The movie business has never been better, and digital is playing a huge part in driving increased revenue
Image/Photo Credit: Lucasfilm
The MPAA has released their annual report on the state of the movie industry, and globally, it has never been healthier.
Global box office takings reached $40.6 billion, up 5% from 2016, with the Asia/Pacific region once again the world's largest box office. Chinese box office receipts increased by 6%.
U.S. and Canadian ("domestic") box office takings actually decreased by 2% to $11.1 billion, or in other words, down $300 million. Most of this can be put down to the release slate in 2017 being less popular than that of 2016, but the figure was still the second highest in history (2016 being the record year, and 2017's results matched that of 2015's).
The top grossing movie of the year domestically was 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi', with box office takings of more than half a billion dollars. The second most popular release, 'Beauty and the Beast', also belonged to Disney and also went past the half a billion dollar mark. Warner Bros' 'Wonder Woman' was third.
On DVD and Blu-ray, Disney was once again on top, with 'Moana' being the year's best selling title, followed by 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story'. 'Wonder Woman' was once again third.
But the physical media business was in overall decline, with takings down 15% compared to just a year ago, and a massive 41% compared to 2013. Luckily, and just as it is the case with the music industry, digital revenue more than made up for losses in physical media, with takings up 10% compared to 2016 and up 110% since 2013. Overall consumer spending was up 2.5% compared to 2016.
Online video subscriptions increased by 21% to 157 million, with revenue up 57% to $17.7 billion. It is still, however, dwarfed by revenue from cable, which remained largely steady in recent years and was at $51.3 billion in 2017.
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