So now through our app, through our online website, you can purchase that march as well, which is a great thing. We’ve seen is in circumstances where we sell out of merchandise in our theaters, now we have the opportunity to continue to offer that to consumers online. And we’ve seen a great uptick with high-demand type items in people flowing through to online purchases. And then I would just add, the online store also gives us more of a sustained venue. We have limited space in our theaters, but there is a wider array of things we can offer on a perpetual basis to drive incremental sales in that category. So we definitely view it as a positive opportunity as we look ahead, something that can continue to contribute to future per cap growth.
Operator: Our next questions come from the line of Jim Goss with Barrington Research.
Jim Goss: I wanted to ask about the emerging genres you mentioned. You — I think you indicated there was about 7% of your revenue base was coming from a combination of perhaps base based films or cultural may play a role, Indian, Japanese, Hispanic or maybe some other areas. And to some extent, you’re identifying some new audiences that took advantage of the hole that was available. And how sustainable is that? And clearly, that’s providing some of the increment that’s helping you reclaim higher ground.
Sean Gamble: Well, look, we think — so it’s a great question, Jim. And you’re right. We did comment that it was about 7% of our box office results in the first half. We do think it is a sustainable category. If anything, for a long, long while, we had an anticipation that alternative content had a lot of promise, and it was frustrating that it only had taken off to a limited degree. So it’s taken some time for this category in some of these different areas to catch on. But I would say we’re now finally starting to see a bit more momentum. The appetite for a wider audience base to go view these types of multicultural films is picking up. The scale of those films is also been to a higher degree, which we think certainly helps the quality of those movies and the scale of those movies.
So they’re starting to translate more across cultures. We’re certainly seeing — slowly starting to see more in the — like we’ve had the met for a while, but in the concert space in the gaming space, these different types of events. And then clearly, we’re seeing more scaled faith-based results on some of these films like we saw with Gesa’s Revolution and sound of Freedom that are delivering some pretty solid box office figures. So all in, we continue to think there’s opportunity there. We’ve said historically, we think probably 5% or so of box office might be a reasonable expectation. Certainly, as more of the Hollywood content comes in, that will just create a bigger overall number. But we think there’s a lot of ongoing potential here. And if anything, we think there’s a bit more growth than what we’re currently at based on some of the trends we’re seeing in these categories.
Jim Goss: Okay. One other thing I’d like to ask about is film rent margin trends, I might have expected more favorable trends given that there have been blockbusters, but not perhaps as many films getting to the higher levels. And I thought you might also get some concession in terms of how you’ve played with Windows over the past several years. But they’re not quite where I thought they’d be. And I wonder if you might — maybe are where you think they should be. If you have any comments on the film rent margin progression.
Melissa Thomas: Sure. So in what we saw in the quarter, our film rental, the dynamic that’s playing out in our film rental rate is that as the overall box office grows, we’re seeing more higher grossing titles and those fall higher on the film rental scale. So that’s the dynamic that we’re seeing in — or we saw in the quarter play out. As you look forward, we do continue to expect our film rental rate to be impacted by a higher concentration of tentpole films. But that’s going to — our film-only are going to vary quarter by quarter based on the volume and content in any given quarter. We still are receiving economic consideration for window — the reductions in windows. But again, that also varies quarter-to-quarter based on release patterns.
Sean Gamble: Yes. And I would just add, Jim, just a quick data point. When we look at the top 5 films in second quarter of this year, they were about 62% or so of our box office when you consider what they were in 2019, it was about 53%. So we’re still seeing more of the remaining gap of film volume in some of those smaller titles. So those have made a big advance this year versus last year, but that’s an area that’s still to fill in, and it just puts a little bit of a mixed drag on that overall metric. That, coupled with some of the incremental spend that we’re doing, which also hits that line item from an advertising and promotion standpoint, which we think has been net-net compared to 2019, valuable in sustaining our market share. Another piece to one of the questions that was asked before.
Operator: Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our next questions come from the line of Eric Wold with B. Riley [ph].
Unidentified Analyst: A couple of questions. I guess, first, can you update us on kind of what you’re seeing with labor wage rates domestically and in Latin America? And how would you characterize the staffing of the theaters relative to where you want to be at this point in terms of still looking to manage costs and margins, but not impacting the guest experience?
Melissa Thomas: I’ll take that one. So in terms of wage rates, we are still seeing some wage rate pressure. Our wage rates are up about 5% year-over-year. That is, as you know, from the past couple of years, it’s come down from where we were trending. We — while we see wage rate pressure in pockets, we are not seeing that market-driven pressure nearly to the extent that we were previously. What we’re seeing now year-to-date continues to be more related to state government mandated increases versus that labor market dynamic. Now we do — and then in terms of Pure, our ability to actually staff up the theaters, we were able to — as we ramped up for the summer season, we were able to staff the theaters to the levels that we intended to staff them to. So that was definitely a positive as you think about the last 2 years and the staffing challenges that we had seen. So I would say better dynamics at play there…
Sean Gamble: Yes. And I would just add for Latin America, similar dynamics to what Melissa said, albeit I think in many of those markets, some of the increased inflationary challenges that we’ve seen here in the U.S. are more commonplace in those markets. So there’s — that’s more of the norm, and our teams there are very adept at dealing with those types of dynamics. So it’s been more of a newer phenomenon in the U.S., but we’ve got a lot of experience in that market. And staffing levels are where we need them to be there, and we’re continuing to do what we can to offset and manage the cost of normal market inflation.
