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

I can't be arsed

[rsilvergun]

to go pay $15 dollars to watch a movie meant primarily for the Chinese. Start making movies for America again and I might show up. And that means more complex plots and dialog (which are harder to dub) few or no foreign product placements (which make no sense and break the movie flow even worse than regular product placements) and stop randomly including Chinese actors (I'm lookin' at you Rogue One).

Hollywood stopped making movies for me so I stopped going. Go figure.

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.

Re:I can't be arsed

[ph0rk]

Donnie Yen was probably the best thing in Rogue One. What are you smoking?

Re: I can't be arsed

[gweihir]

All of these films made back their budget.

Hollywood likes to whine and, of course, they want to rake in even more money. They can also not admit to making a profit, because then the whole "piracy" narrative becomes very obvious as the complete lie it is. People could notice they are scumbags.

Re: I can't be arsed

[The Evil Atheist]

The no-profit thing has nothing to do with piracy. It's to do with screwing people on their contracts.

Re: I can't be arsed

[sheramil]

Pirates is the only one with superstar actors in it. Of course the Mummy had Tom Cruise but he's no Brendan Fraser.

fix'd.

Re: I can't be arsed

[ShanghaiBill]

Hollywood learned their lesson after Avatar, which was only allowed a limited release in China. In China cinemas, it is fine for the lone hero to save the Universe, but it is NOT okay for common people to rise up against oppression. That can bring up too many uncomfortable comparisons to real events.

Re: I can't be arsed

[Anonymous Coward]

The CCP to the citizens - "Know who your master is, or I will remind you again with the PLA"

The first priority of the CCP is to protect the CCP. All other concerns are secondary.

Re:I can't be arsed

[Gussington]

Most ignorantly racist post I've read on slashdot all fucking day.

The fact that, at time of posting, it's +3 insightful, is deeply saddening.

Don't confuse culturism with racism. I'm neither American nor Chinese, but it's obvious that the target market for Hollywood producers is shifting away from the local market.
And this is not just movies, there is cultural tide moving away from European origin cultures toward foreign markets. It's real and it's disturbing to a lot of people. And as long people keep brushing it off as simple racism, people like Donald Trump will thrive.

Re: I can't be arsed

[Reverend Green]

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Re:I can't be arsed

[danbert8]

Why can't Hollywood come up with a decent parody movie anymore? Where are the Airplane!s and the Spaceballs?

So it wasn't just me

[thesjaakspoiler]

thinking why the heck TV-series were more interesting than the movies....

They don't care

[phantomfive]

As long as the international box office makes up the difference, the studios won't care if the American box office slides.

Wrong Script

[Art Challenor]

This cannot possibly be the fault of the studios/movie makers. The obvious problem is illegal downloading and something about Amazon, YouTube, Netflix,or somebody not paying their fair share for legal downloads.

Re:Wrong Script

[Anonymous Coward]

The new copy protection scheme has worked. They made movies so shitty I won't even download them. They would have to pay me to watch them.

Who could have possibly guessed!

[ArylAkamov]

Reboots of reboots have stopped selling out?
I'm shocked. Shocked!
At this rate, they might have to invest in new IP instead of beating the dead descendants of a long dead horse.

Punished.....as they should be.

[homes32]

Love how they try to pin their failure on social media. Point in fact: Your movies sucked. Just because we can now tell people quickley and en mass how badly they sucked does not chamge the fact. Why should hollywood be rewarded by paying customers for producing trash?

then lets do the math for them!

