{"id":290058,"date":"2025-04-02T08:37:25","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T15:37:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/?p=290058"},"modified":"2025-05-22T23:48:48","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T06:48:48","slug":"trouble-at-theaters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/trouble-at-theaters\/","title":{"rendered":"Trouble at Theaters"},"content":{"rendered":"

The box office is in trouble.<\/p>\n

The March 14-16 tally was the worst overall domestic weekend box office of the year and the slowest theatrical start for the month of March in 29 years. The 2025 theatrical market is off to a terrible start, with year-to-date North American ticket sales down 7% to $1.34 billion through March 25, according to Comscore.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the shorter theatrical windows ailing theaters, according to theatrical executives and advocates.<\/p>\n

Speaking Feb. 25 on a fiscal call, Adam Aron, CEO of AMC Entertainment, the world\u2019s largest movie exhibitor, said shortened windows, including 17-day and 30-day slots spearheaded by NBCUniversal after the pandemic, should be abolished, adding that<\/p>\n

the minimum window should move back to 45 days and beyond (60-74 days) depending on the movie.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that the current industry experiment on windows has failed,\u201d Aron said, adding longer windows would benefit a title\u2019s incremental revenue potential.<\/p>\n

Speaking April 1 at the CinemaCon 2025 confab in Las Vegas, Michael O\u2019Leary, CEO of Cinema United, the theatrical trade group formerly known as the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO), said extending \u2014 not shortening \u2014 the exclusive window for new release movies in movie theaters is key to the survival of the box office and Hollywood.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the box office launch has long offered a significant marketing push for movies in the subsequent release windows \u2014 with the take often touted as a measure of a title\u2019s audience appeal.<\/p>\n

Netflix\u2019s Ted Sarandos has said consumers are voting with their feet and has called theaters \u201ca fairly inefficient way to distribute some movies.\u201d That may be true for some films, but if more revenue doesn\u2019t come in, the box office may hit a breaking point.<\/p>\n

The industry has long been held up with tentpole titles, but as those are whisked into home venues it may not be enough to sustain the theatrical business.<\/p>\n

Subscribe HERE to the FREE Media Play News<\/em> Daily Newsletter!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The box office is in trouble. The March 14-16 tally was the worst overall domestic weekend box office of the year and the slowest theatrical start for the month of March in 29 years. The 2025 theatrical market is off to a terrible start, with year-to-date North American ticket sales down 7% to $1.34 billion … Continue reading “Trouble at Theaters”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":85533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,19],"tags":[9716,626,1644],"coauthors":[60],"class_list":["post-290058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogs","category-stephanie-prange","tag-blog","tag-box-office","tag-theaters"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTrouble at Theaters - Media Play News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/trouble-at-theaters\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trouble at Theaters - Media Play News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The box office is in trouble. The March 14-16 tally was the worst overall domestic weekend box office of the year and the slowest theatrical start for the month of March in 29 years. The 2025 theatrical market is off to a terrible start, with year-to-date North American ticket sales down 7% to $1.34 billion … Continue reading "Trouble at Theaters"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/trouble-at-theaters\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Media Play News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MediaPlayNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-02T15:37:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-23T06:48:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/theaters-scaled-e1597952852538-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Stephanie Prange\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@MediaPlayNews\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@MediaPlayNews\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Stephanie Prange\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/trouble-at-theaters\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/trouble-at-theaters\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Stephanie Prange\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d1ea8d703f048b56e267b45d7cd5cba4\"},\"headline\":\"Trouble at Theaters\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-02T15:37:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-23T06:48:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/trouble-at-theaters\/\"},\"wordCount\":323,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/trouble-at-theaters\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/theaters-scaled-e1597952852538-1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Blog\",\"Box Office\",\"Theaters\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Blogs\",\"Stephanie Prange\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/trouble-at-theaters\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/trouble-at-theaters\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/trouble-at-theaters\/\",\"name\":\"Trouble at Theaters - Media Play News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/trouble-at-theaters\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/trouble-at-theaters\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/theaters-scaled-e1597952852538-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-02T15:37:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-23T06:48:48+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/trouble-at-theaters\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/trouble-at-theaters\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/trouble-at-theaters\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/theaters-scaled-e1597952852538-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/theaters-scaled-e1597952852538-1.jpg\",\"width\":900,\"height\":600},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/trouble-at-theaters\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Trouble at Theaters\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/\",\"name\":\"Media Play News\",\"description\":\"Bringing Entertainment Home\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Media Play News\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/cropped-mpn-logo-1200-3.gif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/cropped-mpn-logo-1200-3.gif\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":116,\"caption\":\"Media Play News\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MediaPlayNews\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/MediaPlayNews\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/mediaplaynews\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/media-play-news\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d1ea8d703f048b56e267b45d7cd5cba4\",\"name\":\"Stephanie Prange\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/author\/prangempneditor\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Trouble at Theaters - Media Play News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/trouble-at-theaters\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Trouble at Theaters - Media Play News","og_description":"The box office is in trouble. The March 14-16 tally was the worst overall domestic weekend box office of the year and the slowest theatrical start for the month of March in 29 years. The 2025 theatrical market is off to a terrible start, with year-to-date North American ticket sales down 7% to $1.34 billion … Continue reading \"Trouble at Theaters\"","og_url":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/trouble-at-theaters\/","og_site_name":"Media Play News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MediaPlayNews\/","article_published_time":"2025-04-02T15:37:25+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-05-23T06:48:48+00:00","og_image":[{"width":900,"height":600,"url":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/theaters-scaled-e1597952852538-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Stephanie Prange","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@MediaPlayNews","twitter_site":"@MediaPlayNews","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Stephanie Prange","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/trouble-at-theaters\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/trouble-at-theaters\/"},"author":{"name":"Stephanie Prange","@id":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d1ea8d703f048b56e267b45d7cd5cba4"},"headline":"Trouble at Theaters","datePublished":"2025-04-02T15:37:25+00:00","dateModified":"2025-05-23T06:48:48+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/trouble-at-theaters\/"},"wordCount":323,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/trouble-at-theaters\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/theaters-scaled-e1597952852538-1.jpg","keywords":["Blog","Box Office","Theaters"],"articleSection":["Blogs","Stephanie Prange"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/trouble-at-theaters\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/trouble-at-theaters\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/trouble-at-theaters\/","name":"Trouble at Theaters - Media Play News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/trouble-at-theaters\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/trouble-at-theaters\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/theaters-scaled-e1597952852538-1.jpg","datePublished":"2025-04-02T15:37:25+00:00","dateModified":"2025-05-23T06:48:48+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/trouble-at-theaters\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/trouble-at-theaters\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/trouble-at-theaters\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/theaters-scaled-e1597952852538-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/theaters-scaled-e1597952852538-1.jpg","width":900,"height":600},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/trouble-at-theaters\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Trouble at Theaters"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/","name":"Media Play News","description":"Bringing Entertainment Home","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/#organization","name":"Media Play News","url":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/cropped-mpn-logo-1200-3.gif","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/cropped-mpn-logo-1200-3.gif","width":1200,"height":116,"caption":"Media Play News"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MediaPlayNews\/","https:\/\/x.com\/MediaPlayNews","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/mediaplaynews\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/media-play-news\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d1ea8d703f048b56e267b45d7cd5cba4","name":"Stephanie Prange","url":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/author\/prangempneditor\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290058"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":296000,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290058\/revisions\/296000"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290058"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=290058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}