Reprinted from Deadline Hollywood by Nancy Tartaglione on October 25, 2021.
In mid-September, Gower Street Analytics projected global box office for 2021 would come in at $20.2B. The London-based film tech company has now increased its estimate to $21.6B, with the possibility of hitting a nice round $22B. The reason for the shift is primarily driven by the strong performance of October titles including China’s “The Battle At Lake Changjin” ($830M through this past Sunday), MGM/Eon/Universal’s “No Time To Die” ($525.2M) and Sony’s “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” ($352.4M). Warner Bros/Legendary’s “Dune” is also coming out of a strong, expanded release frame with a global total of $223.2M per Monday actuals.
Gower Street now sees worldwide ticket sales for the year repping an 80% increase on 2020 (compared with its earlier estimate of +68%). While off 49% from 2019’s banner pre-Covid year, 2021 has narrowed the gap from a previous projection of -52%, the firm says. …