John Partilla, CEO of Screenvision joins Cheddar News to discuss the opening weekend success of 'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever' and the state of the box office as we near the end of 2022. 

<i>Black Panther: Wakanda Forever</i> dominated the box office for its opening weekend, making it the second-largest opening weekend of the year. John Partilla, CEO of Screenvision joined Cheddar News to discuss the revival of in-person moviegoing. "I think finally you'll see moviegoing return to the 80 percent level, audience levels 80 percent plus, which is, I think, finally where the industry begins to stabilize and recover and build from there," he said.

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Moviegoers Flocking Back to Theaters as 'Wakanda Forever' Hits Big

it looks like movie goers slowly bringing the box office back to life over the weekend. Black panther Wakanda forever dominated the box office, bringing in $180 million in its opening weekend and the film's success makes it the second largest opening weekend of the year. And now at thanksgiving and christmas right around the corner, many are watching to see how movie goers will show up and if this finally means that the box office is back and better than ever. So joining us now, this is john Marttila ceo over its green Vision media, john always good to have you here. So Black panther, by the way, a little bit lower than the original one at $202 million. But nonetheless 100 and 80 million is incredible to sort of look at here what was sort of led to the success of black panther having such a good weekend. Well, thank you baker for having me on. It was a number of factors. First of all, it's a great story. It's a great, colorful, evocative film, terrific directorship by Ryan kugel and really at the end of the day broad, broad demographic, mass appeal to so many audiences. So slightly more than half the tickets were black brown hispanic and asian american audiences and just, I think connected to so many different types of people through that powerful storytelling and look marvel has dominated the box office across the board in a myriad of their different movies. What sort of is the secret sauce as to why marvel continues to bring so many people back to the theaters. I think they continue to keep the storytelling very fresh. They really pay homage back to, you know, the narrative of the storytelling and the ark that people have paid a great deal of attention to and respect and honor, but they seem to always find a way to freshen it up with new cast, new characters, new story themes and people respond very favorably october was sort of the low month month that we had. Black Adam was the only film that crossed $100 million. But obviously the next two months going to be really exciting given the fact that you have black panther Wakanda forever right now and then you have avatar next month. So what do the next couple of months sort of look like when it comes to the box office. And for theater goers as well, we're looking at a very, very strong Q four and finally heading to 23 we've got avatar way of water as you mentioned, which to do a very strong performance probably in the $200 million range. We've got an incredible slate and line up as we head into 23 there's a new Mission Impossible movie coming out. There's a number of films that that continue to come out of the Disney franchise, which we're very grateful for. And for me, I think I'm excited about creed three and other great strong film looks that'll, that'll be coming out. So I think finally you'll see movie going return to the 80% level audience levels 80% plus, which is I think finally where the industry begins to stabilize and recover and build from there. The other sort of thing that's interesting is what sort of trends would we see after the pandemic? Given the fact that so many streamers are so many studios during the pandemic, put their films on streamers now, it's sort of seems like a lot of the studios have sort of backed this 45 day theatrical release window. You have David Zaslav, the new Ceo of Warner brothers discovery, really putting a focus on putting on going back to the theaters. What's your sort of take on this? Are you happy with this model? Very happy. I think everyone's just rediscovering that the math and the economics for everyone in the ecosystem works better when there's a very strong exclusive theatrical window opening. And I think when you open downstream later and streaming or other windows, the bigger the exclusive theatrical window, much like physics, it provides this great strong engine that drives the audience, You know, the streaming audiences and the downstream audiences with great energy further downstream. So the bigger the opening and the exclusive theatrical window, I think the bigger the downstream windows, the other question and this is what would netflix do? Netflix is going to have the knives out, which I love that, love that series now they're gonna do a one week theatrical window there, albeit it's about 45 days. Are you at least happy that netflix is at least trying and experimenting with. Very very much so. So netflix glasses coming out thanksgiving weekend that one week exclusive in many theaters. Not everywhere across the U. S. But many participating theaters and screens. I think that's a great win win for streamers and movie goers. And I think you'll see more of that experimentation. Yellowstone paramount just came out with their opening episodes in some select theaters and so I think we'll see more of those partnerships and alliances. I'd also mentioned that streamers are among our larger advertisers connecting to our audiences. So it works both ways you mentioned creed. What else are you excited for? Do you think 2023 will be even better in terms of the theatrical experience in terms of box office revenue? Oh absolutely. So first of all, what are my personal picks next year? Edition decree will be mission impossible. Tom chris just seems to get younger each year, each movie, so we just have to see it for that reason alone. But the action sequences right in the global travel and all that will be wonderful. I think just a few basic statistics. I think that this year, overall movie going attendance was about 65 to 70% of 2019. Next year is projected to be closer to 85% and that's powered by a much stronger slate. And are you expecting the U. S. To rebound and and take over the number one global box office again next year? Cause look, the last couple of years, china has really sort of dominated that. The US has sort of fallen down mainly because of Covid. Yeah. Yeah. If the trend line continues, certainly next year we should be the largest box office, you know, in the globe because I think china is recovering more slowly, you know, from their lockdowns and with Covid. So we should see that. Can't wait for it. I can, I'm seeing black panther this weekend. I'm excited about it. I can't wait. John Portella ceo screen vision. Always good to thank you for having me.