[nimbius]

"The Mummy" This will be the fifth or sixth movie with the same plot, but different cast. we skipped the FX budget and hoped no one would notice, which did a great job exposing our shoddy subplot and writing.
"Baywatch": this show ran for 12 years as a surrogate for softcore porn on basic cable/rabbit ears. in 2017 the plot and dialogue of this had better be great, otherwise the internets vast troves of adult content have crushed it before its even left the gate. the characters are, at best, totally untranslatable to millennials saddled with debt and ramen noodles.
"The Dark Tower": What was this even about? character development died in the first 3 minutes (remember suicide squad?) but the whole movie worked tirelessly to complete the vision of a parking lot full of squirrels. This was a stephen king novel that was an excellent example of story telling but was, surprise, butchered by hacks to fit 90 minutes.
"King Arthur: Legend of the Sword.": I know ill probably get crucified for saying this on slashdot but this died because it only related to white people who walk into a nation themed restaraunt and start quoting the noble percentage of "heritage" from which they draw themselves. Black heimdal, black spiderman, hispanic blue beetle, see a trend? its called reading the demographic properly. This film was basically lifted from the Disney ride by a baby boomer exec at a studio trying desperately to purge him from the ranks.
"Alien," "Transformers" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" this is the sixth alien, the sixth transformers, and the fifth in the pirates series. Hollywood needs to learn that the cash cow for millennial audiences dies after #1 for films written at the 4th grade comprehension level. Watching Mark Wahlburg cash another check for something that looks scripted on the toilet, or Johnny Depp show up in another $pirate_film because he either picked up the phone or has poor retirement planning is something boomers do.

tl;dr: the largest demographic youre trying to attract expects a little diversity, better scripting, and higher quality for an $11 ticket they could just skip and watch whenever it shows up on netflix when we're too stoned or bored to play steam games.

Re:then lets do the math for them!

[Anonymous Coward]

Black heimdal, black spiderman, hispanic blue beetle, see a trend? its called reading the demographic properly.

Or, maybe the blackening of older traditionally white characters instead of just inventing new cool black characters is what turned people off? Everyone knows 2016 was the seminal year for black cinema.

Other Factors

[sehlat]

1. Aging population. I'm "hearing-challenged" and the subtitles in theaters are horrible, hard to read, and NEVER at the same focal distance as the screen. These days if a movie doesn't have subtitles on the DVD, I don't bother. My family has to drag me to a theater, where I miss at least half of the dialogue.

2. Discretionary income: It's dropping. Real wages have been dropping for decades. Add in how many young people are burdened with student debts and s**t jobs, and it's easier to avoid theaters and stay home.

This summer had terminal squealitis

[supremebob]

I only watched a single movie (Dunkirk) this summer, mostly because almost every other major movie release was a:

1) Squeal from a movie franchise that I've lost interest in
2) Reboot of a movie franchise that I've lost interest in, possibly because I'm old enough to have seen the original movie back when it was... well... Original.
3) Was yet another comic book movie (Do we really need more than 3 of these a year?)

Re:This summer had terminal squealitis

[Hognoxious]

Squeal from a movie franchise that I've lost interest in

Deliverance or Animal Farm?

Fuck Movie Theaters -- they SUCK

[UnknownSoldier]

So I took Christopher Nolan's advice and saw Dunkirk at an IMAX this summer.

Nolan's Cinematic Vision in 'Dunkirk' is Hollywood's Best Defense Against Netflix.
He also wants you watch the movie in the theatre, and not on streaming service Netflix, which he says he rarely uses.

There wasn't an IMAX close by so I had to take a hour ferry -- no big deal because I get to visit a good friend of mine. After paying for parking the dam theater entrance was on the back side of the building -- a 5 minute walk. OK, but this is "nickeling and diming" both literally and in travel time is starting to getting annoying. I then wander around for 10 minutes because some fucktard couldn't be arsed to put up a "Dunkirk" sign. They had a sign for another movie -- but that wasn't playing. And of course I go to the OTHER theater just to double check it wasn't playing there and of course it wasn't so back to the _first_ theater. ARGH.

So with less then 5 minutes to spare I finally get a seat -- except it is near the Left edge of the theaters. Could be worse and I could be looking up.

Except the "movie experience" is SHIT compared to home theater.

* There was literally 20 fucking minutes of ads
* Now I love _clean_ bass except the whole time this loud, booming bass was drowning out everything.

Dunkirk was visually beautiful -- but I could have had a far BETTER experience on my 60" plasma at home.

