Spider-Man swung, Odysseus sailed, and Hollywood rode them to its biggest summer box office ever. There was just one thing missing: nearly 249 million ticket sales.
Theaters across the U.S. and Canada generated $4.765 billion between May 1 and Labor Day, surpassing the all-time record set in 2013 by just $9.3 million, according to data from box-office analytics firm Rentrak, sent to Fortune. But rising ticket prices helped create that apparent comeback. Adjusted for inflation, this summer’s box office remained 17% below 2019, according to the New York Times, while cinemas sold nearly 249 million fewer tickets through mid-August than during the same period that year.
