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It was a very good year. After a slow start, the movie box office started sizzling in summertime, boomed in the fall, and broke industry records over Christmas. The 1996 domestic take of $3.83 billion was the second highest ever, bested only by 1984's $4.03 billion.
There's a twist, though. According to Variety statitician A.D. Murphy, the 1.03 billion tickets sold last year represent the exact average sold over the past 25 years. So the boxoffice pie isn't getting any bigger, but rather than six major studios divvying it up, there are now nine major producer-distributors, plus six top independents. Historically, the six major studios have dominated boxoffice receipts. From 1980 to 1983 they commandeered from 82 to 89 percent of the market. But in the last three years their collective market share has plummeted from 81 percent to 74 to only 64. Tri-Star, Disney, Orion, Cannon, New World, DEG. New Line, Atlantic Releasing, and Island are rapidly muscling in on the majors' territory.
The Hollywood landscape is changing. Disney now boasts a full release slate and really belongs with the six major studios. MGM/UA, crippled by owner Kirk Kerkorian's financial shenanigans with cable mogul Ted Turner, has been stripped of its studio. Tri-Star and Orion both outstripped MGM/UA, which wound up the year just ahead of the (Cannon Group. Although Tri-Star and Orion (which garnered seven percent of the 1986 market apiece) are relatively young companies without studio facilities, they are full-service major producer-distributors in direct competition with the major studios for projects. And Orion, at least, is also a perennial Oscar contender.
The independents' rise has been made possible by the growth of worldwide ancillary markets, especially home video; by Hollywood's concentration on youth movies for the mass market, leaving classy adult fare largely ro the indies; and by the continued boom in theater construction (many multiplexes), which creates a greater demand for product, whether mainstream or specialized. Independents can now find screens for their pictures no matter how narrow- their potential appeal, and movies play longer if each picture screens in the size theater dictated by its actual audience pull. This enables small movies with large audiences like A Room With a View or My Beautiful Laundrette to run for a vear...
