In North America in 2022, 71 widely released movies generated $7.35 billion. This can be compared to the $11 billion generated in pre-pandemic 2019, which saw 110 movies be widely released. But one must remember that in 2019 the streaming platforms had not yet eroded theater-going as much as it has now. Plus, many movies couldn’t be released in 2022 due to work shortages and so-called “pipeline challenges.”
In order for a film to be considered a “wide-release,” it has to have screened in more than 2,000 theaters. In terms of box office tickets, Disney came out on top with $1.84 billion. Universal Pictures came in second with $1.6 billion, however, it provided the largest output with the release of 36 movies. Paramount was next with $1.3 billion in box office receipts, then came Warner Bros. with $934 million, and bringing up the rear was Sony Pictures with $854 million.
Another reported 2022 trend was Hollywood’s proliferation of Pinocchio movies. Some 57 years after Italian fiction and political writer Carlo Collodi came out with Le Avventure di Pinocchio in 1883, some 50 movies have been released since the first Pinocchio movie, which came out in 1940 from Walt Disney. But the tentpole genre reached its apex in 2022 with three new Pinocchio movies (from Disney, Netflix, and Lionsgate). A fourth Pinocchio movie (by Ytfinifni Pictures), and a second Pinocchio videogame (from Neowiz) will be released this year. (The first Pinocchio-themed videogame was released in 1998.)
The Wall Street Journal reported that the University of Chicago even has a course on film adaptations of Pinocchio. And a book, Approaches to Teaching Collodi’s Pinocchio and its Adaptations, has also been published (2006, Modern Language Association of America).
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