Cineplex CEO Ellis Jacob is taking an optimistic view of the future of the exhibition sector following his company’s latest Q2 results.

Jacob told investors on Friday that the latest fiscal quarter “was a turning point for our industry” following impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic and the dual Hollywood strikes.

Cineplex reported that its June and July box office results that nearly reached pre-pandemic levels, buoyed by the success of Inside Out 2. Cineplex reported $86.4 million in box office revenue for July, up from $72.5 million in July 2023.

The further success of Deadpool & Wolverine, which exceeded US$1 billion at the global box office this weekend, fueled that optimism.

Speaking with Playback Daily, Ellis says Disney worked with Cineplex to host Deadpool & Wolverine‘s Canadian premiere at its Scotiabank Theatre in Toronto, and highlighted its Canadian roots: Vancouver-born star, writer and producer Ryan Reynolds and Montreal-born director and producer Shawn Levy.

An earlier example is Dune Part Two. Cineplex held a special event in Montreal with Quebecois director Denis Villenueve on Feb. 28 in the lead-up to its March 1 premiere. Jacob says the venue ended up being the film’s highest-grossing location in North America for the opening weekend.

“What the audiences love is to have content that they can enjoy and be part of,” he says, noting that discoverability of films is becoming a key barrier to theatre attendance due to the barrage of information out there on social media.

One solution Cineplex is utilizing is increasing the value of a ticket. Despite a 31.8% decrease in theatre attendance for Q2, the company reported an increase in revenue per patron, which helped to offset revenue losses from a poor April and May box office performance. The company earned $277.3 million in total for the quarter, down 24.6% from $367.9 million in Q2 2023.

The increased revenue comes from concession sales and premium offerings such as UltraAVX, VIP theatres and Imax.

Jacob says the company is also benefiting from the data collected from its Scene+ rewards program, which tells them what audiences are watching and where.

He says they’ve used the data to identify niche opportunities in the market, such as its international and alternative programming. Cineplex reported that 9.2% of its Q2 box office revenue came from international films such as the Punjabi-language titles Jatt & Juliet 3 and Shinda Shinda No Papa. The company said it represented more than 75% of the North American box office for those titles.

When it comes to Canadian films, Jacob says Cineplex also works with distributors to identify key regional markets for their theatrical releases. One example is Jenna MacMillan’s Who’s Yer Father?, which had the highest gross for a Canadian in P.E.I. since 2003 as part of an East Coast tour.

The company has its own distribution arm, Cineplex Pictures, which handles Canadian distribution for Lionsgate’s theatrical releases, and handled the release of Fawzia Mirza’s The Queen of My Dreams.

Jacob says Cineplex Pictures has been able to expand its reach by working with streaming services such as Prime Video and Apple TV+ to do special theatrical events for new films.

One example is the Prime Video documentary I Am: Celine Dion. Jacob says Cineplex worked with Amazon MGM Studios to take part in the June 21 limited theatrical release, with Cineplex locations accounting for 10 of the top 20 North American locations.

The collaboration is a stark contrast to 2019, when Netflix and Prime Video original titles at the Toronto International Film Festival were restricted from being screened at Cineplex locations.

“When the TV came out, we thought our business was dead and done, [as well as] when the VCR came out, when the DVDs came out,” says Jacob. “We’ve all gone through those ups and downs and now with streaming, it’s going to be the same thing. [But] it’s a whole different experience when you’re watching it in a social environment and [enjoying] out of home entertainment.”

When asked about the criticism of an exhibitor stepping into the distribution space, Jacob says Cineplex Pictures looks for opportunities to fill in the gaps whenever possible.

“We don’t want to take business away, but we also understand there are movies that are being released and they are not being picked up by Canadian distributors,” he says. “We know that business can be done with those films and we will pick them up from their international distributors.”

Image courtesy of Cineplex