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Movie Ticket Sales Hit A 22-Year Low in 2017 (msn.com)
An anonymous reader quotes the Los Angeles Times:
Hollywood is celebrating the end of 2017 with astronomical sales from "Star Wars: The Last Jedi," which is on track to soon exceed $1 billion in global ticket sales and eventually become the biggest movie of the year. But that won't be enough to write a happy storyline for the industry. Although movie ticket sales in the U.S. and Canada are expected to dip just below last year's record of $11.38 billion, the number of tickets sold is projected to drop 4% to 1.26 billion -- the lowest level since 1995, according to preliminary estimates from studio executives.
The falloff in ticket sales can mostly be explained by a handful of movies that flopped, especially during the dreary summer season that posted the worst results in more than two decades. Even such massive hits as "Wonder Woman," "Thor: Ragnarok" and "It" couldn't make up for a lackluster summer lineup populated by rickety franchises ("Alien: Covenant") and poorly reviewed retreads ("The Mummy"). However, the long-term decline in attendance reflects systemic challenges facing the industry. Audiences are spending less time going to the movies and are consuming more entertainment on small screens and through streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon that are spending billions on original video content. At the same time, while higher ticket prices have helped to offset attendance declines, they have made consumers pickier about what movies they're willing to go see. And those increasingly discerning consumers turn to social media and Rotten Tomatoes to decide what's worth their time and money.
The falloff in ticket sales can mostly be explained by a handful of movies that flopped, especially during the dreary summer season that posted the worst results in more than two decades. Even such massive hits as "Wonder Woman," "Thor: Ragnarok" and "It" couldn't make up for a lackluster summer lineup populated by rickety franchises ("Alien: Covenant") and poorly reviewed retreads ("The Mummy"). However, the long-term decline in attendance reflects systemic challenges facing the industry. Audiences are spending less time going to the movies and are consuming more entertainment on small screens and through streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon that are spending billions on original video content. At the same time, while higher ticket prices have helped to offset attendance declines, they have made consumers pickier about what movies they're willing to go see. And those increasingly discerning consumers turn to social media and Rotten Tomatoes to decide what's worth their time and money.
I'll still gladly pay to go see a movie - if only there was anything good. This is no different than competing against VHS rental. When the movies are bad, people will wait or skip entirely. It's been this way for 30+ years.
I can't understand why musical songs are so popular? Who, over 12 years old, is going to hear them? They come out with a new song every 3 months, and they all sound identical to me. They also make a ton of money, so they will continue to make them. I only listen to traffic noise and lawnmowers myself.
I've got a 42" TV and it's not even that big by American standards. I've got video games that border on photo realistic (uncanny valley not withstanding). I've got Netflix, YouTube and a video camera built into my $200 cell phone if I want to make my own movies. I don't need them anymore.
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Why would I spend twenty dollars to sit next to an asshole teenager who is texting the whole time. Or some jackass who brought a three year old to an r rated film. After watching twenty minutes of commercials and spoiler trailers, having my ears blasted out... And while being able to hear the movie playing next door even in quiet moments of my movie. Because louder is better? Why? I can't move seats to get away from jerks because seats are assigned now. I have to kick people out of my seat quite often because people sit in my assigned seat. The quality of food and drink continually declines, the kitchens are often filthy messes, theatres do not even provide unsweetened tea anymore, the workers seem suicidally depressed, and the remaining customers often seem like self entitled rich jackasses who are not there to see a film, but to be waited on and catered to. Why would I want to go anymore? My best experiences were in the second run theatre tbh. Don't know what had happened but it's.profoundly unpleasant nowdays to go to films.
I know, it's piracy right ? Not the fact that nowadays they make a long-play film out of a "story" that wouldn't even be considered as a side-plot for a Star Trek episode a few decade ago. Where actors are cast based on looks only, talent is irrelevant. When movie studios are basically banks, going for proven ROI's only, taking zero risk, killing and burying all remaining talent. Where now almost everything is a reboot or spinoff of a brand name made a few decades ago and marketed and hyped to death. Adding ZERO value, often simply demeaning to the original. And even when they try real hard, everything is pushed and shoved and even in their best efforts the end result simply lacks finesse. Where the whole SciFi genre is now reduced to Xmen bullshit and yet even more action packed garbage with simply no plot, no insights, nothing, just terrible cgi action scenes, and cheesy dialog. Where everything is tailored to one age category and the common denominator where all of the audience is considered to be brain dead morons and potheads.
