Box office logs best summer in 20 years

Movie theaters are having their best summer in two decades, reversing the losses from the disappointing season last year and showing resiliency in the Netflix era.

North American ticket sales will end the summer season — in the United States, it officially ends on Labor Day — with an increase of more than 14 percent, according to the research firm ComScore Inc. The performance was fueled by the outsize performance of Walt Disney Co.’s “Incredibles 2” and “Avengers: Infinity War.”

The percentage gain is the largest since 1998.

“The notion that streaming has led to a decline in cinema attendance is really overexaggerated,” said Phil Contrino, a spokesman for the National Association of Theatre Owners.

Summer ticket revenue, always dependent on the studios’ big-budget films, can be volatile. Last year, sales plummeted 14 percent when a few major releases came up short.

Still, the spoils aren’t shared equally. Disney has almost doubled its sales from a year ago, according to Box Office Mojo, and Universal Pictures and Paramount are also up substantially. Other major studios, though, are down.

One concern that might fade is the disruption caused by MoviePass, which offered unlimited moviegoing for less than $10 a month. Constrained by losses, the service now limits customers to three movies a month; meanwhile, major exhibitors have come up with their own plans.

With the summer bouncing sharply higher, analysts are raising their forecasts for the full year, crediting the Disney blockbusters and surprise hits such as “Crazy Rich Asians” and “The Meg.” Leo Kulp, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, predicts full-year growth of 5 percent, reaching a new record, after previously projecting a flat 2018.

One caveat: Those forecasts include the effect of higher ticket prices.