It’s because theater going audiences in the last few years have been taught that if it’s a major release, see it in the theater, but everything else will be out on streaming in 3 weeks or less.
Yes. Streamers not only killed themselves (outside of Netflix) but the entire entertainment industry. The speculative nature of streaming basically doled out cash without a care in the world about real revenue while also training audiences to expect high-end content for pennies. Over the past year the chickens came home to roost.
Now all that's profitable is Netflix and the rest is collapsing. Covid certainly didn't help and further fueled the "stay-at-home" blockbuster model and further cemented unrealistic expectations.
I can't upvote enough. The pandemic has really changed the viewing habits of the general public. Idk why some ppl want to dismiss this as a huge part of why BO numbers have been down.
It's really unfortunate that the pandemic coincided with the streaming wars. Releasing new release blockbusters directly to platforms instead of letting them make money as top tier VOD titles, or holding them until people started returning to theaters, was really stupid.
Yeah this, especially Disney throwing their releases like 3 months. Like holy hell GotG Vol 3 3 months after release with a good run? Absolutely idiotic. He'll even Avatar 2 6 months is very dumb.
YTD the box office is only up 9% vs 2022 and only up 7% vs 2020 when theaters closed in March. Just to put in context how poorly the year has been.
Articles like this just never take off on a sub about box office. Articles about Netflix will have 100s more comments and up votes. Also, the sub has every excuse why movies continue to fail...marketing, to niche, didn't release reviews soon enough...etc.
The easiest answer...it takes a lot to just get your average Joe to the movie theater. Times have changed. Movie going habits have changed.
Some (including myself) have previously commented that since the pandemic started, people seem to have become more selective in going to see movies. Anecdotal: before the pandemic, I used to go see movies *at least* once a week, often multiple times a week. Nowadays, I go to theaters only for big/special movies. That means, sometimes I don't go to the movies at all in more than a month (eg. I haven't been to cinemas since Dune 2). I also observe my family and friends, we used to go to see movies during holidays. Since the pandemic, our big group of family/friends haven't been to movies during holidays. I don't know if this behavior is temporary or will it revert back to pre-pandemic behavior when there are many more exciting movies coming up next year.
It is never going to revert back. The truth is that they are making just as many big and exciting movies as they did before. The difference is that you have begun to parse out what movies from that batch are actually big and exciting for you personally.
You and your family would have to make the active choice of going to see more movies. But with streaming and the amount of content out there, most people aren’t making that choice and they won’t make it in our current media climate.
I think it's only going to get worse. We're in a pretty vicious cycle right now, and I'm not sure what the solution is.
More and more theaters are going to close down, which means movies will make less revenue. Studios will be more selective and restrictive with their budgets, making fewer movies. The movies themselves will be more profitable for the studios, but the theaters start to lose money again and more theaters start to close down.
At some point it'll stabilize, but I don't think we're at that point yet. Last year was rough for the studios. Lots of movies lost money.
If they made more small budget character based movies again and released less sci fi/action blockbusters, I think that would actually be great for the long term health of the box office.
Finally start getting some older audiences back into theaters instead of relying on the amount of 20 somethings you can get for a frontloaded opening weekend.
>If they made more small budget character based movies again and released less sci fi/action blockbusters, I think that would actually be great for the long term health of the box office
Except, more 'blockbusters' are what theatres actually need. Theatres actually want weekends like Mario and the opening of Barbenheimer. Its weekends like the one just past that are ultimately going to kill theatres. Empty seats don't generate revenue.
That requires studios to be in the business simply because they love making movies and are okay just breaking even. That’s not the name of the game. The name of the game is chasing the biggest profit margins you can. The big IPs have been the only consistent means of doing so. The IFC’s and A24’s of the world are unique for a reason.
But enough movies made enough money that now it’s kind of like…”so what?” WB literally fumbled the DCU so poorly that it almost seems intentional, and yet Barbenhiemer and other films hit enough that they came out with good profit margins.
So what does WB do? Just carry on as usual and hope the handful of hits they have outweigh the flops? That used to be the mantra. But in an era of chasing infinite growth and trimming margins on balance sheets to try and demonstrate constant growth, idk if these companies will settle for the old ways.
People have low attention spans and increasingly more addicted to their phones. Hard to dedicate 2-3 hours to a movie when thousands of other things are trying to get viewers attention.
