In recent years, traditional theatrical box office revenue has failed to bounce back to its pre-pandemic highs. In 2024, U.S. domestic ticket sales landed around $8.75 billion, a drop of roughly 23.5% compared to 2019.
There are a few key challenges: competition from streaming services is one. Overall economic uncertainty is another, causing consumers to cut back on discretionary spending. Local theater owners admit that the decline of casual moviegoers — those who once went for any wide-release film — is making sustained recovery more difficult.
In this environment, theaters are increasingly looking for other ways to drive foot traffic and diversify their programming. Enter Taylor Swift.
In early October, the artist released her new Album “The Life of a Showgirl.” However, rather than just relying on album streams from home, her team organized a release party in theaters with limited release. Rather than a traditional concert film like Swift had released for “The Eras Tour,” this time around the screening offered behind-the-scenes looks at music videos, lyric videos, and Swift’s own reflections on the album.
Fans packed into theaters across the country to watch the screening. It dominated the box office that weekend, raking in $34 million, crushing other big names like “The Smashing Machine” with Dwayne Johnson, a box office flop and “One Battle After Another” with Leonardo DiCaprio, a noted box office success.
Swift’s success demonstrated something theaters have been noticing for several years: audiences will still show up, but increasingly for experiences that feel distinct from a standard movie night. These types of experiences are known as event cinema – a category that includes limited-run concerts, live shows, re-releases, fan gatherings, and other nontraditional programming.
A leading player in this space is Fathom Entertainment. The company distributes a diverse slate of content into movie theaters including feature films, live podcasts, classic television, and operas. The company saw a record-breaking year for limited releases in 2024, with revenues increasing 45% to more than $145 million.
What Fathom offers is in contrast with traditional theatrical releases in both format and intention. Instead of relying on weeks-long runs or wide distribution, releases are for a limited time and promise something viewers can’t replicate at home or through streaming. Ray Nutt, Chief Executive Officer for Fathom Entertainment, gives their releases from the Metropolitan Opera as an example.
“When you actually go to a movie theater versus the Met in New York, during the intermissions, you actually see interviews backstage, you see costume changes, you see design changes. Those are things you cannot see when you go to the Met in New York at all,” said Nutt.
It’s not just the fans that are enjoying the show. To theaters, event cinema offers a strategic lift to draw in more consumers. Which is all the more appealing when the traditional box office business hasn’t been booming.
“The theater managers out there and the corporate offices absolutely love what we do because everything we do is incremental. We’re bringing more bodies into movie theaters so they can sell more concessions, obviously. So, everything we do is extremely positive to them,” Nutt said.
There are several factors that have contributed to the appeal of event cinema in this current stage of the theatrical market. One is fully logistical. The progressive switch toward digital distribution has made Fathom’s job easier on nearly every front.
“That transition and transformation into digital really helped the industry cost-effectively get content, whether it’s movies or trailers or events or whatever it might be, into movie theaters much more efficiently, quickly, cost-effectively than it did in the past,” said Nutt.
Another reason lies with the audience. While traditional moviegoing has struggled to regain its pre-pandemic consistency, event-centered screenings seem to tap into a different motivation. Attendees are drawn toward the communal aspect of these events, seeing them as a chance to gather with other like-minded individuals that share their enthusiasm.
“I think people also just want to be a part of a community and want to be surrounded by other Swifties in this sense,” said Lauren Skala, who attended both the “Life of a Showgirl” event and the “Eras Tour” movie several years prior. “You want to feel like you’re celebrating something. I think that now more than never, we need more community.”
Still, the recent success of event cinema does not mean every title in this category performs at the same level. Much of Fathom’s strongest box office comes from properties with large, established fan bases like anime from Studio Ghibli, or long-running series such as “The Chosen,” a faith based show that follows the life of Jesus. These audiences reliably turn out for limited-window screenings and create the kind of surge theaters hope for.
But this model isn’t a replacement distribution model for independent films, and smaller or more unknown projects pose a different challenge. But that doesn’t stop their filmmakers from trying.
“There’s so many filmmakers that can’t get their film on screen through the majors or anything, and they can through us. Assuming we look at 3,000 pieces of content a year, only less than 100 of it make the screen. So it gives you an idea of the demand out there,” Nutt said.
Not all of those are winners, so there needs to be some selectivity to keep events financially viable, especially with independent films. In a study focused on independent films in 2017, only 17% grossed over $100,000 from showings in theaters.
For Fathom, this means its most consistent success comes from titles backed by strong communities or recognizable brands; the model works best when the audience already exists and is motivated to show up for a specific moment. That’s something Nutt is well aware of.
“A 15-year-old stop-action animated picture, ‘Coraline,’ made $34 million. I was looking at a statistic the other day. Classic movies represent 20% of our revenue year over year-over-year for the last 20 years,” Nutt said.
Right now, event cinema stands out as one of the few bright spots in the exhibition landscape. Its success has positioned it to remain a solid complimentary piece of the entertainment sector. As for Fathom, Nutt doesn’t plan on slowing down anytime soon.
“We’ve got much more to bring to theaters in the future. So more to come, but I’m very optimistic about where we are,” Nutt said.
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