Miguel Mier of Cinépolis: 2023 saw an upturn in movie theaters’ box office as of the habit of going to the movies

Miguel Mier, COO of Cinépolis, said that the movie box office has seen an upturn this year, but the strike of writers and actors may not consolidate this trend. However, he thinks the impact will be felt in 2024. He considers the demands of writers and actors fair and hopes that the conflict ends with agreements bringing better working conditions for the audiovisual industry in Latin America.

During the closure of the Diploma program The Business of Ideas, organized by Punta Fina in Canacine, he told PRODU that Hollywood’s strike could open a window of opportunity for Mexican national cinema.

For Mier, the recovery of the box office has to do with the strength of the audiovisual production in each country and the number of original films in theaters. “Unfortunately, in Mexico, we have not seen many Mexican productions on the screen,” he said. He mentioned that the film Argentina 1985 was directly related to the recovery of the box office in that country.

The countries that recovered their box office fastest are India and Asian countries. “They are already at 2019 levels because their local production is solid,” he said.

He assured that streaming and cinema screens complement each other, regarding Amazon’s decision to allow the film Argentina 1985 to be also in theaters.

“It seems that the habit of going to the movies has returned because, in 2023, we are seeing a more constant flow of people and products, which is what matters the most for people to return to theaters regularly,” he said.

He mentioned that the premieres of Barbie and Oppenheimer will further consolidate the trend. “At first, we thought that releasing both films on July 20 was a mistake. But people have rushed to watch the two films, and both have benefited from the competition, helping the box office,” he said, after commenting that Barbie broke the box office pre-sales record held by Avatar.

Cinépolis operates in 19 countries and is the third company in the number of screens. According to Mier, in 2022 they were the number one company in terms of box office because some markets were still closed.