Movie sales boom going into the holidays

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - Movie theaters have suffered over the last two years, but recent releases are putting bodies back in seats, despite the threat of the omicron variants.

“In the theater the screen is bigger, there’s more action, speakers everywhere,” says Trent Shea.

“The seats are very comfortable,” says his friend, Elizabeth.

The Shea family is going to see Spider-Man: No Way Home at Rave Cinemas inside the Franklin Park Mall. It’s the ideal movie to see in theaters, according to Caitlin Piper. Piper is a spokesperson for Cinemark Theaters, the parent company of Rave Cinemas.

“You want to see it so Spider-man is larger than life and you can hear every single sound and you really get taken into that experience,” she says.

That experience is enough to bring people back to the theater after nearly two years of slow pandemic sales. Piper says a significant number of movie-goers this weekend have come back for the first time since the pandemic began.

Spider-Man is not only shattering pandemic records.

“Thursday night’s first preview showings were actually Cinemark’s best Thursday night opening of all time,” says Piper.

In the first two days, the film brought in more than $120 million at the domestic box office, and more than $300 million worldwide.

“He’s gonna jump on something. I already know that,” says Alex Shea.

Even the threat of the Omicron variant can’t keep people away from the theaters.

“I got vaccinated, my wife got vaccinated. We just want to get back to normal,” says Tyler Shea, the father of Alex and Trent.

It’s not just Spider-Man. Piper says that people are also turning up for House of Gucci and Disney’s Encanto.

“Cinemark, our competitors, and our studio partners are really really confident that consumers are excited to come back for exciting films,” she says.

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