2003: A Half-Year in Review

July 2, 2003

Six months into 2003 and it’s time to look at the state of the movie industry, and the news is decisively mixed. The overall box office is down approximately 1.5% while the average ticket price has increased more than 2.5%. And there’s no monster hit like last year’s Spider-Man. But despite this, so far in 2003 just the top ten movies represent almost 40% of the box office. (Up nearly 4 percentage points from last year.)

Good news is the dramatic increase in the number of $100, $200 million movies, and the number of $50 million openings. All are double what they were this time last year. Also good news, production budgets seem to be coming down, closer to 2001’s figures.

But even with lower average costs, of the 60 movies that received a wide release, only about half made more at the box office than it cost to make. Factor in P&A budgets and theatres’ share and only a handful will make a profit domestically.

Highest grossing movie by June 30th

2002: Spider-Man at $395,874,471.
2003: The Matrix Reloaded at $269,409,164.

Number of $200 million movies

2002: 2 (Spider-Man and Attack of the Clones)
2003: 4 (The Matrix Reloaded, Finding Nemo, Bruce Almighty, X2: X-Men United)

Number of additional $100 million movies

2002: 3 (Ice Age, Scooby-Doo, The Sum of All Fears)
2003: 6 (Anger Management, Bringing Down the House, 2 Fast 2 Furious, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, The Hulk, Daredevil)

Number of $50 million openings

2002: 3 (Spider-Man, Attack of the Clones, Scooby-Doo)
2003: 6 (The Matrix Reloaded, X2: X-Men United, Finding Nemo, Bruce Almighty, The Hulk, 2 Fast 2 Furious)

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Filed under: The Matrix Reloaded, X-Men 2, Anger Management, Bringing Down the House, Hulk, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Daredevil, 2 Fast 2 Furious