From Hollywood to Nollywood: Are cinemas bouncing back?
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This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Cinemas can be special places to go to and escape the everyday. You buy your ticket, get your popcorn, and then you jump into new worlds and thrilling stories. If the film's good, that is. Recently, though, it hasn't all been a fairy tale for cinemas. There was the pandemic, which made businesses close their doors to the public for months. Streaming soared, and we all got pretty comfy with that.

And then last year, Hollywood actors and writers went on strike, meaning even more delays to production schedules.

As we near the end of 2024, there is some good news. Huge blockbusters like Wicked are making waves and in a few countries, cinema attendances are on the rise. So today we're asking, are cinemas around the world bouncing back? I'm Hannah Gelbart. Please take your seats. From the BBC World Service, this episode of What in the World is about to begin.

Our film critic for today here in the studio with me is Annabelle Rackham, a BBC culture reporter. Hello. Hi, how are you doing? Good, thank you. Question, what was the last thing you saw at the cinema?

I did go and see Wicked a couple of weeks ago because I interviewed the cast. That's an insane claim to fame. That's a good claim to fame, yeah. So I made my cinema return after maybe about three months to go and see that. What was it like? What was Ariana Grande like? She was really nice. I interviewed her and Cynthia together. And yeah, Cynthia Uri, though, I'm not really on first name terms. I don't know why. Might as well be. I mean, you've met them. So yeah, that...

fact that you're not the most regular of cinema goes kind of taps into what we're talking about today it's all about this trend of death and revival if we can put it in those terms of the cinema obviously last year like

Like Barbenheimer. The movement was insane when Barbie and Oppenheimer were released on the same day. This year, everyone is talking about Wicked. You definitely have been talking about Wicked. There's Gladiator. It's awards season. How are these big blockbusters performing at the cinema these days? Well, it's actually been a bit of a mixed bag this year. I think people were quite quick to write off Wicked when it came out. I don't know if you remember the disastrous musical that was Cat.

that came out a couple of years ago. And it was universally panned and people thought, oh, a musical's going to do well again in the cinema. This has exceeded all expectations, really, when you look at the figures for Wicked. Came out on Thanksgiving weekend just before in the US as well, which is a big part of the year to bring out films. But it's made loads of money. It's made $600 million nearly globally, which is a huge amount. Then you've got kind of a hit that you wouldn't expect

Moana, Moana 2 came out just last weekend. That's nearly done 600 million globally as well in dollars. Almost the same as Wicked. Yeah, almost the same in less time. But yeah, again, like there has been some films that haven't done as well, which were really pegged as being like huge blockbusters. Have you heard of Red One? No. No. So that came out in September. It had Dwayne The Rock Johnson, the highest paid actor in the world as its star. Wow.

He got paid a lot of money to be in this film and it hasn't even made back what it cost to make. So it cost about 200 million Warner Brothers spent on it dollars. I wonder if they didn't invest enough in marketing. Yeah, and it didn't make the money back. So yeah, it has been a bit of a mixed bag. But, you know, globally, Hollywood especially is doing really well. And you have to look at figures like that and say that it's been a pretty good year for cinema. Yeah.

In terms of people actually going bums on seats in cinemas, are we seeing the footfall back to pre-pandemic levels or is it still lower? So it's actually looking okay. We got figures out about this recently. They're about in 2019, which is like the last big year before COVID hit.

About 7.9 billion cinema admissions were recorded globally. Sounds massive, doesn't it? And this year, sorry, last year, it was about 7.1 billion. So that I think is quite a good recovery, especially if you think that the way that we view films might have changed dramatically.

even more the way that we just view entertainment in general a lot more at home. It shows that streaming hasn't really taken over as much as we might have thought it had. I guess that's what quite a lot of people were afraid of as we got more and more comfortable on our sofas watching everything we wanted on demand back to back. It looked like it might not be such good news for cinemas. So cinema has taken a hit, right? There was the pandemic, then there was the actor strike, there's the cost of living crisis.

