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

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So it wasn't just me

[thesjaakspoiler]

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

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?

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: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.

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.

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: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.

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?