Movie Theaters SUCK compared to home theaters. Advantages are:

* I always get the best set in the house
* I always get to use the arm rest
* Can pause the movie
* Can rewind the parts I want in case I missed something or want to check something out
* Go to the bathroom
* Raid the fridge for snacks/drinks instead of over-paying for food
* Turn on/off CC
* Adjust the volume to MY liking
* Don't have to listen to any idiots beside me constantly talking / snoring throughout the entire movie.

Fuck Movie Theaters -- they SUCK.

Re:Fuck Movie Theaters -- they SUCK

[LostMyBeaver]

I know I am out of touch with costs of things... I lived in poverty in the late 90s, the .DOT boom happened and every year has gone up since. So after 17 years of not being in poverty.... I remember a few things.

The poorest people I knew had the best TVs... why? Easy, if you can't make ends meet anyway, why bother trying to budget for everything. Buy it, lease it, rent it, however you need to... just get it and hope you can make the payments.

The word afford is reserved for the middle class. People who make enough to make ends meet. The reason for this is that if you have enough to pay your cost of living (bills, food, car, etc...) and you like the ability to save for bigger things... even if saving really means just paying off your credit cards, you do it. People in the middle class tend to be in the middle class because of the word "afford". I means they can plan their budgets and live up to them. They know how much money they have and what they can spend without stress.

Poor people can't afford anything... hence poor. So if you can't afford anything... ever... you don't bother thinking about it. Instead, you find lay away (which is basically just paying for it before getting it), store credit cards with insane interest rates, pay check loans, etc... anything to get that TV... pay the rent? Uh... well, that's the benefits of the projects, they're used to making concessions for people who can't pay.

So... I would say where you're getting it wrong is believing that having the financial means to buy something has any impact on whether you have it or not.

Visit Florida sometime. You'll see an insanely large market of pawn shops and rent-to-owns, and an endless river of shops designed to exploit the poor by making it possible for them to have big shiny things once in a while. Once you get outside of Disney, Florida is one giant disgusting pit of the poor preying on the poorer.

Crank up the prices, produce garbage movies

[Snotnose]

and wonder why butts don't hit seats. Combine that with assholes who talk during the movie, assholes who text during the movie, and overpriced popcorn/cokes. Let me spend $500 on a nice TV that not only satisfies my needs night after night, but if I wait a couple months I can get a couple friends over to my house for a $2 rental, plus $1 popcorn, plus $2 coke, plus, um, who did I invite? Call it $20 for booze, less if I charge me friends for staying in the guest room.

The movie business is changing, news at 11.

/ my defining moment?
// Driving Miss Daisy
/// There were like, 5 of us in the theater, but a kid kept running up and down the aisle screaming the whole movie.

Re:Crank up the prices, produce garbage movies

[Bing Tsher E]

We went to a movie last month and were running late. I had wanted to stop by at a McDonalds or somewhere and get a bit to eat before the picture.

We decided instead to buy some snacks at the theatre. My S.O. did that while I got the tickets.

She ended up buying us each a 'hot pretzel' and a bottle of water and a tub of popcorn for us to share.

The 'hot pretzel' was a big mass of dough on a plate.

After we got out of the theater I happened to notice the recipt for the 'food.' The Hot Pretzels were like $14 each, the bottled waters were $5, the popcorn was I think about $8. Anyhow the 'snacks' were over $45 for two people. Unbelievable here in flyover country to pay that much for so little.

Low quality and oversupply

[NewWorldDan]

I see two major problems:

The low quality as addressed in TFA. Most of them weren't terrible, but they're not what anyone wanted. Good movies - Spider-man Homecoming, for example - did just fine. Reboots and sequels aren't inherently bad, if they're done well. Some have certainly used up whatever good will they had left.

The other problem I'm seeing from a lot of people is oversupply. They've already watched everything on Netflix and Amazon and Hulu and HBO. They've gone to the buffet and eaten so much there's no appetite left. In the last decade, I've been given every superhero movie I could have possibly asked for. There isn't anything left to look forward to. Instead of watching movies, I'm doing other things, like making pottery. And waiting for something that's actually worth watching, like The Tick.

