Box Office Year to Date and Studio Scorecards

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Looking at wide-release films in North America (those that play on at least 400 screens at some point), 2013 now totals just over $3.1 billion, down 13% from 2012 and down 5% from the prior four-year average 2009-2012.  Still a very mediocre year.  Each year-to-date period below is defined as the first Monday after New Year’s Day through the most recent Sunday.  The past week generated $201 million in wide-release North American box office, down 16% from the same week last year but up 4% from the 2009-2012 average for the same week.  (The most recent week’s numbers are based on weekend estimates, which are usually at worst a couple of percentage points of the final weekend tallies.)

Over the past six weeks, 2013 is now 10% below the same six weeks in 2012 and even with the four-year average the same time frame.

STUDIO SCORECARD.  Thanks to Star Trek Into Darkness, Paramount and Fox flipped places in the year-to-date worldwide chart below.  Similarly, Warner Brothers is starting to make its move, switching places with Universal, and moving into fourth place (thanks to Great Gatsby).

Usually, the most prolific film producer (in terms of number of films on its slate and not necessarily in terms of quality), Warner Brothers is normally much closer to the top of the studio revenue rankings.  To provide a more stable view, the chart below adds in the fall/ holiday films from 2012.  Disney and Fox remain at #1 and #3, respectively, looking at the October-May period, while Warner Brothers and Paramount swap positions at #2 and #4.  As 2013 wears on, also look for Universal and Sony to swap places in the 2013 chart, as Universal returns to its normal position at the bottom of the majors.