Bye-Bye Box Office

I think I'll create a new category for this topic: beating a dead horse.

Anyway, Hollywood Reporter writes that worldwide revenue from the major Hollywood studios hit a record $44.8 billion last year, fueled by home video rising from $18.9 billion in 2003 to $21 billion in 2004.  They also report that television (including pay television) is bringing in $16.6 billion of the total.

Are you doing the math?  That means, that in 2004, studios only made $7.2 billion from the worldwide box office, and this is down from the $7.4 billion they made in 2003.  They also report that of this year's $7.2 billion, 52% of it came from outside North America.

What does this mean?  Well, it sure means that we put way too much emphasis on the domestic box office when it comes to the success of the studios. 

Seriously, of all the money they make (and remember, that most of them are multi-media conglomerates, and this is just their filmed entertainment revenue), of the $44.8 billion they made last year from movies and television, only $3.5 billion of that (just 8%) comes from domestic movie theaters.  On the contrary, 47% of their revenue comes from DVD/Video sales worldwide.

The movie theater is dying a slow death my friends...  Very soon, the theatrical opening will be nothing more than a marketing tool to promote the upcoming DVD release.

Here's the data:
Pay Television: $4.0 billion
Free Television: $12.6 billion
Home Video: $21.0 billion
Movie Theaters: $7.2 billion ($3.5 million domestic)
Total: $44.8 billion