How has all of that affected the industry? I think, you know, you can get quite a good indication from the pandemic because we did see a bit of a dip in the number of big releases that came out immediately. So if you remember, big production companies were a bit worried about putting out these huge films, say, you know, late 2021. They didn't know if confidence would be back in the cinemas. But it has mostly picked up. If we think about the Axis strike, that was last year.

And people probably don't realise this, but a film can be in production for like two or three years. You look at Wicked, they started filming that in 2021. So it takes a long time for a film to come out. So I would say we're not going to really see the effects of the actor's strike of last year and the writer's strike, maybe for a couple of years now.

I would say that, you know, that if you mentioned it before, there was Barbenheimer, which was Barbie and Oppenheimer being released on the same weekend. And that was seen as a bit competitive. This year we had Glickid. I do not like that phrase at all. Glickid.

It kind of makes your tongue click. But it's Gladiator and Wicked, and they came out on the same weekend. So I think it might be that we probably don't notice because we won't have films competing. It will just be there's a steadier stream of films coming out throughout the year rather than every weekend there being a blockbuster, you know, pushed in your face with big marketing campaigns and premieres. So, yeah, let's see. But...

There was an expectation this year. Hollywood was really worried about whether they were going to make enough money, but it seems to have exceeded all the projections it made. So Hollywood as an industry wanted to make around $8 billion this year, and it looks like it's going to make $8.5 billion.

So that's a pretty healthy return. So it looks like we're not really seeing the effects of the pandemic anymore. But the strikes is something to factor in in the future. Sticking with the pandemic, because that was a global issue, of course, and it affected film industries around the world. Bollywood, Nollywood, South Korea's got a massive film industry. Are you seeing the same kind of trend, that big dip and then a bit of a recovery?

It looks like that, yeah. And I think that if you look at the figures, I had a look to see what the US figures were like compared to the rest of the world. And it actually looks like the recovery's been better in some of those territories that you discussed there. So if we look at China, which is one of the biggest film industries in the world, a third of people in China would say that they go to cinema regularly. So that's really good news for the industry. Yeah.

You look at the US, that is kind of flagging behind. So about 15% of Americans say that they would go to the cinema regularly, and that was in 2023. And again, India is another huge market that you mentioned there. And nearly half of Indians say they go to the cinema regularly. So it does look like in some of those Asian territories, it is healthier than the US. But still, the figures are pretty much on par with what they were like pre-pandemic.

Have cinemas been trying any new tricks to encourage people through their doors? So I'm sure, even if you haven't been, I'm sure you've seen that maybe in the town or the city that you live in, there must be some sort of luxe cinema experience. Oh, leather seats. Yeah. Reclining leather seats. Yeah, think of that, reclining seats,

That seems to be the place that a lot of cinema chains are investing their money in, a real experience. Because, you know, cinema tickets, they aren't cheap. And so people want more for their money, essentially. They want more of a luxurious way to watch the newest releases. So one of the biggest cinema chains in the world has actually just said they're called AMC Entertainment. So they're one of the huge distributors in the US and they actually own the Odeon Group, which is really big in Europe now.

They said they're going to invest over a billion dollars in the next couple of years in luxifying all their cinemas and kind of identifying the places where people do want a nicer experience. So I think, you know, cinemas are trying to bring more people through their doors. And I know if I had the choice of how I'd like to spend my Saturday evening, I think it would be with, you know, a nice cocktail in hand rather than a bit of dry popcorn maybe.

maybe. Throw the dry popcorn at the screen. Let's bring on the cocktails. Yes, exactly. Annabelle, thank you for coming into the studio. Thank you very much. So it does sound like things are getting rosy again for Hollywood. But what about Nollywood, Nigerian cinema? Let's hear from Mr. C. Now he is a film critic from Nigeria living in the UK. Hello. Hi. Great to have you on the podcast. You're part of Iroko Critic,

What does that do? Yeah, so we are a, we like to call ourselves Nollywood content creators. We primarily just do these discussions or discuss movies every Sunday on X or Twitter spaces. So you've got all the tea on Nollywood. And how is it doing right now? Yeah, so it's a complicated conversation.

question, cinema-wise and streaming service-wise, Nollywood over the last two or three years has taken a hit. So cinemas over the last few years have started to struggle, especially post-COVID. Recently, Prime has pulled out of the Nigerian market in terms of commissioning Nigerian movies, and it seems like Netflix has

Netflix hasn't really come out to say what they're doing, but we have noticed a change in strategy in terms of also licensing and commissioning new content.