In general, I suggest that studios once again become a little more selective about what they make, and most importantly, hire good writers. So much bad writing out there...

Too loud, too pricy, too many commercials.

[Snotnose]

Pretty much this. Last movie I saw in a theater? Return of the King. Second to last? The Two Towers.

There is an exception, took dad to a Star wars movie 18 months ago on Christmas day. And remembered why I don't see movies with dad (last was Star Trek 4), he bitches and moans though the whole thing. "Transparent aluminum? No such thing!". "Leaving your ship in a public park? Someone will find it!". etc etc etc.
br. Now that he has Alzheimer it's much worse. Better to rent the DVD and watch it on his impressive TV setup that he doesn't appreciate anymore.

Re:New movies suck

[Ol Olsoc]

I stopped going to movies because all you see anymore are superhero movies. When's the last time a movie came out in the ballpark of Pulp Fiction, Fight Club, or even Ferris Bueller? I honestly have no idea and I couldn't even tell you the names of two movies in theatres right now.

In addition, therre is this weird trend toward the 90 pound woman who kills every man that gets in her way, and is somehow stronger than the incredible hulk. And the even stranger one of the Wonderwoman movie, which for some reason was promoted as some sort of breakthrough, a never before seen strong capable woman in a movie. What? Aliens, Terminator, and lots of others have had that in the current era. Even then, they missed the boat as feminists were angry because Gal Gadot shaved her armpit hair, which is apparently submission to the patriarchy. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2...

So between endless and now boring reboots, Comic book grade school level, and socially annoying movies, I'll just watch TCM for my cinemafix, than you very much.

Make better movies again

[AHuxley]

Listen to the critics. Stop pushing for really positive reviews on social media to sell very average movies.
Select scripts with more care so people in the USA can enjoy a movie.
Find much better actors that more people actually enjoy seeing in a movie.
Find actors on merit who test well with audiences for the needed role.
That might be a new face or an actor thats been liked for decades. Test and see who would work well for a given role. Dont just place an actor in a role for some other reason.
Find better funding so fun movies do not have to be altered to fit in with the history, faith or politics of other nations or groups.
Sell the freedom and fun of Americana to the world. The USA has freedom of speech, sell that globally. Any other nation can do a boring censored movie.
Stop trying to sell America and the world on very limited scripts.
Consider mini series to fill out franchises with complex plots.
If a new movies has hours of backstory to past movies to remove that would have been better as a series.
People on average like a hero, fun and drama. Stop trying to push politics or placate the people providing the funds. Audiences want a story not a lecture for the price.
If a script has to be censored, walk away from that funding.

Re:translation....

[Pseudonym]

the rest of the world is stupid.

No, Americans are stupid. I don't know if it's distributors or audiences that are to blame, but good films from most other countries don't show in most American cinemas, so other countries can't make films for that market to compete. You probably get a few British films and that's it.

Re:Politics

[GumphMaster]

I'm not sure why Hollywood stars think that ANYONE in the world gives a shit about what they think regarding politics

It is exactly the same reason you think anyone in the world gives a shit about your opinion on politics. Political opinions are like arseholes: everybody has one, some people have two, and the people that speak best from the second are in politics.

Re:New movies suck

[LostMyBeaver]

Is there a special word for a female who believe it's :
    - cool to be a girl
    - doesn't believe the world is out to get her
    - doesn't need every company in the world to prove how pro-woman they are by treating women as if they need to be told how special they are until it starts sounding like how we call disabled people "Special"
    - doesn't think it's cool that she has to wonder whether she got the job because she's qualified... or worse...
    - doesn't think it's cool that a lot of her colleagues around her believe she got the job to fill the quota

I think you get the point.

I was driving my 13 year old daughter and her friend home from kick-boxing practice the other day. No joke.,. cute little girls... big smiley faces... making all kinds of funny jokes.... home from kickboxing.

I asked "Did you two enjoy trying to cause each other physical injury today?" and they explained all the fun things they did like practicing punching each other in the stomach for half an hour for conditioning.

