Cat-astrophe At The Multiplex

Movie attendance numbers are down again, much to the worry of the cinema industry.

Ticket sales last year in America were at their second lowest level in the past 25 years.

While box office revenues still seem high, those figures are fueled by rising ticket prices rather than attendance.

The number of tickets sold in the US in 2019 crashed to a lowly 1.24 billion as audiences deserted the multiplex in droves.

Multiple misfires like Cats, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, Gemini Man, Missing Link, Hellboy, Ugly Dolls, The Kitchen and Charlie’s Angels all contributed to the slump in attendance.

If it were not for several Disney mega hits like Avengers: Endgame, Frozen 2 and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the numbers would have been much worse.

But with fewer Disney blockbusters set for release in 2020 and competition from streaming services on the rise, it’s hard to see the ticket crisis turning around anytime soon.

— Sandro Monetti

There are big changes at the top of Disney with Bob Chapek in as the new Chief Executive of the entertainment empire.

He succeeds Bob Iger who is handing over the reins after a glorious 15 year run of success.

Chapek has held various leadership positions with the company since 1993 and for the past five years had been running the hugely profitable theme parks division. He is a loyal company man who has been a Disney fan ever since childhood trips to Walt Disney World with his family.

Disney is not only continuing with someone called Bob in charge, there will be a continuation in policy too.

Chapek said, “I intend to double down on the exact same strategies that Bob Iger established and that have served us so well. The core of everything is our creative estorytelling.”

Success in China – both at the box office and with theme parks – has been part of that strategy and movie insiders there have noticed a certain symmetry too.

Chapek, 60, was born in the Chinese year of the rat and got his big promotion in 2020 – another year of the rat. Disney’s original character before Mickey Mouse was a rabbit and Bob Iger was born in the year of the rabbit.

Whether it’s rabbits, rats or mice running Disney, ‘The House of Mouse’ appears to be in good hands.

—Sandro Monetti