Box Office Blues
Hello my dear friends. We have come to that time of year again. All the exciting Oscar contenders from year-end are gone. Movie theatre attendance is down, as are box office receipts, and everyone from Hollywood execs to the entertainment press have their explanations.
I had actually begun to write this article last week just to put in my two cents. However, I put it off as I felt it would be moot in light of the opening weekend of Kingdom of Heaven, Ridley Scott’s new epic about the Crusades, which was supposed to herald the opening of the summer movie season. This was not to be, though Kingdom did much better overseas than it did in North America.
This past weekend marked the 11th consecutive drop in attendance and revenue from the same time last year. Whenever there is a sudden surge or drought in movie attendance, analysts always cite demographics or some other statistic for the reason that such-and-such movies are sought while others are not. I realize this is bold of me to argue in an age when everything must be over analyzed, but no matter what the demographics, people like to see good movies. Sometimes, there just aren’t any good movies to see. At least, that is how it appears, and in Hollywood, appearance is everything.
I, for one, did not see Kingdom of Heaven, so I cannot comment on its quality. I can say that as an avid student of medieval history, I have been interested but not entirely compelled to drop down nine bucks to see a movie that, as advertised, looks a lot like Gladiator 2. I am also not entirely sure why anyone thought that a bloody historical epic starring Orlando Bloom or the horror remake House of Wax would be big draws on Mother’s Day weekend. On a side note, my own mother expressed brief interest in seeing Kingdom because of Jeremy Irons.
As for the previous weeks’ drops in theatre attendance, there has hardly been much to draw in audiences, regardless of demographics. The last new movie I personally saw was Sin City, which at least looked fresh in light of the usually weekly releases. I also went out of my way to see Katsuhiro Ôtomo’s Steamboy, which was not much seen by anyone else, and the last movie I saw before those was Million Dollar Baby.
This is not to say that I am the best litmus test for the average moviegoers, but I have always been a movie buff. I love movies. I want to see good movies. Mediocre movies? Not so much. And that is what we are subjected to every year around this time. Sure, I would even support the argument that ever rising ticket prices has been driving people away. It wasn’t too long ago that ticket prices were half of what they are now. We have to be a bit more choosey about what we see.
I am also personally annoyed by the current trend of new movies being packed onto as many screens as possible at once only to be yanked away as soon as possible to make way for the next new movie’s release. This also means that if you want to see a movie, you can’t just wait a few weeks; you always have to brave the crowds on opening weekend (that is, if there are any crowds to brave) or risk having to wait until it gets to DVD, which has been getting to be a shorter and shorter wait.
Seeing movies in a crowded theater on opening weekend also opens one up to another agony of movie going: sitting through half an hour of painful commercials. Not trailers, commercials. If I wanted to see commercials, I would just watch the movie on network television and save my money. No wonder people are staying away from the theatres.
The big saving grace for theatres, everyone agrees, is the forthcoming final Star Wars installment Revenge of the Sith. With people already camping out (and the fact that it’s Star Wars, folks), its high box office stature is pretty much preordained. And though the jury is still out, Sith does have the makings of being a crowd pleaser as well if all our hopes come true.
Maybe I’m crazy, but people don’t want to rush out to a crowded theatre, drop a near minimum of ten dollars (God forbid you go with a date or your family), only to sit through the longest commercial block outside of a reality show during sweeps before finally getting to the trailers before the movie they paid good money to see.
That, and it would be really nice to see a good movie.
Check out more on the subject from Box Office Mojo and The New York Times