I asked "Don't you think hurting each other is maybe a little bit of a bad way to treat your friend. And they giggled and tittered as if they were playing with Barbies and explained that they do it to each other because they're friends".

I asked about their enemies. I was told "What enemies?"

They then continues to discuss a new elective class they chose for the new school year they're taking. It's about electronics and mechanical things. They will learn some electronics and how to make simple robots, some programming on Arduino, etc... it sounded great ... then they started talking about friend from other schools and how those kids were able to take programming but they were upset that they weren't given the option.

Then they went home to play OverWatch with their friends.

Here are two girls... who are REALLY REALLY well suited for being in environments entirely outnumbered by men. Even by men who will think it's find to call them "Sweetheart" and it won't phase them at all. They do all the things guys do... they don't look around them and see guys and girls. They gravitate towards each other at kickboxing and such because they like hanging with girls better. They kill each other in Overwatch with friends of all types...

So instead of a girl who thinks there's a need to make a point out of being a girl. And being a girl who thinks she has to prove herself because she's a girl. What is a word that describes a girl who simply doesn't give a shit about that and simply fits in everywhere and makes people smile while she's around?

P.S. - As a father of a little girl... I have to admit I was quite pleased she and her friend decided that kickboxing would be their thing. We live near enough to a city that our main form of recreation is coffee shops downtown. And when she gets older, it's nice to know that she should be prepared to fight back against knuckle draggers.

I tell you how (I live in se asia, Thailand)

[gl4ss]

1st. simpler the plot the better. have distinct bad guy, an inbetween guy and a bunch of good guys. ideally the inbetween guy would jump to good side for some moral dilemma or whatever. if there is a traitor he needs to get his comeuppance. just basic stuff really. the good guy can be some rogue character of sorts. Ideally they're after some magical item that might destroy the world in the wrong hands or whatever.

2nd. explosions are good.

3rd. acrobatics are better.

4th. don't try to explain magic. they'll take it as what it is, magic. it doesn't need to make any sense. just throw that stuff into the plot and don't explain away any of the paradoxes such stuff existing in the world makes for the plot.

5th. sequels to hollywood hits are okay. or just use historical characters. or mix both. plenty of asian hit movies are just retellings of the same tales again and again and again.

6th. don't spend too much time worrying if you can make your effects look good for the thing you are trying to show. as long as it gets the point across then it's enough. they don't care.

7th. have a ghost in the script. don't ask why, just have it.

a good example is the latest pirates and transfomers

I went to see the latest pirates of the caribbean dubbed in thai. it did seemingly not impair AT ALL understanding the movie. the plot is that simple and in addition to the simple to get plot there is just a bunch of action pieces. I would wager I did not miss a single detail about the plot, who was the son/daughter of who, who had an axe to grind for what reason and so forth. it had mediocre cgi. the thais loved it. they don't care about the flaws as long as it is entertaining and has some cool(to them) stuff.

covenant i don't see going down so well - even scott himself doesn't seem to actually have decided just wtf is going with the plot and where it is going. alien resurrection seems to be on reruns all the time on tv.

those bad superhero flicks and sequels? THAT IS EXACTLY CATERING FOR THE CHINESE MARKET!!! the pirates and transformers you're asking why they are still making them and the answer is ASIAN MARKET.

one another note: they even make remakes of soap operas here. the ghost rule applies. and what I mean with a remake is a plot twist by plot twist remake with just an updated cast. instead of having the same bold and the beautiful run for 30 years they can just remake same shorter plot every 4 years. they don't care if there isn't any surprises. I guess it's a cultural thing.

the marvel flicks work great for the because they are not too deeply interconnected and they do have their internal plots, which usually center around something grand like saving a planet or the entire universe. they don't try to force too much character development on the main characters either.

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Re:translation....

[sa1lnr]

"the rest of the world is stupid"

Remind me, who is your current president?

Re:translation....

[Hognoxious]

You gotta give them credits, they're more stupid than even the British with Brexit.

Debatable. Trump can't last more than eight years, it's like in the rules and all that.

The Brexit mess will still be there twenty years down the line.