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Hollywood heads for its worst summer box office in a decade
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Hollywood heads for its worst summer box office in a decade. :whatthe:

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/hollywood-heads-for-its-worst-summer-box-office-in-a-decade/ar-AApRAGr?OCID=ansmsnnews11

 

Hollywood’s cold, wet American summer is pretty much over already.

Domestic box office revenue for the season is trailing last year by 11 percent and none of the major releases still coming are expected to change that trajectory. In fact, things are likely to get worse for U.S. studios before the leaves change. Without a film debuting widely over the Labor Day weekend, BoxOffice Media predicts the film industry will end the summer of 2017 with sales down by up to 15 percent. That’s a horror-film scenario that translates into roughly one in six American moviegoers choosing to stay home and stream Game of Thrones.

“It’s a dead zone,” said Jeff Bock, senior box office analyst at Exhibitor Relations Co. “In the next three weeks, there’s going to be a lot of doom and gloom.”

It’s not as if there wasn’t anything decent to watch. In looking at critical reviews of the top 10-grossing summer films, this season’s slate was one of the most lauded of the decade. Topped by Wonder Woman and filled out by media darlings like Dunkirk and Baby Driver, the most watched films of the season had an average score of 72 on Rottentomatoes.com, an aggregator of reviews. Only two other summers since 2007 had such high marks. 

The problem for major studios is that some of those films should never have been at the top of the list, moneywise. Many of the CGI spectacles and raunchy comedies that usually win the sweltering day in theaters flopped spectacularly.

 

 

 

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Good thing for Wonder Woman,Spider-Man and GotG 2 or it would have been much worst for Hollywood. 

The superheroes have saved them so far,as people are tuning out end of the world bad cgi disaster flicks and rather stay at home and stream Game of Thrones.

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1 hour ago, ComicConnoisseur said:

It’s not as if there wasn’t anything decent to watch.

 

 

The writer of this article really needs to look at the list of movies that released this summer.

Baywatch, King Arthur, Pirates Of The Caribbean, The Mummy, Transformers, Valerian, Emoji Movie:facepalm: .

Haven't see the Emoji movie or King Arthur but the reviews are so bad I'm not going to waste my money.

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1 minute ago, AnthonyTheAbyss said:

The writer of this article really needs to look at the list of movies that released this summer.

Baywatch, King Arthur, Pirates Of The Caribbean, The Mummy, Transformers, Valerian, Emoji Movie:facepalm: .

Haven't see the Emoji movie or King Arthur but the reviews are so bad I'm not going to waste my money.

It seems Hollywood lost touch of what people wanted. Looking at next year's schedule it could be worst. A lot CGI junk ahead,plus no Wonder Woman or GotG 2 to save them.

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This is the natural evolution of things, because the best writing today is being done for TV, not film.

Last week Disney announced that it was releasing its own streaming service (so...pulling its films from Netflix, cable, etc.).

And today Shonda Rhimes announced an exclusive deal with Netflix.

With that level of quality available at the push of a button, it takes something truly special to get people off the couch and willing to drive to a theater, (potentially) pay for parking, then shell out $14 or more for a ticket.

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2 hours ago, AnthonyTheAbyss said:

The writer of this article really needs to look at the list of movies that released this summer.

Baywatch, King Arthur, Pirates Of The Caribbean, The Mummy, Transformers, Valerian, Emoji Movie:facepalm: .

Haven't see the Emoji movie or King Arthur but the reviews are so bad I'm not going to waste my money.

I saw King Author this weekend and it was actually quite good.  Not Oscar contender but good fun movie.

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57 minutes ago, 1Cool said:

I saw King Author this weekend and it was actually quite good.  Not Oscar contender but good fun movie.

What they are saying is they are sick of reboots, sequels, and more. What they want are original films like Baby Driver, Wonder Woman, and Atomic Blonde. Hollywood studios have treated the public like they are insufficiently_thoughtful_persons for years now and they finally felt the backlash domestically 

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But that logic doesn't hold when some sequels and reboots did well.

Three of the year's top five films are sequels: Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Despicable Me 3.

And the biggest movie of the year so far -- Beauty and the Best -- was a reboot.

Four of those five were released this summer.

