Weekly Box Office and Film Discussion Thread

[Muppet Master]

Seriously, this year at the box office is literally the worst in more than a decade. If you don't believe me than go on here.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly...&view2=domestic&sort=gross&order=DESC&&p=.htm

Then go back each year, and set each year's date to August 14. Oh my gosh, you have to go back to 2001 when Shrek had a bit more than CAP. Even then, if you adjust that for ticket price inflation then it's kicking 2014's butt. So, adjusted for ticket price inflation no joking, you have to go back to 1988, to see things this dire. So, currently, this has been the worst year for box office in 26 years.

 

[Drtooth]

That was to be expected.

Other than the big blockbuster films, it seems the public wants to wait for everything to hit Netflix and watch it on a small screen. It's the fault of both the movie industry for continuing to price themselves out of the business and the consumers for refusing to pay those prices. And it hurts the films themselves. From Dreamworks's layoffs to the uncertainty of future Muppet projects.

 

[jvcarroll]

Well, How To Train Your Dragon 2 is the biggest animated film of 2014 according to Forbes. That leads me to believe that if anyone has trouble with its box office take, that their beef is with general turnout for animated films this year rather than the success of this particular film.

 

[Drtooth]

Shocked it wasn't Lego. Really shocked. Lego Movie blind bag figures disappeared within a couple weeks of the movie's release. I was lucky to get the "Where are my Paaaaaaaaaaaants?" guy when I did.

The whole box office take is desperately low this year, and it's foolish of these studios to not see the big picture, write off films on opening weekend, and refusing to count the international unless the films make triple their US take, like Transformers did. Sure, we're seeing more traffic on August than we usually do, but nothing's even coming close to last years Iron Man 3 take. Then again, they placed all the blockbusters in May, directly competing with themselves, leaving a vacant June. Then again, HTTYD 2 was essentially the only animated movie at the time this year (Oz doesn't count) with no competition from Pixar. That should have been an easy money maker.

We have too many big movies and not enough people wanting to see them or being able to afford every single one that comes out. Meanwhile, 22 Jump Street was the only money making comedy this year. Nothing opened about 20 Mil. There's a big picture problem, sure. No one wants to address it. After all, would you rather spend the over 10 bucks to see a 90 minute film that looks no bigger on the big screen than it does on a phone, or a huge blockbuster that demands a big scale? The comedies will redeem themselves on home video/Netflix/iTunes.

Meanwhile, Family Movies are getting hit pretty hard, with the exception of Lego, Rio (bafflingly enough...even Rio fans hated it), and (even more baffling) that crappy squirrel thing, none of them have been doing that good. And it's for the obvious reason of why spend 50 bucks or more when you can just wait for it to hit Redbox for a buck. Meanwhile, Turbo flopped with an 83 dollar international take, hit international venues like Asia and South America and managed to tack on 200 mil... and it became huge on DVD. The ones that came with the small Turbo figure sold out, even when you can still see some The Croods sets that came with Belt on shelves from time to time.

The industry has to stop thinking of weekend grosses and charts and look at the large scale picture of dailies, home video, streaming, and television rights. Films that never did well become cult hits, and some of the huge blockbusters become forgotten (unless there's a reboot, then everyone says the original is better, even when they hated it before).

 

[Muppet Master]

Wow, it's August, more than half the year has gone, and the highest grossing animated movie has made $500 million worldwide, **clap clap clap clap**.

 

[Drtooth]

I think Frozen broke kid's movies. Just seems like somehow someone said "they nailed it!" and families just don't want to see anything else since. Maybe except for Lego.

 

[Drtooth]

I know I could just edit this in instead of double posting, but...

If anyone was worried about The Giver making money, well...

Also of note, Let's Be Cops doesn't buck the trend for comedy movies under-performing... though, frankly, it's doing better than it should. Expendables 3 flopped with an even weaker opening than that. TMNT unfortunately stays in the top spot (theater was deserted when I saw that, but it was at a crappy theater I should have complained about on Yelp), and Guardians has a strong #2 with just 4 million behind TMNT... and it's basically made over 400 million internationally and grossed to be the #6 earning movie of the year, just behind Days of Future Past (but GOTG isn't out of theaters yet, so the top 5 spot seems within reach).

 

[jvcarroll]

Shocked it wasn't Lego. Really shocked. Lego Movie blind bag figures disappeared within a couple weeks of the movie's release. I was lucky to get the "Where are my Paaaaaaaaaaaants?" guy when I did.

The whole box office take is desperately low this year, and it's foolish of these studios to not see the big picture, write off films on opening weekend, and refusing to count the international unless the films make triple their US take, like Transformers did. Sure, we're seeing more traffic on August than we usually do, but nothing's even coming close to last years Iron Man 3 take. Then again, they placed all the blockbusters in May, directly competing with themselves, leaving a vacant June. Then again, HTTYD 2 was essentially the only animated movie at the time this year (Oz doesn't count) with no competition from Pixar. That should have been an easy money maker.

We have too many big movies and not enough people wanting to see them or being able to afford every single one that comes out. Meanwhile, 22 Jump Street was the only money making comedy this year. Nothing opened about 20 Mil. There's a big picture problem, sure. No one wants to address it. After all, would you rather spend the over 10 bucks to see a 90 minute film that looks no bigger on the big screen than it does on a phone, or a huge blockbuster that demands a big scale? The comedies will redeem themselves on home video/Netflix/iTunes.