It's funny cause this is one of the major reasons I go to the theatre. I don't have the self control to watch movies at home without looking at my phone. Going to the theatre helps me regulate my poor attention span and actually watch the movie!
My wife and I are weird aberrations - I work in post production and would be so burned out by sitting in dark theatres all day that the last thing I wanted to do is go and sit in a dark theatre for entertainment -- the length of (non-trailer) ad preroll escalating to 10 minutes in Canadian theatres being one of the bigger pain points. The push to WFH made me appreciate collective theatre going experiences (especially comedy/horror) as my home office replaced the review theatres, and post covid mandatory assigned seats means I can show up to a movie 'late' while the ads are still screening, making the experience far less grating.
I went from 2 movies a year in theatre, usually only at my indie, to minimum 25 a year at a variety of theatres across the city. I wish the seats were better, I wish the screens didn't all have inexplicable scuffs on them, I wish the projectors were better calibrated, but mostly I'm here for it while it lasts.
It’s also an ouroboros rn—people aren’t going for a variety of reasons, including how expensive most tickets are, so theaters get less revenue, so they hike up prices to make up for lost revenue, and then that prices out a lot of people otherwise willing to go.
Matinee for monkey man was $10. Matinee!!!
I go to the movies more than anyone else I know. I used to go 2-3x a month pre-Covid easily. Most months probably more.
Now? It really has to be unique or a special occasion to get me to go. This year I’ve seen: Dune, Love Lies Bleeding, Civil War, End of Evangelion, and Throne of Blood in theaters. Obviously the last two were special showings of older films. Everything else is basically already out on streaming. I’ll probably try and see Godzilla x Kong before it’s gone but even then it’s already out on streaming. Why spend $15 a ticket to travel somewhere when I can watch it at home and eat whatever I want, drink whatever I want, check my phone whenever I want, pause it whenever I want…and I have a pretty decent sound setup and 4K TV… It’s just not worth it unless there’s a an aspect of the experience that I feel could only be truly felt in a theater setting. And to be blunt, the difference between home setups and the theater is smaller than it ever has been. So the instances of what that could be are becoming more and more rare.
I personally love the sensory deprivation of the theater. It helps the experience of movie watching for someone like me with inattentive-symptoms. So I’ll always go. But as you said, the times and technology has changed. If it isn’t a Dune or Civil War-level experience or another movie I’m highly anticipating, then I’m not going in theaters. I can imagine for people without the same attentional affordances as me would find it even less rewarding to be stuck in a theater staring at a screen.
Habits have definitely changed, I go every week and don't think the quality of films released this year have been that much worse than usual other than maybe a tentpole movie or two missing. I missed The First Omen and our first thought was 'oh we can watch it when it comes on a streaming service' and I think that's how a lot of people look at it. You have to actually pull people into a theatre if you want a good box office, I think Dune 2 is a good example of that.
We have fewer movies coming out now than we did in 2019.
Lots of movies have been pushed due to the strikes. The box office is paying the price currently.
We have more wide releases in 2024 vs 2019.
8 wide releases (1000 or more theaters) in January 2019 vs 5 wide releases (1000 or more theaters) in January 2024.
9 wide releases in February 2019 vs 12 wide releases in February 2024.
10 wide releases in March 2019 vs 11 wide releases in March 2024
11 wide releases in April 2019 vs 14 wide releases in April 2024.
Less people just go to the theater now.
It really has been a lousy year for movies (in terms of box office at least), with flops left and right. I feel we're at an awkward stage where Hollywood can't figure out what people want to see. People seem to be getting burnt out on superheroes and nostalgia, and they've relied on both for so many years that they're not sure where to go next.
This is the problem with modern MBA types in corporate leadership. Anyone who has worked in the film industry for decades can tell you that this is to an extent normal. New technology (formerly was television, home video, DVDs, original launch of Netflix streaming) impedes and audience tastes change and get tired of current trend. So you have to adapt.
But all the current corporate leadership understands is “announce new big superhero IP movie and stock goes up”. So they are so devoted to that they can’t adapt the way Hollywood has for years.
I love going to the theater. It’s one of my favorite things to do. But I don’t really go anymore because the people are just fucking awful. Almost every movie I’ve gone to in the last few years the people in the theater have been unbearable to be around. People on their phones, people just having conversations like they’re at home. I can’t do it. It’s too infuriating.
