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Sean Gamble told an investors conference that studios have returned to a focus on theatrical releases as they pull back on content expenditures overall after the dual strikes.
By Etan Vlessing
Canada Bureau Chief
Hollywood may be seeing fewer tentpoles hitting theaters after the dual actors and writers strikes, but Cinemark CEO Sean Gamble argued the big screen is back coming out of the pandemic during an investor conference appearance on Tuesday.
“When we talk about our traditional studio partners, for the most part, we’re hearing pretty consistently that they’re aiming to get back to where they were pre-pandemic, and in certain cases even go a touch beyond that,” Gamble told the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom conference during a session that was webcast.
The Cinemark boss insisted the major Hollywood studios spent too much on streaming content to offset theater shut downs during the COVID 19 crisis. Now as Wall Street looks to elusive profitability, the major streamers are more cautious and selective with their content spend budgets to adjust to a more crowded and competitive streaming space.
“In certain pockets, they (studios) over-indexed in their content creation. They ramped up considerably as they were launching these streaming platforms in terms of the number and volume and cost and investment they were putting in some of these TV series,” Gamble recalled.
He added there’s a question over whether that streamer content spend is sustainable. “As there has been a heightened focus on profitability of both the assets and those platforms, there’s some rationalization more focused on quality versus just overall volume,” he added.
That’s good news as Cinemark and other exhibitors see their fortunes tied to Hollywood’s film supply to the multiplex picking up after a box office recovery that started in 2022 began to gather pace into last year.
Then movie chains like Cinemark got hit by the disruption in their tentpole supply by the dual Hollywood strikes, followed by a sparse theatrical release calendar earlier this year. Gamble forecast 2024 would have around 95 wide film releases, or a step back from 2023.
Into 2025, he foresaw the Hollywood movie supply “springing back to that recovery trajectory we’ve been on where we’re somewhat a bit up from (20)23, perhaps still a touch behind pre-pandemic levels, which were around 130 or so wide release per year.”
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