Eric Handler: Last News

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter In 2020, during the peak of the entertainment industry’s love affair with streaming, a follow-up to Disney‘s animated hit “Moana” was destined to become a television series for Disney+. But like the movie’s shapeshifting demigod Maui, who traverses the seven seas with the eponymous Polynesian warrior, the project has transformed into something entirely new.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Killers of the Flower Moon,” Apple’s first major theatrical release, has generated $120 million globally after three weekends of release. Is that a good result for a movie backed by a streaming service? A terrible outcome for a glowingly received, $200 million crime epic directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro? Or somewhere in between? Everyone who follows the movie business has a different take, so parsing these ticket sales could take longer than the film’s daunting three-hour-and-26-minute run time.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” And Logan, who owns Logan Luxury Theatres in rural South Dakota, is back in the black after enduring two years where profits vanished while studios failed to furnish enough big movies to play. “It’s nice,” he says. “We don’t have to reassure our bankers every time we meet for coffee.” Logan’s theaters aren’t the only ones experiencing a dramatic change of fortunes. Overall, the domestic box office stands at $2.3 billion, up 36.8% from the same period last year and an astounding 589.5% improvement over 2021, according to Comscore. The exhibition industry is finally looking like its pre-pandemic self again. That’s partly attributable to studios releasing new installments of successful franchises, but it is also linked to a shift in attitude among the major media companies when assessing the value of a theatrical release.

Black Widow” and Warner Bros.’ “Space Jam: A New Legacy” suffered steeper-than-normal declines in their second weekends of release, with revenues falling more than 70% after opening to stronger-than-expected results. In a sign of the new world order, “Black Widow” debuted simultaneously in theaters and on Disney Plus, where it was available to rent for $30.

After another solid weekend at the box office, several Wall Street analysts have issued upbeat outlooks on the exhibition sector, calling for a robust moviegoing rebound from Covid-19 in 2022.

tepid $36 million in domestic box office sales since hitting screens on Sept. 3, which MKM partners analyst Eric Handler says proves that big releases can’t make it without theaters in major cities like New York and Los Angeles, which remain closed.“Tenet’s US results definitely showed us that middle America cannot carry a tentpole film.

The disastrous debut of Warner Bros’ spy thriller “Tenet” at movie theaters has Hollywood studios fingering the panic button. “Tenet” — a $200 million Christopher Nolan production which has amassed less than $30 million in ticket sales since it hit US theaters on Sept. 3 — has given Tinseltown a wakeup call, with studios grappling with whether to release their remaining blockbusters this year or hold them until the coronavirus crisis wanes. “Studios are making decisions based on what’s happening with ‘Tenet,’” said MKM partners analyst Eric Handler.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaIf movie theaters are banking on Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” to ride to their rescue, they may have to wait a lot longer for help.That’s the takeaway from a new note by Eric Handler, a leading exhibition industry analyst with MKM Partners, who predicts that there’s a “low likelihood” that “Tenet” will open on Aug. 12 as planned because of the rising number of COVID-19 cases in such major markets as Texas, Florida, and California.Handler also cites the “slowed re-opening of the New York City economy” as another reason Nolan’s latest epic will likely be delayed again (it has already moved twice).

As China's exhibition sector — shuttered since Jan. 23 amid the coronavirus pandemic — gets set to turn its lights back on, analyst Eric Handler of MKM Partners on Wednesday said Imax has "multiple years of liquidity" on hand with which to start reopening its screens in China in mid-May.

AMC Theatres — whose business has effectively shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic — looks increasingly likely to file for bankruptcy with its cash reserves dwindling, according to Wall Street analysts.

With exhibition giant AMC Theatres' first-quarter results in the books, Wall Street analysts on Wednesday dissected the figures and management commentary, with their main takeaway being caution. "AMC remains a high risk story," MKM Partners analyst Eric Handler concluded in a report published early on Wednesday, even though he also emphasized that "the company appears sufficiently capitalized to avoid bankruptcy in 2020." He lowered his 2020 and 2021 financial estimates "to reflect changes to our forecasted revenue for both the U.S.

By Dave McNary

MKM Partners analyst Eric Handler on Wednesday upgraded the stock of exhibition giant AMC Theatres from "sell" to "neutral," arguing that "near-term bankruptcy risk appears to have subsided." He raised his fair value estimate to $5 from $1. Handler said that risk has lessened "considerably" as a result of the "increasing likelihood movie theaters in the U.S.

By Dade Hayes