Theater attendance has been falling, which makes it even harder for studios and distributors to profit from films. Usually, a portion of theater ticket sales go to theater owners, with the studio and/or distributor getting the remaining percentage. Traditionally, during the opening weekend of a film, the larger chunk went to the studio, while as the weeks went on, the exhibitor's percentage rose. So a studio might make 50% of a film's ticket sales in the U. S. and even less than that on overseas ticket sales.
The percentage of revenues an exhibitor gets depends on the contract for each film. Many contracts are intended to help a theater hedge against films that flop at the box office by giving theaters a larger cut of ticket sales for such films, so a deal may have the studio getting a smaller percentage of a poorly-performing film and a larger percentage of a hit film's take. (You can see the securities filings for large theater chains to see how much of their ticket revenue goes back to the studios.) Studios and distributors generally make more from domestic revenue than from overseas sales because they get a larger percentage. Still, overseas ticket sales are incredibly important, especially today. It's why you’re seeing more sci-fi, action and fantasy, and why superhero movies are such a phenomenon: They’re easy to understand, whether you’re in Malaysia or Montana. It’s much harder for an indie comedy to translate.