Hollywood doesn't make movies for the United States. They're targeting Asian audiences and competing with Bollywood, where it is pretty typical to see serial-style films with the same characters and plot lines over and over. Not to say that doesn't happen in the US and western film (Bond, Star Trek, Star Wars, etc), but it is on a whole new level.
The difference is that the US produces spectacles using a lot of technology. Bollywood produces spectacles using a lot of people.
"Well, good luck finding a judge that doesn't run a bestiality site."
Wrong.
The only Indie Films ever released are:
- Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
#DeleteFacebook
The problem is the theaters, not the movies. Theaters are an awful way to experience a movie. There are:
Stinks
Excess Noise
Uncomfortable seats
Garbage
Gum
Spit food
Obnoxious people
Strangers
No pause button
No skip button for previews we don't want
No rewind button for things we want to see or hear again
Inconvenient locked in times of day
Have to travel to the theater
High prices for theater
High prices for snacks and not allowed to bring our own better ones
For the cost of one theater ticket I can buy several movies that our entire family can enjoy and even watch again later if we want.
Theaters are a very poor solution.
I recently wen to a chain cinema instead of the independent one near my house. We were treated like cattle, given assigned seats (!?), and had to endure advertisements on the screen before the movie. I don't mind a printed add in a slideshow of movie trivia to show your stub for a free dessert at a nearby restaurant or something like that. These were like TV commercials with sound so loud you could not talk to your friends that lasted a minute or more with no redeeming content between them. Even if the movie had been really good the entire experience would be tainted.
With Netflix, Hulu, Amazon streaming, etc. you can wait and watch it at home cheaper. The reason to go to the movies is the experience. Improve the experience and people will come. Treat people like cattle and they will stay away. Our local cinema has a bar attached, real butter on the popcorn, and only shows previews before the movie. They actively try to create a community by showing classics at midnight on weekends, hosting movie trivia contests, and showing locally produced movies including a Q&A with the makers. They participate in film festivals. It isn't that hard.
Here are the cinematic options that Hollywood gives me today:
1) Superhero sequel #2986--this time with slightly improved explosions
2) Disney movies where men/boys are always either the buffoon or the villain
3) Indie darlings about black/gay/lesbian/transsexuals fighting evil white people over slavery/oppression
4) Remake of decent movie that you liked 20 years ago, but now with an all-woman cast and much shittier writing!
Now which should I spend $50-$80 to take my wife and son to, when I could just stream something at home on my 4K home theater?
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
By number of tickets sold, it's terrible, yet by revenue it's nearly a record. This means the per seat price to go to a movie is astronomical, which feeds into their problems.
Taking the family out to a movie is one of the most expensive outings to do nowadays. Years ago, over the summer you might go every two weeks over the summer. Now that's not affordable even if you want to do it.
Yes this is also alongside people having gigantic TVs and fantastic sound along with really good furniture that's frequently better than the theater's. So while before you paid to see things on the 'big screen', now you can get that at home. Now you have to want the experience of the theater, the audience, and/or be so impatient to see things when only in theaters.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
If a movie has to sell in a Communist nation, make a separate movie that is within Communist party rules.
Dont try and edit a movie for global release in free nations into something that can be sold in a Communist nation.
Make two different movies for very different markets. Something the Communist government will accept.
Something that will sell to the rest of the world who is not under Communist censorship.
Edits and adding plots to please Communist governments is not going to please other audiences used to freedom of speech.
Dont let great scripts and good casting get changed by the political demands of todays activist staff.
Let the movie, setting and plot guide the cast and story not the radical changes demanded by todays activist politics.
Find out what most American audiences want to pay to enjoy. If its faith, freedom, fun and Americana, try selling that to the USA and the world.
Freedom, a good plot, a cast that fits the roles might just sell more than today's limited political newspeak.
If an author and book have a set look and feel that sold well why mess up making a profit with radical and experimental casting changes and new roles?
Dont let activist actors demand changes to plots that sell or are selling.
Need new roles for actors who make constant political demands? Create and find new amazing scripts. See how well their ideas for political art sells.
Audiences might embrace their new creative art rather than a sloppy, lazy political retrofitting of past classics?
