Domestic box office sales see highest mark since 2019

TheStreet’s J.D. Durkin brings you the biggest news of the day, including Apple’s downgrade and Americans returning to the movies.

Transcript

00:00 I'm JD Durkin reporting from the New York Stock Exchange and here's a look at what we

00:03 are watching on the street today.

00:06 Stocks are off to a bit of a rocky start in 2024 after the Nasdaq notched its steepest

00:11 daily decline in nearly three months.

00:13 The tech-heavy index took a hit after analysts downgraded Apple on concerns of slowing iPhone

00:19 demand.

00:20 Other big tech companies also losing a bit of steam, names like Meta, Tesla and Nvidia

00:25 all beginning the year in the red.

00:27 In other news, U.S. box office had its best year since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

00:32 According to Comscore, the 2023 domestic box office brought in more than $9 billion, and

00:39 that is a whopping 300% jump from ticket sales in 2020.

00:44 Leading the way, of course, the Barbenheimer phenomenon.

00:46 It hit theaters over the summer.

00:48 Greta Gerwig's Barbie alone brought in $636 million, while Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer

00:54 accounted for another $326 million.

00:58 AMC says the blockbuster combo gave the company its best single-week admissions revenue in

01:04 its 124-year history.

01:07 And of course, who could forget about Taylor Swift, whose Eras Tour concert film saw just

01:12 shy of $180 million in domestic sales.

01:16 Now while it's all certainly good news for the movie industry, domestic sales are still

01:20 about 20% less than 2019, when the box office raked in more than $11 billion.

01:27 Putting the lack of a pandemic aside, that year of course saw the release of Avengers

01:31 Endgame, which brought in $858 million in U.S. ticket sales.

01:36 That'll do it for your daily briefing.

01:38 From the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, I'm J.D. Durkin with The Street.

01:41 Thanks for watching.