Cinema chains in the United States and Canada - statistics & facts

Movie exhibition corporations play a major role in the North American cinema market – an industry term that includes Canada and the United States but excludes Mexico. In 2021, the box office gross in the U.S. and Canada amounted to approximately 4.5 billion U.S. dollars. Meanwhile, among companies that disclose their financials regularly, the combined global revenue of the top six cinema chains operating in both nations surpassed seven billion dollars that same year. Out of that total, around 3.66 billion dollars came exclusively from movie ticket sales worldwide. And most of those corporations have in North America their largest, if not only, consumer market.

Cineworld's bankruptcy

In September 2022, Cineworld – the England-based company in control of over 500 theaters under the brand Regal Cinemas across the U.S. – filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a court in the state of Texas. That move, coming from the sector's second-largest corporation, became emblematic of the pandemic's long-lasting impact on the moviegoing experience altogether. Cineworld Group plc's revenue in the U.S. grew by over 110 percent to 1.22 billion dollars in 2021. Yet that year's figure amounted to only 38 percent of the 3.2-billion-dollar result reported in 2019, before the coronavirus outbreak. As the firm struggled with the turnover, the income nosedived. Cineworld experienced a net loss of more than 2.6 billion dollars in 2020 and over half a billion dollars in the following year. For comparison, during the three years preceding the pandemic, the company's average annual income stood at nearly 200 million dollars.

American moviegoers' preferences

Cineworld ranked second in the U.S. not only by global revenue. An online survey conducted at the end of 2021 asked American adults which cinema chains they were the most interested in. About two-thirds of them expressed interest in AMC. Approximately 55 percent of respondents mentioned Regal, and 51 percent Cinemark. Bringing consumers back into theaters might entail rethinking the cinema business model. One-third of onliners surveyed in early 2022 reported at least some willingness to pay more for tickets to Hollywood blockbusters in the U.S., for example. Another option holds the potential for a more constant influx of money. During another 2022 study, roughly 42 percent of U.S. adults showed interest in subscribing to a movie theater ticket service. Among frequent moviegoers, the share rose over 20 percentage points. Finally, 70 percent of respondents who already had paid for MoviePass – a benchmark in the subsegment – expressed an inclination to subscribe to that type of service again.
This text provides general information. Statista assumes no liability for the information given being complete or correct. Due to varying update cycles, statistics can display more up-to-date data than referenced in the text.
Published by Statista Research Department, Aug 31, 2023

Key insights

Number of cinema screens in the U.S. & Canada
43.6k
Top cinema chains in the U.S. & Canada by number of screens
AMC & Regal
Top cinema chains in the U.S. & Canada by number of theaters
AMC & Regal
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Film industry in the United States and Canada
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Cinema in Canada
Film industry in Europe
Film industry in Europe
Box office in the United States and Canada
Box office in the United States and Canada
Film industry in Latin America
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