More than 12 weeks after making its debut on the local movie charts, the highly anticipated Bob Marley One Love now sits in third place for record attendance even as cinema operator Palace Amusement Company Limited looks to bring the curtains down sometime soon.

Coming in behind the 2018 and 2022 Black Panther blockbusters, the Paramount biopic of the life of the legendary musical icon Bob Marley has to date been able to bring out approximately 81,574 patrons to cinemas across the Palace circuit, particularly at its larger Carib 5 theatre in Cross Roads, St Andrew.

“Up to the 11th week it was third in line with the top three movies where in terms of attendance Black Panther did 146,199 and Wakanda 129, 496,” marketing manager and director at Palace Amusement Melanie Graham said during an interview with the Jamaica Observer this week.

“As local distributors of the film we are very pleased with what it has been able to do and despite the mixed reviews, we think it has lived up to expectation to the point that we hope they will bring another one next month,” Graham gleefully added.

The Palace senior director noted that while the movie has brought the company some good business, including hosting the world premiere that was attended by international celebrities, she is not yet able to divulge earnings from it as yet.

“I, however, think this is the end of it even as we continue to keep it there, hoping it will pick up a little more business over the Labour Day holiday after which time we think we will shelve it.”

Receiving record receipts estimated at US$100,000, the film, according to its producer Paramount, is said to have been one of the island’s biggest day openers. The one-hour, 47-minute film having since then been able to deliver record numbers across the globe following its February 14 opening, has so far grossed more than US$177 million worldwide. It currently ranks as the ninth highest grossing film of 2024 in the US. The estimated production cost of the film is said to have surpassed the US$70 million mark.

Palace, which continues to make a comeback in its business following numerous losses since the pandemic and more recently recovering from the negative impacts of a series of strikes by writers in Hollywood, said that while things are not yet back at 100 per cent, they have been steadily getting there.

“Some normality has just started to return to the industry and the writers have also indicated that by 2025 they expect to be back in full swing even as they, in the interim, try to develop as many good pictures as possible,” Graham noted.

Banking on positive performances from a number of films lined up for the summer such as Garfield and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga this month; Bad Boys: Ride or die, Inside Out 2 and A quiet Place in the month of June; and Despicable Me 4, Twisters 2, and Deadpool and Wolverine in July among others, the cinema operator is hoping to continue on its path to full recovery as it continues to pay down on debt and augment revenue streams.

“We still have a lot of work to be done…we have had a break with One Love but since then the pictures have really been sparse coming mostly as horrors, which is not really a big sell for us in this market as our patrons prefer action. While the last month in particular has been somewhat slow, we believe it will begin to pick up from here and we already see some signs. As we continue to work on the introduction of 4DX technology, we also in very short order hope to have some announcements regarding that,” Graham further said to Sunday Finance.

“We remain optimistic and we know that if we have good products, people will come to see it. We want to remind our patrons that we not only sell movies, but also rent the space for corporate events, launches, birthday parties and other activities so we want them to take advantage of these offerings,” she continued.

Palace at the end of the nine-month period ended March 31, 2024 raked in over $1.1 billion in revenues and $123.4 million in profit — $120 million more than that earned during the similar period last year. Of this amount, $410.8 million in revenue and $16.6 million in profit was earned during the three-month period.