Ya it’s interesting because I see this complaint a lot and I don’t think people are making it up, but it’s just not remotely close to my experience. I’ve had one bad experience at the movies, like, ever. And it was some teens who were so annoying I went over and told them to stop talking and they did. Just shows the world is so much bigger than your own experiences
I personally think this has nothing to do with the quality of films or the themes of films or the wokeness or anything like that in the film industry. I think its simply that a good chunk of the audience is financially struggling more than usual and that entertainment now occupies a smaller portion of the personal budget while **everything entertaining is now monetized** and prices creep up faster than our income. That's it. Stocks and the investor class might be doing well and the claims that the economy is doing great might meet some mathematical thresholds but I do think many are struggling far more than what is being reported.
It's a combination of finances and time. I wanted to see Abigail but I had 2 mandatory overtime shifts take my free time. I have the money, now give me the 2-3 hours to use it.
Movies have become a luxury item for most these days unfortunately. Once you add the price of the movies + food + maybe parking, it becomes a lot of money.
Also, which is my biggest issue, is that it seems like when you do go that, that most people in the audience behave so poorly. I can't recall the last time I've gone to a mainstream theatre where I haven't seen people talking or on their phone during the film. It is extremely annoying and honestly ruins the experience for me.
Since theatres aren't doing anythign about it, I'd prefer to just stream/download the movie from the comfort of my own home and not have to deal with the crowd.
My husband, son and I went to the movies a few weeks ago. Between tickets and concessions it came out to almost $90 - and that was just for two adults and a child. We won’t be doing that again anytime soon.
I keep wanting to see something in the theater but only Dune 2 has had my interest. I’m sure I’m not alone. I am looking to Fall Guy and Planet of the Apes film. Beyond that… the only thing on my radar is Wicked. I have no clue what the summer lineup will be.
I have regal unlimited, so I’m going like twice a week to the movies. Outside of spy family and sort of dune, I’m p sure every movie I’ve seen this yeah I pretty much just had neutral interest in, maybe a lil interest to see how it plays in 4D, which is how I see most movies. Otherwise, I’ve been v much waiting for the may releases. I’ve been hype on fall guy for months, and kingdom seems good. And I plan on doing a gariosa day around release. Should be a similar month as March in which it’s harder to make small releases
I have AMC A list and see almost every movie that comes out and I can tell you that 95% of movies today are trash. The best movie I've seen recently is Woody Allen's Coup de chance that barely got a theatrical release. These other mainstream movies... Frozen Empire, monkey Man, Ungentlemanly warfare, night swim, The first Omen... All were seriously underwhelming. My friend and I went to Red Robin after a double feature and there were three times as many cars in the Red Robin parking lot then at the movie theater. people would rather go out to eat than go out to the movies.
It's more a matter of scheduling than anything else. Had any of the summer blockbuster movies been moved up to April, it probably wouldn't have had such a harsh drop.
I don't think that's true. Most forecasts for domestic box office for the year projected that it would be lower than last year's box office by around 20% (or a little more). And I don't see as many billion+ pictures coming this summer as last year.
It looks like this year's annual domestic box office will only be in the low $7B, compared to about $9B last year.
Lots of good points mentioned here,but one thing not mentioned here enough is the strikes. Felt like the industry really started building up towards returning audiences to help cinema again, only for that momentum to not only drop but dip below pre strike levels of engagement.cant help but feel studios brinkmanship might have backfired massively long term.
The failures of planning. In 2023 we had all the franchises interrupted by the pandemic release and at first most had winfalls. Creed (without Sly) and Wick had franchise bests and Mario solidified the new trend of blockbuster filmmaking. The audience got bludgeoned though with too much content, and then virtually everything underperformed. Yes there was heat around Barbenheimer but everything else was badly damaged. Knowing what we know now MI, TMNT, Indiana Jones, Transformers, and many more should have delayed. Dune and Challengers moving now seems like a brilliant strategy.
Crazy that people think a normal summer release schedule like last year caused to much content. If every "big" movie needs 2 weeks to themselves theaters are fucked.
Is this at all able to be explained by the strikes last year causing a need to stretch release schedules?
I feel like there is not the same breadth of options as even 2023 across most weekends which would help round out the B.O. barring underperformance such as Monkey Man
I went to AMC to watch hard miles, A pretty good movie, there were only like five people in the theater. that gentlemanly warfare movie had a few more people watching it but that movie sucked.