So there's that, that's the negative side of it. There is a positive side of it in that some individual filmmakers are reaching a little further out than we're done in the past in terms of making it to festivals and things like that over the last couple of years. So depending on where you want to look, Nollywood is a huge market. There's also the YouTube space that has grown as well in the last couple of years.

Yeah, so it depends on where you want to look. But there have been some really big Nollywood blockbusters recently, haven't they? How much have they bought him? Yeah, so you take something like A Tribe Called Judah, made by the producer, director, actor, Funke Kindele, which brought in about 1.6 billion naira, which I think that's about a million dollars USD,

And she's one of the ones to watch out for. She will consistently bring in big numbers for Nollywood. She has a film coming out this year, which will have some international presence as well. So she's one to look out for. Mr. C, Mr. Critic, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast. Thank you so much for having me.

So what I've heard from my guests so far is that there are some films that are doing really well. And what else is it about cinemas that people love so much? Well, Adam Chowdhury is our team cinema buff and he is here in the studio with me. Hi, Adam. Hi, Hannah. As much as I love the cinema, there are some people out there who are outdoing me because they have broken world records just to show how much they love the movies. So, Hannah, I'm going to quiz you on some of those world records from Guinness World Records. Are you ready?

I'm in my seat. I have got my drink in my little armrest. No phone's out? My phone is off and it's in my bag. Cool, cool.

Ramiro Alanis from Florida in the US holds the world record for the most cinema productions attended of the same film, which in this case was the Marvel movie Spider-Man No Way Home. Great choice, by the way. He set this record in the period between the 16th of December 2021 and the 15th of March 2022. So that's three months.

How many times in those three months did he watch Spider-Man No Way Home in cinemas? If it were me, I would be bored after watching it twice. But because we're talking world records, I'm going to say 100. Okay, that would be a smart guess because, you know, 90 days in three months, right? You want to say once a time. But he went overboard. He went 292 times to watch this film to get the world record. Did he not sleep?

I was working out in my head. That feels like at least three or four times a day in those three months. There is no room for work, no sleeping, no socialising, no exercise. It's wake up, go to the cinema. But he's a world record holder, so, you know. The things people do. Exactly. Exactly.

Another world record holder, another American, Zachariah Swope from Pennsylvania. He holds a world record for the most films seen in a cinema in a year. So this isn't just one film, this is just any film just going to cinema. He started this run on the 5th of July in 2022 and ended it last year on June the 30th.

Can you tell me how many films Zachariah watched? So judging from our last record holder, these guys have got quite a high capacity, right? Two, three films a day. 365 days in a year. If we went for two films a day, I'd say, oh, 700, 800. But actually, realistically, like, you're not going to get to the cinema twice a day every day, are you? So I'm going to go with, like, 650. 650.

777, but, you know, I like the trail of thought. It was good. It was a good, good maths. He actually began his run with Minions Rise of Gru and ended it with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. He was also raising awareness for suicide prevention and autism. So all for a good cause. All for a good cause. Three films a day. These world record holders have a high tolerance, don't they? Good concentration span. Yeah.

Well, Adam, thanks for putting me on the spot there. I think I've learned a lot about cinema. Thank you, Anna. And that is the end of today's episode. As the closing credits roll, let me quickly tell you about some of our other stories. We have talked about how to get a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame and also how fake languages are made for movies and TV. You can listen to all of our episodes wherever you get your BBC podcasts and...

talking of films and the big screen. We're also now on YouTube. So once a week, you can watch us chatting away in the studio and get to know us a little bit better by seeing us there too. I am Hannah Gelbart. Thank you for joining us. This is What In The World from the BBC World Service. We'll see you next time. Bye. Yoga is more than just exercise. It's the spiritual practice that millions swear by.

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