50 Shades of ... Hey, Where Is Everybody?

We're just winding down from the Oscars, but it seems Hollywood box office is in greater need of the defibrillator than another round of drinks at the Vanity Fair after-party following the Academy Awards. With just about a month to go until we close the quarter, the box office to date is down 45% year over year. Ouch! Fifty Shades of Grey and (believe it or not) The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water are the only two movies to break the $100 million mark -- with SpongeBob trailing 50 Shades by only a few million dollars at this point -- so far in 1Q 2015. That compares to six movies above that level in the year-ago quarter, including The Lego Movie, which on its own contributed more than $250 million for the first nine weeks of 1Q 2014. The moviemaking business is always a tricky one, as the consumer can be a fickle beast. I have to admit I certainly didn't see SpongeBob performing almost as well as 50 Shades. Certainly there are other factors that could be weighing on the box office during the current quarter. One is the shortened cycle from in-theater to on-demand via Apple's (AAPL) iTunes, Google (GOOGL) Play or even Amazon's (AMZN) Prime Instant Video. Weather could also be a factor, given the storms and frigid temperatures we've experienced so far. Despite the weak attendance -- and let's remember, if people don't show up it's pretty hard for them to nosh on the high-margin concessions -- shares of Regal Entertainment (RGC), Cinemark Holdings (CNK) and AMC Entertainment (AMC) are within spitting distance of their respective 52-week highs. My take on that is for shareholders to ring the register and book some profits on these stocks that have handily outperformed the S&P 500 year to date despite the box-office weakness. Never feel guilty about ringing the register and taking some profit off the table. My buy the bullets, not the guns bent when it comes to investing has me looking for a way to utilize that strategy for the box office. If we look at the upcoming release calendar, we have Furious 7 coming in early April, but then it's not until May 1 that we get the big movie that will be Avengers: Age of Ultron from Disney (DIS). The first Avengers movie holds 28 box-office records, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com, including best opening weekend, best summer opening and best May opening. Marvel has been on quite a tear with its movies and it's hard to see how this latest one can miss. Disney also has the latest Pixar film, Inside Out, hitting in June, followed by Ant-Man in July. The Disney machine will surely capitalize on those three opportunities. While many are talking about the new princess focus at Disney, including the new makeup line -- can you believe people are paying up to $100 for a $17 lipstick on eBay (EBAY)? -- as being the latest driver, I would counter and say it's Marvel and Pixar. Those were clearly two of the smartest acquisitions Disney has made. It also proves that content is indeed king. But you can experience all of that for even more of your hard-earned dollars given the recent price hike at Disney theme parks. If you've decided to lighten up on your RGC, CNK or AMC shares, consider DIS as a place to put at least some those profits. Get an email alert each time I write an article for Real Money Pro. Click the red +Follow next to my byline on this article.

50 Shades of ... Hey, Where Is Everybody?

Box-office take is way down so far this year.

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