Hollywood is Suffering Its Worst-attended Summer Movie Season in 25 years (latimes.com)

The number of movie tickets sold in the U.S. this summer (425 million) is likely to be the lowest level since 1992, the L.A. Times reports. "Theaters, studios hit by summer box-office blues." The reason: Too many bad movies, including sequels, reboots and aging franchises that no one wanted to see. Some point to rising ticket prices, which hit a record high in the second quarter. From the report: Then there are long-term challenges, including competition from streaming services such as Netflix and the influence of the movie review site Rotten Tomatoes. How about all of the above? What is clear: This summer was marred with multiple high-profile films that flopped stateside, including "The Mummy," "Baywatch," "The Dark Tower" and "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword." Sequels in the "Alien," "Transformers" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchises also disappointed. The business is also reckoning with broader, longer-term threats that have kept Americans from flocking to theaters the way they used to. People now have more entertainment options than ever, and cinemas have struggled to keep up, despite efforts to adapt with improved technology and services, industry analysts say. The problem is exacerbated by an unforgiving social media environment in which bad movies are immediately punished by online word of mouth.

Comments

Re: I can't be arsed

[Rakarra]

I don't know how movies are being "made for the Chinese".

Many movies are. Transformers 4, for instance, had a number of concessions to Chinese culture and political norms. Its reward? It became the #1 highest grossing film in Chinese history (at the time).

http://time.com/2965333/how-transformers-4-became-the-number-one-film-in-chinese-history/

Re: I can't be arsed

[phantomfive]

It's a global audience. Let's break down those movies based on US/worldwide revenue:

1) The Mummy: $80 million US, $327 million rest of world
2) Baywatch: $58 million US, $119 million rest of world
3) Dark Tower: $44 million US, $43 million rest of world (it's still going)
4) King Arthur: $39 million US, $107 million rest of world
5) Alien: $74 million US, $158 million rest of world
6) Transformers: $130 million US, $473 million rest of world
7) Pirates: $172 million US, $791 million rest of world

All of these films made back their budget.