If Distributors Want to Hide Box-Office Grosses, Comscore Has Consequences
For certain films, it’s a popular distribution tactic: Tell Comscore — the very expensive subscription site that collects real-time box office in the U.S. and Canada — to collect the grosses, but hide the results. This is often the case for brief awards-qualifying runs; sometimes, it’s because the distributors just don’t want to make the numbers public.
However, as of January 1, 2025, that will change: On December 11, Comscore told distributors that if they want to block gross reporting, Comscore won’t let them see the totals, either. This move comes after two recent significant releases — “Juror #2” (Warner Bros. Discovery) and “Nightbitch” (Searchlight) — blocked the display of grosses on Comscore.
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Comscore has become a trusted tool for the industry for both its real-time release calendar and box-office reporting. It also spares distributors the labor-intensive method of calling theaters and waiting until Monday for the weekend’s results. That process also prevented theaters and distributors from making booking decisions with the most complete data.
For the few films it places in theaters, Netflix blocks the grosses every time. However, both “Juror #2” and “Nightbitch” were mainstream studio releases that, according to the Comscore release schedule, made last-minute changes (“Juror” a few days ahead of opening, “Nightbitch” the day before) to their release designations. Instead of “Limited,” they became “Academy Run.”
That category subterfuge allowed WBD and Searchlight to keep grosses hidden and provoked outrage among other studios. An Academy Run is roughly defined as one week, with one theater in New York and LA. However, “Juror” played in over 30 theaters in 18 markets. “Nightbitch” played in over 80 theaters in similar markets. At this writing, “Juror” is still playing in some theaters weeks after release while “Nightbitch” will hold at least nine theaters a second week in the New York and Los Angeles markets.
Industry sources outside WBD suggested that weak box office for “Juror” (a film with almost no marketing) would embarrass Clint Eastwood. With “Nightbitch,” perhaps Searchlight feared weak results would hurt chances for awards recognition.
Earlier this year, Disney also hid grosses for “Young Woman and the Sea” starring Daisy Ridley, which quickly went to Disney+. “Juror” is set for Max December 20 and “Nightbitch” is planned for Hulu later this month.
As of the new year, any studio that wants to hide Comscore data must also live without that information. It’s a policy that will mollify Comscore subscribers who resent bashful competitors, but for Comscore it’s essential to its self-interest. It sells shared data; every time it’s hidden, the service is less valuable.
The move also shuts down the risk of normalizing hidden data. Before streaming, hiding box office was a rarity. Today it’s taken for granted that if a Netflix or Hulu movie is in theaters, box-office reporting won’t follow. As a trend, Comscore can’t allow that to take root.
For “Juror #2,” estimated grosses suggested the film opened well. Publicity would likely increase pressure on WBD to add more theaters and advertising.
It’s unclear if this policy will extend to legitimate one-week limited openings; in the past, those grosses were later added to the film’s totals. And: Will Comscore still record a gross for its own purposes, even if it’s made unavailable to all?
Comscore also provides the most accurate annual box office figures. In 2023, Comscore reported $9.1 billion, which included privately recorded grosses; sites that use studio-provided grosses, such as Box Office Mojo and The Numbers, reported the figure at $8.9 billion. In these days of diminished attendance, every dollar counts.
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