The global market for video entertainment surpassed annual revenue of $100 billion for the first time last year, fueled by continued strong growth for streaming services whereas box office revenue was up just 1%.

A milestone
The 'home entertainment' segment, which includes discs, digital transactions and subscription streaming (conventional pay TV excluded), continues to surge and now brings in significantly more revenue than the box office (cinema), according to the Motion Picture Association's annual report.

Home entertainment brought in $58.8 billion globally last year, a 14% increase from 2018. This was fueled by the rise streaming services whereas disc sales continued to slump.

Worldwide box office brought in $42.5 billion in 2019, up 1% from 2018 (before inflation). Cinema is starting to show signs of weakness despite Disney's record-breaking box office year in 2019. In the US, box office revenue dropped 4% last year.



Combined, the global video entertainment market surpassed annual revenue of $100 billion for the first time in history.

- "The film, television, and streaming industry continues to transform at a breakneck pace - and as this report will show, audiences are the big winners," said Charles H. Rivkin, Chairman of MPA. "Streaming, which was once only a small part of our business, is without a doubt an increasingly large part of our industry's bright future. New streaming services were launched last year, with more on the way."



Challenging start to 2020
Global box office revenue in 2020 is expected to fall after a challenging start to the year. The outbreak of coronavirus across Asia, Europe and the US has forced theaters to close in several countries and many cinemagoers to stay home in other regions.

Earlier this month, some analysts predicted that the situation could lead to a loss of more than $5 billion in box office revenue and production delays. Since then, the situation has escalated drastically in many regions so the outcome for cinema may be even worse.

On the other hand some analysts believe that the situation could lead to a surge in subscriptions to streaming services and digital transactions such as movie rentals.

- Source: MPA Theme Report