Movie ticket sales are slow this year

Theatrical releases over the three days of Presidents Day weekend made around $764.1 million at the box office, 15% less than the same period last year, per Comscore. The numbers reflect how the movie industry is off to a slow start this year.

This weekend’s box office collection is still hundreds of millions less than the $1.3 billion generated by North American movie theaters around the same time in 2020.

The slowdown in ticket sales is happening despite people having more theater options than they did in recent years. The lack of a Christmas blockbuster has also contributed to the subdued performance.

That said, the top performing movies this past weekend were reggae star Bob Marley’s biopic Bob Marley: One Love, followed by Sony and Marvel’s Madame Web set in the Spider-Verse.