THB #52: Slow Start To 2022 & Perhaps, A Road To Stability

Yesterday, as I was looking at December, Disney was pulling another Fox movie off the schedule for early 2022. I was already aware that Warner Bros. was, even as it was recommitting to theatrical, not really in the game until March.

So I took a look at the first 4 months of 2022, before the summer launches with Dr. Strange in The Multiverse of Madness. And it’s not too pretty.

In January thru March - 13 weekends - I count 16 wide release movies… compared to 30 wide releases in the first 3 months of 2019.

In 2019, there were 7 $100m domestic grossers in those 3 months. In 2022, I see only 8 that really have aspirations to a $100m domestic gross, with some sure to miss that mark.

At the very top of the Q1 charts, past and forward-looking, it could be close to a draw, with The Batman and Morbius having the potential to come close (certainly within the 20% currently seeming like the COVID hangover margin) to the 1-2 punch of 2019’s Captain Marvel and Us ($601m combined domestic).

It’s fi…