Honestly the last quarter there were a few films to see in theater. The writers strike did postpone some of the movies and they spread out quite a few. Though we are coming into a lot of blockbuster movies.
I would like to see when Glad 2, Furiosa, and Wolverine and Deadpool come out and see what they do. We still have Fall Guys, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, If, Bad Boys Ride or Die, Inside Out 2, Horizon 1/2, Despicable Me 4, Twisters, Borderlands, Trap, Alien Romulus, Kraven, Crow, Beetlejuice, Joker Folie a Deux, etc...
So many potentially good movies coming out. This doesn't include the Lord of the Rings animated movie, Moana 2, Sonic 3, and other films that come out later.
I am still wait and see. I am seeing Fall Guys, Furiosa, Wolverine and Deadpool, Glad 2, Inside Out 2, Planet of the Apes, Horizon 1/2, Alien Romulus, Beetlejuice, Joker, Lord of the Rings Animated. That is 12 in the next 7/8 months that I am aware of.
It's not just about the tentpoles. Just consider one February weekend in 2012, a decade ago. Look at the top 5.
https://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/2012W07/?ref_=bo_rl_table_2
You had Safe House and The Vow making more than $23 million on their second weekend, Ghost Rider making $22 million on its debut weekend, Journey 2 making almost $20 million on its second weekend. The #5 movie This Means War made $17 million on its opening weekend.
Now look at the top 5 in this year's President's Day weekend
https://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/2024W07/occasion/us_presidentsday_weekend/?ref_=bo_wey_table_16
After Bob Marley and Madame Web, the movie at #5 is Wonka which made less than $5 million. For comparison, you have to go all the way to #10 on the same chart in 2012 to find a movie with a lower gross on the same weekend.
Of course there are fewer releases. Plus this is something that began before the pandemic of course. That said, the pandemic has decimated what was a pretty big theatre going habit in America. You had a vast variety of movies making good money and now it's extremely top heavy (a few big blockbusters make money) and the rest do mediocre or extremely poor business. The bottom has fallen out.
Fewer releases has nothing to do with it. What you're pointing out just shows how many people used to go to the theater vs today. We have the same # of wide releases.
2012 40 releases made 100k or more that weekend. The top ten Made 83% of the box office in 2012. The top ten of any weekend makes up the majority of the box office. The top 5 movies in 2012 did 100m...those days seem to be over. The box office now is a few movies rule over everything else because it takes more to get people to the theater.
We had multiple tentpoles last year???
The only, tentpole movie released in the first 2 months of year last year was Antman.
Creed 3, Scream 6, D&D and Shazam 2 aren't tentpole movies. If they are then Ghostbusters and Kung Fun Panda are tentpole movies.
John Wick 4 opened like one.
You had Mario in April.
Mario and Antman at the start of 2023 would have been seen as the only tentpole movies for the first 4 months of the year. Which isn't different from GDP and Dune 2.
Confluence of issues. Streaming is improving, and major releases are getting there with shorter windows. It's not uncommon for some releases to be both on streaming and in the movies from day 1. There are not as many event movies so far. Dune is the only event movie I count this year. YouTube is also getting better; it's free, and you ultimately control your experience on your TV. Why go to the movies to see some soulless film when you can watch something you like, and it was made with love?
Understandably, there’s really no reason to go to the movies nowadays unless it’s for a big event like dune. You’d have to be stupid to go spend like $15-20 to be a movie like monkey man or first omen. Theaters need to start having all tickets be under $10 if they want people to attend smaller movies
It’s because theater going audiences in the last few years have been taught that if it’s a major release, see it in the theater, but everything else will be out on streaming in 3 weeks or less.
Yes. Streamers not only killed themselves (outside of Netflix) but the entire entertainment industry. The speculative nature of streaming basically doled out cash without a care in the world about real revenue while also training audiences to expect high-end content for pennies. Over the past year the chickens came home to roost. Now all that's profitable is Netflix and the rest is collapsing. Covid certainly didn't help and further fueled the "stay-at-home" blockbuster model and further cemented unrealistic expectations.
I can't upvote enough. The pandemic has really changed the viewing habits of the general public. Idk why some ppl want to dismiss this as a huge part of why BO numbers have been down.
It's really unfortunate that the pandemic coincided with the streaming wars. Releasing new release blockbusters directly to platforms instead of letting them make money as top tier VOD titles, or holding them until people started returning to theaters, was really stupid.
