MW AMC and Cinemark rode 'incredible' Black Friday box office surge, research finds

By James Rogers

"Black Friday movie theater foot traffic reached new heights this year, outpacing even pre-pandemic levels," said analytics company Placer.ai.

Movie-theater chains AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. and Cinemark Holdings Inc. enjoyed a massive boost from blockbusters "Wicked," "Gladiator 2," and "Moana 2" over Black Friday, according to U.S. foot traffic data from analytics company Placer.ai.

Placer.ai's data, which includes visits to AMC $(AMC)$, Cinemark $(CNK)$, and Regal Cinemas, found that Nov. 29 movie-theater visits surged 263.2% compared to the June 2023 - December 2024 daily average. This was bolstered by the release of "Wicked," and "Gladiator 2," dubbed "Glicked" on Nov. 22, and "Moana 2" on Nov. 27, the Wednesday before the Thanksgiving holiday, according to the analytics company. "Black Friday movie theater foot traffic reached new heights this year, outpacing even pre-pandemic levels," Placer.ai said, in a blog post.

"Black Friday is always a busy time for movie theaters," Placer.ai added, noting that in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic hit movie theater visits on that year's Black Friday were up 80.2% compared to an average 2019 Friday.

Related: 'MoGlicked' weekend powers AMC, Cinemark shares higher on record attendance

But cinematic foot traffic also surged past previous years' benchmarks on Black Friday 2024, Placer.ai said, noting that visits to movie theaters were 13.1% higher than on Black Friday in 2019. This impact was felt through the weekend after Thanksgiving, pushing visits up 9.5% and 27.8% on the Saturday and Sunday compared to the equivalent period of 2019, according to Placer.ai.

However, the foot traffic surge wasn't evenly distributed on Black Friday, with Placer.ai noting that foot traffic was up an "incredible" 524% between 11:00 AM and 2:00 PM compared to an average year-to-date Friday. In the afternoon, visits were up 389.9% between 2:00 PM-5:00 PM.

"Black Friday's box office boost also wasn't evenly spread across the map," said Placer.ai, in the blog post. "Leading the charge was the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington area, where theater visits soared by an astonishing 373.5% compared to its 2024 year-to-date average." In second place was the Washington-Arlington-Alexandra area with a 322.8% increase, followed by the New York-Newark-Jersey City area with a 321.9% increase, according to Placer.ai's data.

Related: 'Moana 2' tops holiday box office, but in many ways it was a 'MoGlicked' weekend

Cinemagoers flocked to movie theaters over Thanksgiving, bringing in record domestic box office returns, according to other data providers. Boosted by "Glicked" and "Moana 2," the domestic box office hit an estimated $420 million over the 5-day period that included the holiday, according to data from industry tracker Comscore.

Movie-theater chain and original meme stock AMC said that, based on attendance at its U.S. theaters, the company enjoyed its busiest ever pre-Thanksgiving Wednesday, its busiest Thanksgiving day holiday, its busiest Black Friday, and its busiest five-day Thanksgiving holiday period.

Cinemark also said that it achieved all-time domestic records across box office, premium formats, and food and beverage sales throughout the Thanksgiving holiday period.

Related: AMC enters agreement with Goldman to sell up to 50 million shares

AMC shares are 0.4% in premarket trades, while Cinemark is down 0.9%.

-James Rogers

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December 10, 2024 08:37 ET (13:37 GMT)

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