In contrast, Baby Driver's barely broken $100 million and Atomic Blonde *might* end its run at $60 million domestic.

 

I don't blame Hollywood for trying to reduce risk by going with proven properties -- it's more an issue of too many studios releasing too many $100 million box office films. We've reached a point where the summer movie season begins in April (this year, with Fate of the Furious) and there's literally a wannabe blockbuster released every weekend.

So you roll the dice.

If anything I think we're seeing more quality low-to-mid-budget films than in prior years (Baby Driver, Split, last year's Hell or High Water) alongside every Transformers or Fast & The Furious sequel.

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1 hour ago, Gatsby77 said:

But that logic doesn't hold when some sequels and reboots did well.

Three of the year's top five films are sequels: Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Despicable Me 3.

And the biggest movie of the year so far -- Beauty and the Best -- was a reboot.

Four of those five were released this summer.

In contrast, Baby Driver's barely broken $100 million and Atomic Blonde *might* end its run at $60 million domestic.

 

I don't blame Hollywood for trying to reduce risk by going with proven properties -- it's more an issue of too many studios releasing too many $100 million box office films. We've reached a point where the summer movie season begins in April (this year, with Fate of the Furious) and there's literally a wannabe blockbuster released every weekend.

So you roll the dice.

If anything I think we're seeing more quality low-to-mid-budget films than in prior years (Baby Driver, Split, last year's Hell or High Water) alongside every Transformers or Fast & The Furious sequel.

Let's see it was over 25 years since B and B came out in what many regard as the greatest animated film ever made parents were taking their kids, grandparents taking grandkids, and much more. B and B falls into a different category.

Ok SpiderMan and Guardians falls under Marvel Universe which is consistently performing well. 

Despicable Me 3 is performing terribly compared to the last two films on the series. Fate of the Furious also underperformed in the US.

Films with great reviews underperformed as well like War for the Planet of the Apes?

Did you ask for The Mummy, Chips, Power Rangers, Baywatch, Transformers 5, Diary of a Wimpy Kid 4, or Smurfs 3?

While original films like Baby Driver did great and you laugh at Atomic Blonde, but that is Focus Features number one grossing film of all time now domestically. 

The local art theater by me is consistently selling out every showing of the films they bring in this summer.

In general the sequels and reboots are doing less than what they did in previous years and the audience is speaking 

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1 hour ago, reddwarf666222 said:

The local art theater by me is consistently selling out every showing of the films they bring in this summer.

In general the sequels and reboots are doing less than what they did in previous years and the audience is speaking 

Totally agree here.

I've been a movie nut since I got my driver's license.

I would go to the movie theater every Friday. Sometimes I would watch two in a row (Sleepy Hollow and The World is Not Enough, The Thomas Crown Affair and The Sixth Sense, if there was a certain excitement over competing movies on one weekend) or the same movie if it made me go "WTF!" (The Matrix.)

I drove in a snowstorm to watch Cruel Intentions even. lol 

Sticking with those movies, in 1999, I saw 149 movies in theaters.

That was my record.

Flash forward to now, 0.0.

I love little intimate independent movies, but with my format at home is more than adequate for them to enjoy. I'll support them, by buying the Blu Ray/DVD the Tuesday they are released. I think it's about equal in costs if I saw them in a theater.

...But there hasn't been a big-budget movie that drew me to theater in a looooong while. I occasionally read about these hyped up movies on here, but seriously, am I ever going to watch Transformers 4 (I totally forgot it's name) more than once for intellectual stimulation. Sure, there are dumb popcorn movies I get a kick out of (22 Jump Street, Jurassic World,) but that falls under personal taste too.

Unless Black Friday has a killer deal on them, I don't see me ever buying King Arthur, Pirates Of The Caribbean, Transformers, Valerian, Emoji Movie or Alien: Covenant. Maybe Baywatch or The Mummy.

I still love movies, just not a lot of the swill out there. I'll be waiting for things to get better watching my Criterion of The Vanishing tonight and buying Riverdale tomorrow in the meantime.

