Laura Carollo
Research expert covering cinema and film
Concert movies - statistics & facts
Are movies enough to revive the cinema experience? Even though 2023 saw several box office mega hits release, the year was a mixed bag for the industry. Despite attendance and box office figures showing signs of recovery, they are still struggling to reach pre-pandemic levels. The “Barbenheimer” phenomenon, which set the tone for the 2023 summer period, is a strong indicator that viewers are still craving major cinematic events and are more than willing to flock to theaters to experience them. The release of several recent and successful concert movies is evidence that the cinema industry can reach a wider cultural impact beyond films.
Movie theaters and studios have more than one trick up their sleeves to make up for lackluster box office results and encourage moviegoers to return to the cinema. By doing so, cinemas will expand their offer thanks to new programming ideas.
Musical successes
Released in October 2023, "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour" became the highest grossing concert movie released in theaters, boasting a total global revenue of 261.41 million U.S. dollars – most of it just on the domestic market. “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé”, which came in theaters several months later, brought the singer’s tour of the same name to the big screen. Both these films are the culmination of the two highest grossing tours of the year, and allowed many viewers to experience them in the comfort of their favorite theaters. These successes inspired further releases, such as BLACKPINK World Tour [Born Pink] in July 2024, riding the K-POP wave that is currently crashing the international music scene.Concert movies to the rescue
The current unfavorable context incites movie studios to think outside the box. In 2023, 504 movies were released domestically, barely more than half of the number of releases five years earlier. More and more viewers are satisfied with watching movies at home through a streaming service, signaling a shift in movie consumption that has only been accentuated by the pandemic. And so, most of these concert movies were brought to theaters thanks to a distribution agreement between AMC Theatres and Cinemark Theatres, while Trafalgar Releasing handled the worldwide distribution, in an unprecedented move to diversify their offerings. Consequently, attendance at movie theaters run by Cinemark in the United States stood at about 130 million in 2023, an increase of roughly 17 percent in comparison to the previous year.Outside the box office
Concert movies are but one of the many event types studios and cinema halls have integrated to their regular offering. While the broadcast (live or pre-recorded) of plays and opera is nothing new, cinemas are dipping into sports content. For the first time ever, the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games was broadcast live in several IMAX theaters in the U.S., while AMC Theatres screened daily coverage of the games. Gaming is making its way into cinema halls too, most notably by renting theaters for personal use to play on the big screen. Some initiatives have tried to build the bridge between video games and cinema, such as “KinoGames” (a collaboration between NERDIC and Spielfrabrique), which allow viewers the chance to combine gaming and film screening in a single event all throughout Europe.Movie theaters and studios have more than one trick up their sleeves to make up for lackluster box office results and encourage moviegoers to return to the cinema. By doing so, cinemas will expand their offer thanks to new programming ideas.