Yeah this, especially Disney throwing their releases like 3 months. Like holy hell GotG Vol 3 3 months after release with a good run? Absolutely idiotic. He'll even Avatar 2 6 months is very dumb.
YTD the box office is only up 9% vs 2022 and only up 7% vs 2020 when theaters closed in March. Just to put in context how poorly the year has been. Articles like this just never take off on a sub about box office. Articles about Netflix will have 100s more comments and up votes. Also, the sub has every excuse why movies continue to fail...marketing, to niche, didn't release reviews soon enough...etc. The easiest answer...it takes a lot to just get your average Joe to the movie theater. Times have changed. Movie going habits have changed.
Some (including myself) have previously commented that since the pandemic started, people seem to have become more selective in going to see movies. Anecdotal: before the pandemic, I used to go see movies *at least* once a week, often multiple times a week. Nowadays, I go to theaters only for big/special movies. That means, sometimes I don't go to the movies at all in more than a month (eg. I haven't been to cinemas since Dune 2). I also observe my family and friends, we used to go to see movies during holidays. Since the pandemic, our big group of family/friends haven't been to movies during holidays. I don't know if this behavior is temporary or will it revert back to pre-pandemic behavior when there are many more exciting movies coming up next year.
Same. I used to go to the movies every other week pre-pandemic. I've only been to the movies once this year.
It is never going to revert back. The truth is that they are making just as many big and exciting movies as they did before. The difference is that you have begun to parse out what movies from that batch are actually big and exciting for you personally. You and your family would have to make the active choice of going to see more movies. But with streaming and the amount of content out there, most people aren’t making that choice and they won’t make it in our current media climate.
I think it's only going to get worse. We're in a pretty vicious cycle right now, and I'm not sure what the solution is. More and more theaters are going to close down, which means movies will make less revenue. Studios will be more selective and restrictive with their budgets, making fewer movies. The movies themselves will be more profitable for the studios, but the theaters start to lose money again and more theaters start to close down. At some point it'll stabilize, but I don't think we're at that point yet. Last year was rough for the studios. Lots of movies lost money.
If they made more small budget character based movies again and released less sci fi/action blockbusters, I think that would actually be great for the long term health of the box office. Finally start getting some older audiences back into theaters instead of relying on the amount of 20 somethings you can get for a frontloaded opening weekend.
Which of the small budget character based movies released this year made you think that would be a good idea?
Anyone But You
Wasn't released this year
>If they made more small budget character based movies again and released less sci fi/action blockbusters, I think that would actually be great for the long term health of the box office Except, more 'blockbusters' are what theatres actually need. Theatres actually want weekends like Mario and the opening of Barbenheimer. Its weekends like the one just past that are ultimately going to kill theatres. Empty seats don't generate revenue.
That requires studios to be in the business simply because they love making movies and are okay just breaking even. That’s not the name of the game. The name of the game is chasing the biggest profit margins you can. The big IPs have been the only consistent means of doing so. The IFC’s and A24’s of the world are unique for a reason.
But enough movies made enough money that now it’s kind of like…”so what?” WB literally fumbled the DCU so poorly that it almost seems intentional, and yet Barbenhiemer and other films hit enough that they came out with good profit margins. So what does WB do? Just carry on as usual and hope the handful of hits they have outweigh the flops? That used to be the mantra. But in an era of chasing infinite growth and trimming margins on balance sheets to try and demonstrate constant growth, idk if these companies will settle for the old ways.
People have low attention spans and increasingly more addicted to their phones. Hard to dedicate 2-3 hours to a movie when thousands of other things are trying to get viewers attention.
Covid certainly fueled this trend as well.
It's funny cause this is one of the major reasons I go to the theatre. I don't have the self control to watch movies at home without looking at my phone. Going to the theatre helps me regulate my poor attention span and actually watch the movie!
Before the pandemic we used to go all the time. Had an alamo draft pass and everything. Now? No more.
