No more reels, no more sound-on-the-side, clicking projectors, he says, but rather only bread-box size cartridges that managers click in and out easily. That has upped profits by cutting back needed personnel, but it has also forced the closure of many small-town and seasonal theaters which couldn’t plunk down the $50,000 or so for a digital setup.
“The industry was very scared that audiences would react negatively but this proves they haven’t,” says Mr. Gomery.
Here are some more of the 2012 records:
- Biggest opening weekend of all time in North America (“Avengers” at $207 million).
- Biggest single day opening for a musical (“Les Miserables” at $18 million).
- Biggest December opening ever (“The Hobbit” at $223 million worldwide).
- Valentine's Day was the first time ever that four movies opened with more than $20 million outside the holiday season ("The Vow," "Safe House," "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island," and "Star Wars: Episode 1" in 3-D).
Moreover, “The Hunger Games” $152 million in March was unprecedented, according to Paul Dergarabedian, a film industry analyst at Hollywood.com.
“Franchises rule, along with fantasy film. That’s the main message here – escapist, mainstream entertainment ruled the box office,” says Wheeler Winston Dixon, editor of the Quarterly Review of Film and Video at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.
