Attendees at CinemaCon, the National Association of Theatre Owners trade show, looked bullish on a movie resurgence in 2015, due to big titles including Avengers: Age of Ultron, Jurassic World, Minions, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens and a better spacing of releases throughout the year. Domestic ticket revenue was down more than 5% in 2014, to $10.35 billion, according to Rentrak.
This year, however, some analysts predict ticket sales will climb 8% to $11.2 billion, a new high-water mark, on the strength of the upcoming franchise films and early year successes including Furious 7 and Fifty Shades of Grey. Generally speaking, higher ticket sales are a good indicator for sales of movie licensed merchandise.