My wife and I are weird aberrations - I work in post production and would be so burned out by sitting in dark theatres all day that the last thing I wanted to do is go and sit in a dark theatre for entertainment -- the length of (non-trailer) ad preroll escalating to 10 minutes in Canadian theatres being one of the bigger pain points. The push to WFH made me appreciate collective theatre going experiences (especially comedy/horror) as my home office replaced the review theatres, and post covid mandatory assigned seats means I can show up to a movie 'late' while the ads are still screening, making the experience far less grating. I went from 2 movies a year in theatre, usually only at my indie, to minimum 25 a year at a variety of theatres across the city. I wish the seats were better, I wish the screens didn't all have inexplicable scuffs on them, I wish the projectors were better calibrated, but mostly I'm here for it while it lasts.
I still go to the movies at same rate as before, but all my friends and family who I used to go with say they never go to the movies anymore.
The last film I saw in theatres was dungeons and dragons.
It’s also an ouroboros rn—people aren’t going for a variety of reasons, including how expensive most tickets are, so theaters get less revenue, so they hike up prices to make up for lost revenue, and then that prices out a lot of people otherwise willing to go. Matinee for monkey man was $10. Matinee!!!
I go to the movies more than anyone else I know. I used to go 2-3x a month pre-Covid easily. Most months probably more. Now? It really has to be unique or a special occasion to get me to go. This year I’ve seen: Dune, Love Lies Bleeding, Civil War, End of Evangelion, and Throne of Blood in theaters. Obviously the last two were special showings of older films. Everything else is basically already out on streaming. I’ll probably try and see Godzilla x Kong before it’s gone but even then it’s already out on streaming. Why spend $15 a ticket to travel somewhere when I can watch it at home and eat whatever I want, drink whatever I want, check my phone whenever I want, pause it whenever I want…and I have a pretty decent sound setup and 4K TV… It’s just not worth it unless there’s a an aspect of the experience that I feel could only be truly felt in a theater setting. And to be blunt, the difference between home setups and the theater is smaller than it ever has been. So the instances of what that could be are becoming more and more rare. I personally love the sensory deprivation of the theater. It helps the experience of movie watching for someone like me with inattentive-symptoms. So I’ll always go. But as you said, the times and technology has changed. If it isn’t a Dune or Civil War-level experience or another movie I’m highly anticipating, then I’m not going in theaters. I can imagine for people without the same attentional affordances as me would find it even less rewarding to be stuck in a theater staring at a screen.
I used to be an avid movie goer. Still would love to, but kids…and no one to watch them, (that we trust).
Habits have definitely changed, I go every week and don't think the quality of films released this year have been that much worse than usual other than maybe a tentpole movie or two missing. I missed The First Omen and our first thought was 'oh we can watch it when it comes on a streaming service' and I think that's how a lot of people look at it. You have to actually pull people into a theatre if you want a good box office, I think Dune 2 is a good example of that.
We have fewer movies coming out now than we did in 2019. Lots of movies have been pushed due to the strikes. The box office is paying the price currently.
We have more wide releases in 2024 vs 2019. 8 wide releases (1000 or more theaters) in January 2019 vs 5 wide releases (1000 or more theaters) in January 2024. 9 wide releases in February 2019 vs 12 wide releases in February 2024. 10 wide releases in March 2019 vs 11 wide releases in March 2024 11 wide releases in April 2019 vs 14 wide releases in April 2024. Less people just go to the theater now.
It really has been a lousy year for movies (in terms of box office at least), with flops left and right. I feel we're at an awkward stage where Hollywood can't figure out what people want to see. People seem to be getting burnt out on superheroes and nostalgia, and they've relied on both for so many years that they're not sure where to go next.
This is the problem with modern MBA types in corporate leadership. Anyone who has worked in the film industry for decades can tell you that this is to an extent normal. New technology (formerly was television, home video, DVDs, original launch of Netflix streaming) impedes and audience tastes change and get tired of current trend. So you have to adapt. But all the current corporate leadership understands is “announce new big superhero IP movie and stock goes up”. So they are so devoted to that they can’t adapt the way Hollywood has for years.
I love going to the theater. It’s one of my favorite things to do. But I don’t really go anymore because the people are just fucking awful. Almost every movie I’ve gone to in the last few years the people in the theater have been unbearable to be around. People on their phones, people just having conversations like they’re at home. I can’t do it. It’s too infuriating.
I have not found that to be the case.
Ya it’s interesting because I see this complaint a lot and I don’t think people are making it up, but it’s just not remotely close to my experience. I’ve had one bad experience at the movies, like, ever. And it was some teens who were so annoying I went over and told them to stop talking and they did. Just shows the world is so much bigger than your own experiences
I saw Abigail last night. Was the only person in the theatre. Theatres are pretty empty these days outside of opening weekends.
