Plano-based Cinemark Holdings, Inc., which operates 500 theaters around the world, is celebrating its biggest summer weekend ever — thanks to super hero film
Deadpool & Wolverine.
According to a release, the opening weekend of Deadpool & Wolverine, July 26-29, was the company’s highest-ever domestic opening box office for a film premiering during the busy summer moviegoing season, beating out every other film opening from May through August in the exhibitor’s history.
Deadpool & Wolverine crossed the $200 million mark in its domestic opening, which Hollywood Reportercalled "an unimaginable feat for an R-rated pic." (The biggest R-rated opening previously was the $133.7 million collected by the first Deadpool in 2016.) According toVariety, Deadpool & Wolverine "obliterated" the R-rated record with its $205 million opening weekend — the eighth-biggest in box office history.
It's a welcome shot in the arm for the theater industry which has been in the doldrums since the pandemic. With the film setting a multitude of industry records, including the biggest July opening ever and best-ever opening for an R-rated film, theaters like Cinemark are seeing this as sign that filmgoers are enthusiastic again.
For Cinemark,
Deadpool & Wolverine also marked the biggest opening weekend ever for Cinemark XD, its private-label premium large format, and an all-time high weekend for D-BOX motion seats, which they take as a sign that fans want to see films in the most immersive environment possible.
“Building upon strong box office momentum over the past two months, Disney and Marvel’s highly anticipated super hero adventure,
Deadpool & Wolverine, just took theatrical moviegoing to a new stratosphere,” says Cinemark President and CEO Sean Gamble.
“We are thrilled to share that
Deadpool & Wolverine drove Cinemark’s biggest summer opening weekend of all time, generated record-breaking results in premium formats, and delivered our highest weekend of concession revenues since the pandemic," Gamble says. "Congratulations to our partners at Disney on such record-breaking success and to our entire Cinemark team for their significant role supporting this tremendous achievement. We remain highly optimistic about the future of theatrical exhibition.”
Also, snacks: This past weekend, Cinemark delivered its highest concessions revenue since the pandemic with merchandise sales ranking among its best of all time. Unsurprisingly, they're taking this as a confirmation that customers want more food and beverage offerings within the theater and more home movie-themed collectibles. OK Cinemark, calm down over there.
Moviegoing enthusiasm is expected to continue with several highly anticipated films hitting the big screen, including:
- August 9: It Ends with Us and Borderlands
- August 16: Alien: Romulus
- September 6: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
- September 27: The Wild Robot
- October 4: Joker: Folie à Deux
- October 25: Venom: The Last Dance
- November 22: Gladiator II and Wicked
- November 27: Moana 2
- December 13: Kraven the Hunter
- December 20: Mufasa:The Lion King and Sonic the Hedgehog 3
.