Meanwhile, Family Movies are getting hit pretty hard, with the exception of Lego, Rio (bafflingly enough...even Rio fans hated it), and (even more baffling) that crappy squirrel thing, none of them have been doing that good. And it's for the obvious reason of why spend 50 bucks or more when you can just wait for it to hit Redbox for a buck. Meanwhile, Turbo flopped with an 83 dollar international take, hit international venues like Asia and South America and managed to tack on 200 mil... and it became huge on DVD. The ones that came with the small Turbo figure sold out, even when you can still see some The Croods sets that came with Belt on shelves from time to time.

The industry has to stop thinking of weekend grosses and charts and look at the large scale picture of dailies, home video, streaming, and television rights. Films that never did well become cult hits, and some of the huge blockbusters become forgotten (unless there's a reboot, then everyone says the original is better, even when they hated it before).

It's a little known fact that studios get a higher percentage of the opening weekend ticket sales, but I still don't think that excuses the extreme drop-off in advertising.

The Giver didn't seem like it was going to be a Twilight hit. Still, a $12 million opening for a $25 million movie is fair.

Again, there seems to be this fungible, arbitrary line when it comes to what makes something a success at today's box office and studios still don't have a clear picture as to why people go to the movies anymore. That's why it's all special effects, 3D superhero movies. That will eventually wear thin (my guess is that the Fantastic Four reboot will cause studios to rethink their strategies).

The big picture is that most films have been geared toward kids and young people since the early 80's and those are precisely the people who aren't going to the movies anymore. They're at home playing videogames and watch content from their tablets and smartphones. There are also the pirated sites that stream new content for free (and whatever virus accompanies it) so shelling out their allowance for high ticket prices doesn't seem appealing. Still, the studios keep making things bigger and more expensive because that seems to be the short-term successful trend. That's precisely what's killing long-term interest in films.

 

[Drtooth]

The big picture is that most films have been geared toward kids and young people since the early 80's and those are precisely the people who aren't going to the movies anymore. They're at home playing videogames and watch content from their tablets and smartphones. There are also the pirated sites that stream new content for free (and whatever virus accompanies it) so shelling out their allowance for high ticket prices doesn't seem appealing. Still, the studios keep making things bigger and more expensive because that seems to be the short-term successful trend. That's precisely what's killing long-term interest in films.

Yeah, but if the general public was so keen on "original" films, Chef, The Hundred Foot Journey, and low key films like that would actually make money. We've had a history of these kinds of films sliding under the radar because no one wants to see them until Oscar season, because they feel so culturally refined for seeing that one thing one time. And said smart, cultural, adult films are every bit as cliche as mainstream films. A bio-pic,a white guilt film, one actually clever and witty thing that doesn't stand a chance of winning because it has humor in it... even then, they only get an audience once they hit TV for free...or, well, the price of cable.

The big problem to me seems to be families. Those films have been hit or miss this year, and some films were unfair hits because they were the only thing out at the time (Rio 2 and The Nut Job). But everytime I overhear a conversation about family movies, I always hear how annoyed and frustrated the parents are about the high prices of taking an entire family to see something. Why they don't have special family movie discounts that include deals on snacks and discounted tickets is pretty much why their losing that demographic, and movies like HTTYD 2 and MMW underperformed until they hit video... and they might as well not exist then.

Yes, there is an over-reliance on reboot comic sequels. It's safer to keep doing what they know sells. And that's taking studios wanting to have their own Disney/Marvel out of account. They keep making the same crappy horror films and Tween-lit trash as well. And yet, those who always complain about that sort of thing aren't exactly lining up to the next "Hellen Mirran goes to India" film.

 

[jvcarroll]

Yeah, but if the general public was so keen on "original" films, Chef, The Hundred Foot Journey, and low key films like that would actually make money. We've had a history of these kinds of films sliding under the radar because no one wants to see them until Oscar season, because they feel so culturally refined for seeing that one thing one time. And said smart, cultural, adult films are every bit as cliche as mainstream films. A bio-pic,a white guilt film, one actually clever and witty thing that doesn't stand a chance of winning because it has humor in it... even then, they only get an audience once they hit TV for free...or, well, the price of cable.

The big problem to me seems to be families. Those films have been hit or miss this year, and some films were unfair hits because they were the only thing out at the time (Rio 2 and The Nut Job). But everytime I overhear a conversation about family movies, I always hear how annoyed and frustrated the parents are about the high prices of taking an entire family to see something. Why they don't have special family movie discounts that include deals on snacks and discounted tickets is pretty much why their losing that demographic, and movies like HTTYD 2 and MMW underperformed until they hit video... and they might as well not exist then.

Yes, there is an over-reliance on reboot comic sequels. It's safer to keep doing what they know sells. And that's taking studios wanting to have their own Disney/Marvel out of account. They keep making the same crappy horror films and Tween-lit trash as well. And yet, those who always complain about that sort of thing aren't exactly lining up to the next "Hellen Mirran goes to India" film.

Family people seem to want the kind of big budgeted fluff that drives up ticket prices yet then complain about the expense. I get that.

The Helen Mirren film was largely seen to be a cut-and-paste story and not really an artsy film that you claim, but I get your point. Those films aren't meant to do huge business. They're sleepers. What boggles my mind is still the MMW box office take. I attended a packed 35th anniversary screening of TMM this weekend and the first thing I shouted in this room full of "fans" before sitting down was, "Where the heck were all of you last March?" Hehe.