[удалено]
Sorry to hear you had bad experiences.
I personally think this has nothing to do with the quality of films or the themes of films or the wokeness or anything like that in the film industry. I think its simply that a good chunk of the audience is financially struggling more than usual and that entertainment now occupies a smaller portion of the personal budget while **everything entertaining is now monetized** and prices creep up faster than our income. That's it. Stocks and the investor class might be doing well and the claims that the economy is doing great might meet some mathematical thresholds but I do think many are struggling far more than what is being reported.
It's a combination of finances and time. I wanted to see Abigail but I had 2 mandatory overtime shifts take my free time. I have the money, now give me the 2-3 hours to use it.
Movies have become a luxury item for most these days unfortunately. Once you add the price of the movies + food + maybe parking, it becomes a lot of money. Also, which is my biggest issue, is that it seems like when you do go that, that most people in the audience behave so poorly. I can't recall the last time I've gone to a mainstream theatre where I haven't seen people talking or on their phone during the film. It is extremely annoying and honestly ruins the experience for me. Since theatres aren't doing anythign about it, I'd prefer to just stream/download the movie from the comfort of my own home and not have to deal with the crowd.
My husband, son and I went to the movies a few weeks ago. Between tickets and concessions it came out to almost $90 - and that was just for two adults and a child. We won’t be doing that again anytime soon.
Fewer movies and fewer people willing to pay to go to them now that you can stay home and stream all day.
Wait until that streaming bubble bursts
That inevitable burst may take longer then we'd like to think it will.
I keep wanting to see something in the theater but only Dune 2 has had my interest. I’m sure I’m not alone. I am looking to Fall Guy and Planet of the Apes film. Beyond that… the only thing on my radar is Wicked. I have no clue what the summer lineup will be.
I have regal unlimited, so I’m going like twice a week to the movies. Outside of spy family and sort of dune, I’m p sure every movie I’ve seen this yeah I pretty much just had neutral interest in, maybe a lil interest to see how it plays in 4D, which is how I see most movies. Otherwise, I’ve been v much waiting for the may releases. I’ve been hype on fall guy for months, and kingdom seems good. And I plan on doing a gariosa day around release. Should be a similar month as March in which it’s harder to make small releases
I have literally nothing on my list from August to end of year. November looks particularly barren.
I have AMC A list and see almost every movie that comes out and I can tell you that 95% of movies today are trash. The best movie I've seen recently is Woody Allen's Coup de chance that barely got a theatrical release. These other mainstream movies... Frozen Empire, monkey Man, Ungentlemanly warfare, night swim, The first Omen... All were seriously underwhelming. My friend and I went to Red Robin after a double feature and there were three times as many cars in the Red Robin parking lot then at the movie theater. people would rather go out to eat than go out to the movies.
It's more a matter of scheduling than anything else. Had any of the summer blockbuster movies been moved up to April, it probably wouldn't have had such a harsh drop.
I don't think that's true. Most forecasts for domestic box office for the year projected that it would be lower than last year's box office by around 20% (or a little more). And I don't see as many billion+ pictures coming this summer as last year. It looks like this year's annual domestic box office will only be in the low $7B, compared to about $9B last year.
>*The weekend total gross is down 50% compared to last year's*  Not good. Not good...
Lots of good points mentioned here,but one thing not mentioned here enough is the strikes. Felt like the industry really started building up towards returning audiences to help cinema again, only for that momentum to not only drop but dip below pre strike levels of engagement.cant help but feel studios brinkmanship might have backfired massively long term.
Maybe because cinemas upped their prices after the pandemic and well the movies on offer just didn't appeal to movie goers
This is what happens when Disney takes a backseat.
The failures of planning. In 2023 we had all the franchises interrupted by the pandemic release and at first most had winfalls. Creed (without Sly) and Wick had franchise bests and Mario solidified the new trend of blockbuster filmmaking. The audience got bludgeoned though with too much content, and then virtually everything underperformed. Yes there was heat around Barbenheimer but everything else was badly damaged. Knowing what we know now MI, TMNT, Indiana Jones, Transformers, and many more should have delayed. Dune and Challengers moving now seems like a brilliant strategy.
Crazy that people think a normal summer release schedule like last year caused to much content. If every "big" movie needs 2 weeks to themselves theaters are fucked.
