Summer movie box office sales down 20%

[zerocool84]

Drive ins are ideal for families. One fee per car load and you won't disturb anybody if your kids start fussing. There's still two in Toronto that I know of. One is across the road from where I work. Can see them playing movies when I leave at night. I think they're the kind of assholes who check your car for contraband though.

I think the problem with Hollywood is they don't take risks on films any more. Films try to appeal to as many people as possible, then get watered down in the process. The ham and eggers are starting to notice too, which is bad news for them. Makes more sense to make four mid budget movies that appeal to 30 million people than one big one that appeals to 100 million.

No, they still take risks which is why there are some great movies still coming out. It's not like all of a sudden recently they decided to not do remakes, there's been remakes since forever, hell there's even movies from the 50's that are remakes. Doesn't make them any less good.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Tv series are more enjoyable than the Hollywood crap.

The tables have turned on that BIG TIME. 20 years ago the best TV could not hold a candle to the best movies. TV was the minor leagues, movies were the majors. Now, only a select few movies every year are anywhere near the quality of the best TV. Maybe that's why so many successful movies are franchise/series now. TV has trained the viewer to invest in a set of characters and a continuing long term story. When a top quality TV series raises the bar with 10-20 hours of exceptionally good stories EVERY SEASON a one-and-done flick of 2 hours seems almost juvenile. They just can't do anywhere near the character development or layered stories that TV can do.

Drive ins are ideal for families. One fee per car load and you won't disturb anybody if your kids start fussing. There's still two in Toronto that I know of. One is across the road from where I work. Can see them playing movies when I leave at night. I think they're the kind of assholes who check your car for contraband though.

Drive-ins are great for the consumer. Cheap, fun, isolated from other customers, etc, but they're a terrible business. They mostly disappeared because they were not consistent money makers. The margins are slim, the weather window of ideal viewing is too short and they require too much space per customer. It's a poor use of land. I'd happily go to a drive in on those beautiful summer evenings if they still existed in this area. But they all went under and the land got sold to businesses that could make a profit. And it's too bad, the stuff like Godzilla is perfect drive-in fodder, but it's not good enough to get me into a theater to see it. So I'll wait and watch at home.

 

[ElFenix]

(Another one: Film cameras. Kodak: "Digital photography is just a fad. It'll go away soon."
A few years pass.
"..... shit. I think we screwed up. Anyone know anything about CCDs or CMOS photo things?!? How soon can we get one to market?")

the sad part of it is that kodak invented the digital camera and made the best CCDs for a long time. it was selling pro digital backs grafted onto nikons and canons for a long time before either of those started doing it themselves. kodak's CCDs were so good leica picked kodak for its first serious digital camera.

but kodak was never interested in the high end of the market. so instead of keeping up the pro development and partnering with a brand that could have really used it (minolta or pentax or even joining 4/3), it sold a variety of consumeriffic plastic crap competing in the commodity end of the market. you could have a ton of marketshare in that but there wasn't much money to be made and now it's a dying segment.

even worse is polaroid. there's still demand for instant pictures - there was enough when polaroid closed the line and there's enough for fuji to be expanding the instax system which has replaced polaroid.

Heh. I think Seagate narrowly missed the same thing with SSDs

seagate 600 is a great drive

 

[Ns1]

I vote diversity, they are making same thing or prequels and squeals of the same thing over and over again, it sucks to the point where I don't want to waste $40 on watching them anymore and wait for them to be available on redbox

Why spend 100m on a risky venture when you can spend 300m on transformers 6 and take in a billion dollars?

 

[olds]

Why I don't go to movie theaters:
1. People in theaters are rude/loud/uncouth
2. Snacks are priced obscenely high
3. If I have to piss because I am drinking a $4 soda, I miss part of the movie.

Why I watch at home on my home theater:
1. Everyone shuts the hell up
2. Snacks are cheap
3. I can pause the movie

 

[ImpulsE69]

Why I don't go to movie theaters:
1. People in theaters are rude/loud/uncouth
2. Snacks are priced obscenely high
3. If I have to piss because I am drinking a $4 soda, I miss part of the movie.

Why I watch at home on my home theater:
1. Everyone shuts the hell up
2. Snacks are cheap
3. I can pause the movie

4. Girl can give head during movie without cops coming.
5. Can smoke (wife added)

 

[Sonikku]

Adjusted for inflation, actor and actress salaries have been increasing over the decades. Adjusted for inflation, movie ticket prices have been increasing over the decades.

In the 2000's, with far more entertainment options to choose from, and movies being relatively more expensive compared to their cost to consumers as a percent of salary in the past, is it any wonder that eventually consumers choose to spend their money elsewhere? Add on the lack of creativity, some consumers are probably starting to get bored with all the remakes.

Now, on top of the (adjusted for inflation) ticket prices that have been going up, you have the FAR outpacing inflation costs for those other things that add to the movie experience - popcorn, soda, etc. I've stopped going to theaters for a variety of reasons. First - I don't believe your "we have to charge so much because we don't make money on the tickets." What? $40 (including popcorn and soda for 2) You've alienated me as a customer & it'll take quite a bit to get me back. Second, so many of the movies are crap. Third, I've got a large screen TV & can rent a movie for just a couple bucks, or stick to avenues such as Netflix, Prime, etc. Sure, I don't get all the new releases, but there's plenty to watch, and I don't feel cheated if I turn the movie off half way through because it sucks. Oh, and 4th, most of the theaters don't give a shit about obnoxious customers. Weird that back when minimum wage was twice the cost of a movie, they were able to afford an usher to take care of disruptive people in the audience. I'm not getting up in the middle of a movie, leaving to go complain, and missing part of the movie as a result - I'll just grumble through it & leave having had a poor experience.

