Oliver Berg/Getty Images Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment U.S. and global box office and total cinema revenue will not reach pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels by 2029, according to accounting firm PwC's annual closely-watched media and entertainment outlook report released late on July 23. In the U.S., pre-pandemic total cinema revenue is not forecast to be reached by 2029 despite a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.9 percent. PwC had recorded nearly $11.7 billion in U.S. total cinema revenue in the pre-pandemic year 2019 after $11.8 billion in 2018. The firm projects the figure to rise from $8.9 billion in 2024 and $9.6 billion in 2025 to $10.1 billion in 2026, $10.3 billion in 2027, $10.6 billion in 2028, and $10.8 billion in 2029. Related Stories TV How a New Generation of British Documentarians Is Embracing Politically Charged Storytelling Business HBO Max Hires ITV's Sasha Breslau and Amazon's Alessandro Volpato to Lead Acquisitions in U.K., Italy Asked by The Hollywood Reporter about how pre-COVID box office levels are not expected to be reached by 2029, Bart Spiegel, PwC global entertainment and media leader, says: "Unfortunately, this full recovery is unlikely within the forecast period. However, we project that by the end of 2029, the industry will be on the brink of a full rebound. In other words, 2030 may be the year global box office revenues return to pre-pandemic levels." Pre-COVID, U.S. box office in 2018 amounted to $10.8 billion before a 2019 drop to $10.7 billion. PwC forecasts the 2024 figure of $8.1 billion to grow to $8.7 billion this year. For the 2025-2029 period, it predicts a CAGR of 3.86 percent to push box office revenue to nearly $9.8 billion by the end of that period. In terms of admissions, PwC lists 777 million for 2023, a drop to 734 million for 2024, and an estimated rebound to 778 million for 2025. It projects a 2.3 percent CAGR for the U.S. to 823 million in 2029, compared with 1.3 billion in 2019. By then, the average admission price will climb to $11.86, or "over $2 more than the $9.16 charged in 2020 and 2021," the report explains. Total U.S. cinema revenue in 2024 fell to $8.9 billion from $9.1 billion in 2023, "but the drop was anticipated and not as steep as had originally been feared," highlighted the PwC report. (Yet it hit the bottom line of studios as well.) "The Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) strikes of late 2023 had slowed down production - and there were fewer 'tentpole' titles than would normally have been anticipated." For the global box office, PwC forecasts the 2024 figure of $29.7 billion to grow to $33.5 billion this year. It then predicts continued growth to $37.7 billion by the end of the Outlook report period in 2029, compared with $39.4 billion in 2019. "It's important to remember that industry revenues are ultimately driven by price times volume. In this case, while ticket prices are rising, admissions (volume) are not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels," Spiegel says. "Instead, the growth in global box office revenue is being fueled by higher ticket prices. These ticket price increases are driven by several factors, including enhanced infrastructure and facilities, technological advancements, and rising content costs." The accounting firm notes that transition has hit Hollywood many times in the past, highlighting: "In recent years, the U.S. film sector has been disrupted. The streamers overturned traditional business models, the pandemic hit the box office, and the 2023 strikes stymied the post-COVID-19 recovery. But U.S. industry history reveals that the sector has experienced challenges many times before, with everything from the conversion to sound to the anti-trust legislation of the 1940s, the arrival of TV as a mass medium in the 1940s and 1950s, and the VHS revolution of the 1970s. In each case, the sector recovered. It is doing so again now." Here is a closer look at some of the U.S. cinema sector trends highlighted in PwC's Global Entertainment & Media Outlook. Franchise films and tentpoles Growth in U.S. box office revenue this year "is again being driven, as in pre-COVID-19 years, by franchise movies building on existing IP - with Disney re-established as the pre-eminent player," the report notes. The studio had three of the top five hits in the U.S. market in 2024: Inside Out 2, Deadpool & Wolverine, and Moana 2. ... Each of the five major studios - Disney, Universal, Warner Bros., Sony and Paramount - had sizeable hits. Universal's Wicked, Despicable Me 4 and Twisters; Warner Bros.' Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Dune: Part Two, and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire; Sony's Bad Boys: Ride or Die and It Ends With Us; and Paramount's Gladiator II and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 were