Many people didn’t head to the movie theaters during the Covid years and now they are slow to return
The second largest theater chain Regal declared bankruptcy last year and closed many theaters including one in Visalia. Regal is privately held and does not publish their attendance figures. But the largest chain AMC is traded on the stock market and does report their financial numbers including theater attendance.
While this chart shows modest increases in US attendance last year theatre attendance in 2023 was 60% of average for earlier years. In the first quarter of 2024 AMC reported a decline to 30,490 movie goers in the US compared to 32,362 in the first quarter of 2023, about a 7% drop. The company’s stock is hurting as can be seen from this chart.
In terms to trends, 20 years of move theatre attendance tells the story. In 2004 ,twenty years ago ,1.5 million tickets were sold in the US. In 2024 that number is down to 640,000 using annualized figures so far this year, a drop of 58%