If an actor wants a role let them write a script, get funding and risk their own project for a role they feel will sell.
Dont change a quality project for their political demands.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Maybe the list can shed some light onto the problem. So we have:
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales ...
Thor: Ragnarok
Beauty and the Beast
Justice League
Logan
Wonder Woman
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Spider-Man: Homecoming
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
The Fate of the Furious
Dunkirk
Kong: Skull Island
Kingsman: The Golden Circle
Transformers: The Last Knight
Power Rangers
And so on. Can you spot a theme here? Sequels, Prequels, new installations of a series, reboots... and to the cherry on top of the shitcake is that the movie about King Arthur is the one with the most original, non-derivative script.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
... are the endless DC/Marvel comic book films, and bad sequels. Was there really a need for so many Vin Diesel street racing movies? Oh, and the needless reboots of previously successful films---many of which were also superhero comic book films (or TV series). All of these are crowding out other movies that people might like to see but can't because, of the 20 screens at the cineplex, at least half of them seem to be showing a sequel or reboot. Holding up each moviegoer who's already dropped $10 for a ticket for another $10 or so for a bag of popcorn and a soda doesn't help either. Waiting a few weeks and renting the DVD--or watching it online--with cheaper snacks and drinks makes a whole lot more sense nowadays. Plus... you get to see those movies that couldn't even get on a screen at the cineplex.
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
Ticket sales are down 4%, but video streaming is up 60%. Does that mean it's a bad year for the "movie industry", or is it a bad year for the movie theater industry?
I don't think we need to have any bake sales for Hollywood. And until they start taking away people's phones at the door, I'll continue to go to movie theaters less.
You are welcome on my lawn.
How about a Disney superhero film that checks off each of your points labeled 1-4? Doesn't The Last Jedi satisfy each and every one of these requirements?
does it really bother you that much?
No, not particularly. But I'm not paying $50-$80 to take my kid to a movie that teaches him to be ashamed of himself for being born a white male either.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
In 1930 there were 4 billion movie tickets sold in the U.S., with a population of 123 million, or about 32 tickets per person. In 2017 only 1.26 billion tickets were sold, or about 4 tickets per person.
Wow! The movie industry is in dire straits, 87 years of steep decline!
This is ridiculous of course. The movie-related entertainment industry is radically different from 1930, with different pricing models for tickets, many revenue streams from each property (overseas revenue often topic domestic, DVD/Blu-Ray sales, merchandising, cable, streaming, etc). Today a movie may get "green lighted" without any expectation that it will make its costs in domestic theater runs, based on the other sources of revenue that will be generated.
More than a decade ago studios stopped regarding DVDs as the enemy of theater revenue and began treating the theater release as a promo for DVD sales. Instead of leaving a long gap between theater run and the DVD release they brought them close together.
Notice that despite this drop in ticket sales, revenues are up due to higher prices. They aren't just jacking up prices - there is a (continuing) transformation of the movie-going experience.
I live in the Los Angeles area, so I am likely seeing the leading edge of this transformation -- but the major cinemaplexes here are providing much cushier and roomy seating with recliners and swinging tables, and assigned seating which you can buy on-line. You don't have to get to the theater early to get a good seat, or seats together, you have those seats guaranteed any time you show up. Theaters have also upgraded their food, offering a bar and a menu you can order from, having the food brought straight to your seat. More expensive, but a much nicer experience.
With everyone having a large 2K or 4K TV, and fancy audio if they want, and upsampling DVD players and Bluray, and now streaming options, unless a movie is some sort of "must see" cultural event, there is little motivation to spend extra bucks to go to the theater -- unless you want that luxurious premium entertainment experience.
Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
I can't understand why superhero movies are so popular? ... I only see art films myself.
Superhero and other action/special effects heavy movies make the best use of the theater's big screen and sound systems. Most dramas and art movies don't gain much if anything seeing them in the theater vs home, so people are spending their money accordingly. The dramas and art films are still being made, they just don't get theater ticket sales, which is the focus of the article.
Superhero movies are also simple fun and escape. Not everyone considers a fighting back tears watching a heart-wrenching drama an enjoyable way to spend their Saturday night. If you enjoy a movie night clutching a tissue box, that's fine, but others may prefer more escapism in their movies and there's nothing wrong with that.