealing ensemble cast but also to the new blood of a creative team with a distinctive take on the genre.”
In a December 2023 interview, Russell teased to THR that Thunderbolts* would not be your tried-and-true Marvel superhero film, and it’s now come to light that the film is genuinely about mental health. Louis-Dreyfus’ villainous character has positioned a number of MCU loners and rejects to kill each other for her own nefarious reasons. But they instead decide to team up in response to the obvious setup and to newcomer Bob, who suffers from a mental illness that has catastrophic consequences after he’s subjected to cruel experimentation.
As this story went to press, the pic’s critics score on Rotten Tomatoes was a promising 89 percent fresh with only 98 reviews posted. When the embargo broke earlier in the day, it was initially 92 percent, and the score is certain to continue to fluctuate. As a way of comparison, Captain America: Brave New World had a rotten score of 48 percent yet opened to $88.8 million earlier this year. And last July, Deadpool & Wolverine was a record-setting win for Marvel, opening to $211 million.
There’s no audience score since Thunderbolts* doesn’t begin hosting previews in North America until Thursday night before opening everywhere Friday. Overseas, it opens around the globe midweek, including in China.
Last year, Universal’s The Fall Guy kicked off the summer box office over the May 1-3 weekend to $28.5 million.
Oscar-nominated Japanese filmmaker Mamoru Hosoda’s upcoming anime pic Scarlet will open in North American theaters on Dec. 12, during the the lucrative year-end holiday corridor and the heart of awards season.
Sony Pictures, which is co-producing and co-financing the film with Studio Chizu and Nippon TV, announced the release date Monday. Sony will distribute the film in the U.S. and around the globe except for in Japan, where Toho is handling the movie theatrically.
Scarlet tells the story of a brave princess who transcends time and space.
Hosoda’s credits include Belle, Wolf Children and 2018’s Mirai, which was nominated for the Oscar for best animated feature after making its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.
Yuichiro Saito and Nozom Takahashi of Studio Chizu are producing Scarlet alongside Toshimi Tanio of Nippon TV.
Hosoda is the founder of production house Studio Chizu. Many of the writer-director’s fantastical movies have been inspired by watching his own kids interact and his ongoing preoccupation with family dynamics, including 2015’s The Boy and the Beast and 2012’s Wolf Children.
The weekend box office is on fire, with ticket sales up more than 100 percent over the same frame last year.
The blaze is led by Warner Bros.’ Sinners, directed by Ryan Coogler and starring Michael B. Jordan. Heading into its sophomore outing, the film was expected to compete with Ben Affleck-starrer The Accountant 2 for the top spot with anywhere from $20 million to $25 million.
But the supernatural period vampire pic continues to defy all the odds and is now on course to easily stay No. 1 domestically with a phenomenal $42 million to $44 million after earning $13 million on Friday (rival studios all are betting on the higher number). Either way, Sinners — which opened to $48 million a week ago — could enjoy one of the smallest drops in history for a movie playing outside of the year-end holidays.
Graced with virtually perfect audience scores and the best reviews of filmmaker Coogler‘s already acclaimed career, Sinners has transformed into the rare title that has become a runaway water-cooler sensation. It’s expected to finish Sunday with a 10-day cume hovering around $120 million in a major victory for Warners’ movie chiefs Pamela Abdy and Michael De Luca.
Amazon MGM Studios’ new action-thriller The Accountant 2 and Disney’s 20th anniversary release of Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith are also fueling the boom (ditto for Warners’ A Minecraft Movie, which remains high up on the chart in its fourth weekend). Depending upon who you ask, the order of those three movies varies and won’t be determined until Sunday or even Monday.
The Accountant 2 is hoping for a second-place finish with a promising $23 million-$25 million after scoring strong reviews and exit scores, including an A- CinemaScore. That would be a win as Amazon MGM ramps up its theatrical ambitions (it’s now home of the James Bond franchise).
The first Accountant, released by Warners, opened to $24.7 million in 2016 on its way to grossing $155.5 million globally and becoming the most-rented digital film in 2017.
Reuniting Affleck and director Gavin O’Connor, Accountant 2 currently sports a fresh 76 percent critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, compared to a rotten 53 percent for the first film. Consumers are far more entranced, judging by the sequel’s current 93 percent audience Rotten Tomatoes score.
Affleck produced the sequel via his and Matt Damon’s Artists Equity, alongside Lynette Howell Taylor for 51 Entertainment and Mark Williams for Zero Gravity Management. The film made its world premiere at SXSW last month, winning the audience award for the Headliners section.
Jon Bernthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Daniella Pineda, Allison Robertson and J.K. Simmons co-star in Accountant 2, which sees Affleck’s character compelled to step in and help solve the murder of an old acquaintance with the help of his estranged brother and a U.S. Treasury agent. Together, they uncover a deadly conspiracy, becoming targets of a ruthless network of killers who will stop at nothing to keep their secrets buried.
