The new economics of blockbusters

BEFORE COVID-19 Hollywood was alight with franchise fever. All ten of 2019’s top-grossing films globally came from big studios and featured characters returning to the big screen. Directors such as Martin Scorsese fretted that Marvel’s superheroes would be the death of cinema. Cinema-owners would beg to differ. On March 10th AMC, the world’s biggest chain, which has recently become a darling of retail investors, reported a 77% fall in revenues last year, and a net loss of $4.6bn, in large part because Marvel and others have postponed releases until audiences come back.