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you are most definitely not the typical though.   149 in a year is absolutely nuts and clearly reflects a time in your life when you were single :insane:    Maybe the 0.0 reflects family time

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2 hours ago, reddwarf666222 said:

In general the sequels and reboots are doing less than what they did in previous years and the audience is speaking 

Marvel seems to be one of the few that has each sequel doing better than the previous film, with the exception of AoU.

There are plenty of good TV shows to occupy out time these days & with today's piracy, many people just watch those awful cam copies at home, rather than go to the theater.

Outside of Superhero films, it seems like most movies just aren't doing as well domestically anymore.

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18 minutes ago, Bronty said:

you are most definitely not the typical though.   149 in a year is absolutely nuts and clearly reflects a time in your life when you were single :insane:    Maybe the 0.0 reflects family time

Nope. No kids at 42. :(

 Just writing all the time now.

I should add that it was so crazy in '99 because I chopped my finger off and required 4 months recovery time. Only thing to do was go to the movies with my squeeze ball (for physical therapy.)

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7 minutes ago, Bronty said:

yikes sorry about the finger!

I caught it in a wood-splitter.

There was ice under the plate while it was running and I tried to fix it.

It activated and was crushed in the maul and severed before I knew it.

Never felt a thing. Hardly any blood too. Doctor was not even going to bother, but I talked him into sewing it back on.

A few days later, I'm watching The Corrupter, The Cider House Rules ('98 carry-over), I think Ravenous, Go,  etc, waiting to be able to make a fist again.

 

I must admit out of my experience watching movies, 1998 was the absolute worst year in quality of giant movies at the cinemas. Before my accident, I was planning to cut down. It was the little ones that kept me going. I still think 1999 was the best year for quality blockbusters in the past 20 years (sans The Phantom Menace.) lol 

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20 minutes ago, chezmtghut said:

Marvel seems to be one of the few that has each sequel doing better than the previous film, with the exception of AoU.

There are plenty of good TV shows to occupy out time these days & with today's piracy, many people just watch those awful cam copies at home, rather than go to the theater.

Outside of Superhero films, it seems like most movies just aren't doing as well domestically anymore.

Well with Tv they are learning the British TV way. Limited number of episodes with great writing means can't miss Tv

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8 hours ago, reddwarf666222 said:

What they are saying is they are sick of reboots, sequels, and more. What they want are original films like Baby Driver, Wonder Woman, and Atomic Blonde. Hollywood studios have treated the public like they are insufficiently_thoughtful_persons for years now and they finally felt the backlash domestically 

Color me cynical, but I disagree. It's waaayyyy too late to blame the studios -- look instead to the brainless masses of people who have been rewarding Hollywood's garbage movies year after year by paying to see them in record-setting numbers. They've been pouring into the theaters to see literally anything for so long, quality-be-damned, so the studios had zero incentive to produce anything other than regurgitated tripe. I've been astonished to see what sounded like giant, unoriginal piles of monkey poop on film having massive box office paydays and I came to the realization that the majority of modern-day film-goers will go see anything that's playing just to be at the movies. So many lack any critical thinking skills to step back and question what it is they're going to see and why they think it will be worth their time. It's just a quest to be passively entertained and so they just follow the bunny around the track. I would be amazed if somehow the American public suddenly woke the F up and decided they wanted more out of life. More likely they're just too lazy to get out. 

Disclaimer: I did go see the Batman Harley movie tonight, so Hollywood's lucky to have squeezed a little blood out of this turnip. Also, I haven't watched this week's GoT yet. Actually, I may have unwittingly become Hollywood's last hope.

Also, NEG, nice anecdote with Cruel Intentions (thumbsu No matter how bad that movie sounded on paper, I would've hiked uphill in the snow both ways for SMG and Reese....  :luhv:

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Agree with you both.   Studios are churning out the garbage/reboots because people eat them up.   Movies used to be where you go to see a great story/acting and TV was the brainless stuff (remember when nearly every show was a sit-com?).  It's the reverse now.   TV has some really engaging (& original) material.   

There were a few exceptions at the movies this year (Wonder Woman being the standout and Spidey was a welcome fresh take, IMO).  We take my daughter to the movies to see stuff she wants to see (luckily for me, she likes the superhero stuff) but we usually just wait for something to come on Netflix or whatever IF we even watch it at all.  

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