Revenge of the Sith is looking at a weekend haul of anywhere from $21 million to $23 million, which would be one of the top openings ever for a rerelease (one rival shows the film earning $25 million). The crownholder belongs to 1977’s Star Wars, which grossed $35.9 million when it hit theaters again in 1997, not adjusted for inflation, according to Comscore.
The Star Wars rerelease comes amid the 20th anniversary of the final of George Lucas’ prequel films. The prequels, while divisive at the time, have only grown more appreciated in recent years, with a generation of kids who grew up with them considering the films their preferred Star Wars trilogy. Star Hayden Christensen received a rock star-esque greeting last week at the Star Wars Celebration in Tokyo, while he and Sith star Ewan McGregor reprised their roles for the Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi in 2022, returning their versions of the characters Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi to the zeitgeist.
In terms of more recent rereleases in the franchise, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace earned $8.7 million on its opening weekend in May 2024, while the rerelease of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi grossed $5.1 million in late April 2023.
Both Accountant 2 and Sinners are R-rated and are competing with Revenge of the Sith for male attention, although the latter has the advantage of also playing to families.
Screen Gem and Sony’s new horror offering Until Dawn looks to round out the top five with a forgettable opening in the $7 million to $8 million range.
Lucasfilm and Disney’s 20th Anniversary rerelease of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith soared to $3.4 million in Thursday previews ahead of its limited one-week engagement, enough to beat the $2.5 million earned in previews by Ben Affleck’s new action-thriller The Accountant 2 (the $2.5 million includes “tax day” screenings held April 15).
However, based on early Friday returns, the Accountant is making gains and should come in second with an opening in the $23 million to $25 million range, according to rival studio executives with access to grosses.
Not that Revenge of the Sith isn’t a force of nature. It could earn as much as $20 million to $23 million, making it one of the top openings ever for a rerelease (Disney is remaining more conservative and suggesting $20 million-plus). The crownholder belongs to 1977’s Star Wars, which grossed $35.9 million when rereleased in 1997, not adjusted for inflation, according to Comscore.
In terms of more recent rereleases in the franchise, Star Wars: The Phanom Menace earned $8.7 million on its opening weekend in May 2024, while the rerelease of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi grossed $5.1 million in late April 2023. There were no preview screenings for either of those titles.The big question is how frontloaded Sith is.
The re-release comes amid the 20th anniversary of the final of George Lucas’ prequel films. The prequels, while divisive at the time, have only grown more appreciated in recent years, with a generation of kids who grew up with them considering them their preferred Star Wars trilogy. Star Hayden Christensen received a rock star-esque greeting last week at Star Wars Celebration in Tokyo, while he and Sith star Ewan McGregor reprised their roles for the Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi in 2022, returning their versions of the characters to the zeitgeist.
And then there is Warner Bros.’ Sinners. Heading into the weekend, it was expected to compete with The Accountant 2 for the top spot with anywhere from $20 million to $25 million. If early modeling is correct, it could earn as much as $40 million in its second weekend, a scant drop of 17 percent.
Projections for all three movies could change by Saturday morning, of course.
Graced with virtually perfect audience scores and the best reviews of filmmaker Ryan oogler‘s already acclaimed career, Sinners has transformed into the rare title that has become a runaway water-cooler sensation.
On Thursday, Sinners bested the competition with a sizeable $6.1 million for an impressive seven-day domestic cume of $77.5 million. The period supernatural vampire pic starring Michael B. Jordan opened to a better-than-expected $48 million over Easter weekend to topple fellow Warners’ event pic A Minecraft Movie after the former ruled the roost for two consecutive weekends.
The first Accountant, released by Warners, opened to $24.7 million in 2016 on its way to grossing $155.5 million globally and becoming the most-rented digital film in 2017, according to Amazon MGM.
Reuniting Affleck and director Gavin O’Connor, Accountant 2 currently sports a fresh 76 percent critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, compared to a rotten 53 percent for the first film. Consumers are far more entranced, judging the by the sequel’s current 93 percent audience Rotten Tomatoes score.
Affleck produced the sequel via his and Matt Damon’s Artists Equity, alongside Lynette Howell Taylor for 51 Entertainment and Mark Williams for Zero Gravity Management. The film made its world premiere at SXSW last month, winning the audience Award for the Headliners section.
Jon Bernthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Daniella Pineda, Allison Robertson and J.K. Simmons co-star in Accountant 2, which sees Affleck’s character compelled to step in and help solve the murder of an old acquaintance with the help of his estranged brother and a U.S. Treasury agent. Together, they uncover a deadly conspiracy, becoming targets of a ruthless network of killers who will stop at nothing to keep their secrets buried.
Both Accountant 2 and Sinners are R-rated and will compete alongside Revenge of the Sith for male attention, although the latter has the advantage of also playing to families.
Warners’ blockbuster A Minecraft Movie is holding steady in fourth place as it approaches the $400 million mark domestically.
Screen Gem and Sony’s new horror offering Until Dawn took in $1 million in Thursday previews for a forgettable weekend opening in the $7 million range. It is likewise rated R.
April 25, 1:00 p.m.: Updated with revised weekend estimates
