Ricardo Perez Garrido

20 million tickets sold during one weekend. $132 million in box office for the first three days. $100 million in two days. Those are the numbers for the sequel of Pirates of the Caribbean. Those numbers are the direct result of the evolution of the film industry business models: get as much revenue as you can during the first weekend and trust home enterntainment (DVDs, cable TV...) to get your money back. With almost 900 digital cinema screens worldwide last year (source), new investments on complex to make the "experience" bette.

That trend could mean new life for theater revenues, which combined by lower distribution costs could expand the offer and generate additional revenues and exposure for titles that currently hardly reach a few screens. That, in fact, could also improve the revenue-generating cicle of DVDs and TV for a higher number of films, increasing the total number for the industry, instead of reducing them. The effect could be similar to process we have seen in the music industry: after initial fears and doubts regarding digital sales of their goods, total revenues and exposure are growing with online sales and non-traditional markets (your mobile phone).

Pirates is also helping Disney with its stock price. And its theme parks also, with lines of customers waiting to see the real-life attractions that inspired the film, and new ones that are exploiting the franchise. The video game and the agreements with telecom companies like Verizon are only starting to produce additional revenue. Not bad for an industry in crisis.

Posted on 12 July 2006 in Entertainment, English

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Posted by: Javier Suberviola at July 12, 2006 03:08 PM

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