Vista transforms amid industry turmoil; a possible takeover target

Mean Girls: went to cinemas two months before streaming.

It's been a difficult few years for the movie business, what with covid shuttering cinemas for extended periods, various dubious experiments with streaming and the last year's actors' and screenwriters' strikes.

The impact of the strikes is still impacting box office takings.

Over the weekend, Disney's Inside Out 2 became the first movie this year to break through US$1 billion in box office in 2024, as well as the fastest-ever animated movie to reach that figure.

But according to Box Office Mojo, overall box office in the US between Jan 1 and July 1 is down 19.5% compared with the same period last year and down 37.3% on the same months of pre-covid 2019.

“Cinema is doomed” opinions continue to surface every so often, as they have ever since the advent of television, even in august journals such as The Economist, although it did note in February that Imax and the biggest of the big screens appear to be thriving.