Are TV mega-hits keeping Canadian viewers from movie theatres?

Viewers are tuning into AMC’s The Walking Dead in unprecedented numbers for a scripted program, a show at the vanguard of a slate of television offerings touted as the new golden age of programming that includes Game of Thrones, Vikings and House of Cards.

It appears movies are suffering from the shift, and in turn box office sales, with a weaker lineup of blockbusters drawing smaller audiences over the past year.

New research from experts at Canaccord Genuity published Monday shows Canadian box office sales down seven per cent last year compared to 2013.

“Recent weakness in the industry has once again given rise to the question of the long-term sustainability of box office sales and the possibility of some degree of secular decline creeping into the industry,” experts at Canaccord Genuity, a financial services firm, said in a the report.

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The sluggishness at the box office actually extends back into 2013 and has continued through the first few months of this year. “We have in fact seen a rather extended period of box office declines – six successive quarters in Canada,” the Canaccord note said.

Weak slate

The downturn is a North American trend, with box-office receipts down 5.2 per cent last year in the United States. Only two other years experienced similar declines in recent decades – 2005 (5.8 per cent) and 1985 (7.0 per cent).

Still, Canaccord said a weak slate of movie releases is to blame – not a structural shift in consumer habits away from movie theatres. Last year had no shortage of big-screen bombs, while only one motion picture – Transformers: Age of Extinction – managed to top worldwide sales of $1 billion.

MORE: Cineplex eyes premium seating, gaming as revenue boosters

In contrast, the current year promises “one of the stronger film slates in recent times,” analyst Aravinda Galappatthige said. “One can expect a bounce back in ticket sales.”

Galappatthige notes the movie theatres have weathered shifts in media trends and consumption in the past, with only one technological innovation seriously denting box-office sales.

“The only innovation that genuinely (and seriously) hurt attendance was the advent of television,” the analyst said.