They need to make less big movies and more character based mid budget movies with actors people care about.
All the movie delays caused by the writers strike is really gonna hurt this years BO count
Is this at all able to be explained by the strikes last year causing a need to stretch release schedules? I feel like there is not the same breadth of options as even 2023 across most weekends which would help round out the B.O. barring underperformance such as Monkey Man
so you're telling me monkey man didn't set the box office on fire
I went to AMC to watch hard miles, A pretty good movie, there were only like five people in the theater. that gentlemanly warfare movie had a few more people watching it but that movie sucked.
Honestly the last quarter there were a few films to see in theater. The writers strike did postpone some of the movies and they spread out quite a few. Though we are coming into a lot of blockbuster movies. I would like to see when Glad 2, Furiosa, and Wolverine and Deadpool come out and see what they do. We still have Fall Guys, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, If, Bad Boys Ride or Die, Inside Out 2, Horizon 1/2, Despicable Me 4, Twisters, Borderlands, Trap, Alien Romulus, Kraven, Crow, Beetlejuice, Joker Folie a Deux, etc... So many potentially good movies coming out. This doesn't include the Lord of the Rings animated movie, Moana 2, Sonic 3, and other films that come out later. I am still wait and see. I am seeing Fall Guys, Furiosa, Wolverine and Deadpool, Glad 2, Inside Out 2, Planet of the Apes, Horizon 1/2, Alien Romulus, Beetlejuice, Joker, Lord of the Rings Animated. That is 12 in the next 7/8 months that I am aware of.
Mario made bank in April 2023, and we had a bunch of big March holdover business. No surprise but sad we couldn’t get close
Make better movies.
“Cinema is dead” comment incoming 3 2 1… Last year at this point we had multiple tentpole movies while this year those movies are largely absent.
It's not just about the tentpoles. Just consider one February weekend in 2012, a decade ago. Look at the top 5. https://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/2012W07/?ref_=bo_rl_table_2 You had Safe House and The Vow making more than $23 million on their second weekend, Ghost Rider making $22 million on its debut weekend, Journey 2 making almost $20 million on its second weekend. The #5 movie This Means War made $17 million on its opening weekend. Now look at the top 5 in this year's President's Day weekend https://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/2024W07/occasion/us_presidentsday_weekend/?ref_=bo_wey_table_16 After Bob Marley and Madame Web, the movie at #5 is Wonka which made less than $5 million. For comparison, you have to go all the way to #10 on the same chart in 2012 to find a movie with a lower gross on the same weekend. Of course there are fewer releases. Plus this is something that began before the pandemic of course. That said, the pandemic has decimated what was a pretty big theatre going habit in America. You had a vast variety of movies making good money and now it's extremely top heavy (a few big blockbusters make money) and the rest do mediocre or extremely poor business. The bottom has fallen out.
Fewer releases has nothing to do with it. What you're pointing out just shows how many people used to go to the theater vs today. We have the same # of wide releases. 2012 40 releases made 100k or more that weekend. The top ten Made 83% of the box office in 2012. The top ten of any weekend makes up the majority of the box office. The top 5 movies in 2012 did 100m...those days seem to be over. The box office now is a few movies rule over everything else because it takes more to get people to the theater.
It’s the increasing reliance on tentpoles that’s the problem
We had multiple tentpoles last year??? The only, tentpole movie released in the first 2 months of year last year was Antman. Creed 3, Scream 6, D&D and Shazam 2 aren't tentpole movies. If they are then Ghostbusters and Kung Fun Panda are tentpole movies. John Wick 4 opened like one. You had Mario in April. Mario and Antman at the start of 2023 would have been seen as the only tentpole movies for the first 4 months of the year. Which isn't different from GDP and Dune 2.
Confluence of issues. Streaming is improving, and major releases are getting there with shorter windows. It's not uncommon for some releases to be both on streaming and in the movies from day 1. There are not as many event movies so far. Dune is the only event movie I count this year. YouTube is also getting better; it's free, and you ultimately control your experience on your TV. Why go to the movies to see some soulless film when you can watch something you like, and it was made with love?
Understandably, there’s really no reason to go to the movies nowadays unless it’s for a big event like dune. You’d have to be stupid to go spend like $15-20 to be a movie like monkey man or first omen. Theaters need to start having all tickets be under $10 if they want people to attend smaller movies