That's probably another reason. People are poorer now than they used to be. These days an hours minimum wage won't buy you a single early matinee rate ticket, much less two tickets like back when.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

4. Girl can give head during movie without cops coming.

You can do that in theaters. Although I would not recommend trying it at a Saturday afternoon matinee of something from Pixar.

 

[DesiPower]

Why spend 100m on a risky venture when you can spend 300m on transformers 6 and take in a billion dollars?

well, that's not happening anymore, is it?

 

[Ns1]

well, that's not happening anymore, is it?

Not sure what you mean by that.

 

[shortylickens]

Dont worry. Adam Sandler will release another crappy movie and sales will skyrocket.

 

[BoberFett]

Dont worry. Adam Sandler will release another crappy movie and sales will skyrocket.

That's what's sad. Most of his shitbombs seemed to do well at the box office.

Punch Drunk Love is my favorite movie of Sandler's (starring, not writing) and how many people have even heard of it, much less paid to see it in the theater.

 

[shortylickens]

And thats not an Adam Sandler movie.

 

[olds]

That's what's sad. Most of his shitbombs seemed to do well at the box office.

Punch Drunk Love is my favorite movie of Sandler's (starring, not writing) and how many people have even heard of it, much less paid to see it in the theater.

Never heard of it.

 

[olds]

And thats not an Adam Sandler movie.

Why?

 

[shortylickens]

Somebody else wrote and directed it.

His movies suck because he has too much control. He's actually not a bad actor, but he needs someone else telling him what to do.

 

[Aikouka]

Dont worry. Adam Sandler will release another crappy movie and sales will skyrocket.

He already did: Blended!

And thats not an Adam Sandler movie.

He said starring in, which means it doesn't have to be a Happy Madison production (not all of those have Adam Sandler anyway).

 

[shortylickens]

"'Blended' is actually one of the 'better' Sandler films, which is to say it's sometimes almost half-tolerable."


Thats the nicest review.

 

[mmntech]

No, they still take risks which is why there are some great movies still coming out. It's not like all of a sudden recently they decided to not do remakes, there's been remakes since forever, hell there's even movies from the 50's that are remakes. Doesn't make them any less good.

It's not so much remakes I have a problem with. It's that in Hollywood, you have non-creative people making creative decisions. It's been a problem for a long time.

Movies aren't made by artists or directors any more. They're made by focus groups, lawyers, marketing teams, and MBAs. The director and writers gets told what to make, and they make it. That's why Hollywood loves Michael Bay. He's a master at doing what he's told. They play it safe and try to appeal to as broad an audience as possible, even if it makes little sense to do so. Which is why Transformers 2 had those downright offensive to the mind "urban" Autobots.

By contrast, studios almost didn't pick up Titanic because they thought nobody wanted a 3 hour romance epic. It's still the second highest grossing film of all time.

 

[Bateluer]

It's not so much remakes I have a problem with. It's that in Hollywood, you have non-creative people making creative decisions. It's been a problem for a long time.

Movies aren't made by artists or directors any more. They're made by focus groups, lawyers, marketing teams, and MBAs. The director and writers gets told what to make, and they make it. That's why Hollywood loves Michael Bay. He's a master at doing what he's told. They play it safe and try to appeal to as broad an audience as possible, even if it makes little sense to do so. Which is why Transformers 2 had those downright offensive to the mind "urban" Autobots.

By contrast, studios almost didn't pick up Titanic because they thought nobody wanted a 3 hour romance epic. It's still the second highest grossing film of all time.

I would agree, thats the heard of the problem. We see the same thing in books, comics, and games too.

 

[SSSnail]

The problem with low ticket sales is not because piracy, the problem is that I wouldn't watch most of the movies that are playing if they paid me to watch.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Everyone says that, but obviously someone is watching them for all the money they make. Hell, I admit I am a movie junkie, but I watch them on the cheap at home. While I used to buy many DVD's, I pretty much said to hell with the BR format. I will take lower quality convenience over that BS any day except in a few very rare cases.

If you want to talk about costs, kids in their basement are making CGI crap that is almost on par with the million dollar studios. Movie companies have turned into the government in money spending as giant money pits that don't know how to actually utilize their resources anymore. Do you really think it's impressive a movie costs 300 million to make? I don't. I think it's an utter waste of money when you KNOW someone could have done it for a 1/3 of the price had they actually tried.

 

[Ns1]

They play it safe and try to appeal to as broad an audience as possible, even if it makes little sense to do so.

Do you people even think about what you type? Transformers 2 only made 830m at the box office. That's why Michael bay gets jobs - pandering to the lowest common denominator pays the bills for the next 5 movies. Making artsy fartsy films pays for I dunno, a summer mansion or something (but only if your last name is Weinstein. Otherwise it just puts you into debt)

 

[PlanetJosh]

Convert the theater screens to OLED. That'll bring back the 20% and then some. I guess the biggest OLED is a 80 inch screen atm so they better get busy.

 

[Jeff7]

Do you people even think about what you type? Transformers 2 only made 830m at the box office. That's why Michael bay gets jobs - pandering to the lowest common denominator pays the bills for the next 5 movies. Making artsy fartsy films pays for I dunno, a summer mansion or something (but only if your last name is Weinstein. Otherwise it just puts you into debt)

I was hoping that that was an exaggeration.




Wow.

I did see a Transformers movie once. I don't remember where....I didn't have to pay anything to see it though, I know that much.
It had explosions, CGI alien robots, and was written by an intelligent chicken.