Movies Have Worst Summer Since 1997

Same here. I had to go see it (as it tied in very well with Agents of SHIELD). Was very surprised. Love that movie, and I hope to get it on Blu-ray in the coming weeks.

I actually went to a few movies this summer. TMNT, Godzilla, Edge of Tomorrow... Good movies (except TMNT... It was missing something... Good, but not great). So, I went more than usual, which is 1 or 2. Just nothing really exciting to get me to the theater to pay $60 for the family to go. I'd rather rent or buy a Blu and watch it at home with popcorn, candy, soda and the ability to "Xbox Pause" and take a leak without missing anything.

It's a combination of sub-par (decent, but not theater going good) movies and higher prices that stops me from going. I have taken up bowling, though. I still suck, but it's cheaper and funner than most movies. :)

I liked CPT. America too. I wasn't as impressed as I expected, but I think that's because reviews and friends raised my expectations super high. If I took that out, it was still a solid movie and I recommended it to friends too.

With that said, I prefer the theater, because I generally avoid the annoying people and I don't have home distractions, like pausing for the bathroom (but I don't have a bunch of kids with me either ;) )
 
I think it is the cost that is preventing a lot of people from going. I went to more movies this summer than years past, want to know why? Because my office is located right next to one and before 5pm, it's $5 a person. That's not a bad deal at all. If you can live without popcorn / soda / snacks, it is cheap. Otherwise, I know of a few managers who said they'll let me in as long as I buy popcorn (one of high margin items).

I'm surprised the cleaning staff hasn't been replaced with roombas and the concession staff hasn't been replaced by vending.

I pay 7, and I'm OK with that. I'm sure most theaters would be more than happy to let you in for free if you buy popcorn (or even candy), but the studios would cut them off when they found out. All the money is in concessions. much of the of the candy sells for 3 or 3.50 and the grocery stores sells it for a buck (or less) and you know it's marked up there too.

Soda is a big winner too. Cheap to make and expensive at the theater.
 
Most theaters are pretty uncomfortable experiences these days. They are crammed during movie premieres then ghost towns after that so when you actually go its like being herded on a ranch.

The food is too expensive , the ticket prices keep going up , they keep pushing technology that no one seems interested in (like $15 3D tickets.. or 48fps movies). Couple that with the experience of sitting in your home with a big screen or projector plus ANY food you desire and stark naked if you want and being able to pause the movie which is now a Blu Ray and of archival quality so you can go to the bathroom and not miss a single moment.

You can often get movies on VOD through several resources that are movies in theater for a little bit more money (worth it) as well. Theaters are dying. Only hardcore hold outs that love screenings (I'm one of those btw) have any reason to bother. Hollywood needs to grow with the times and stop thinking it can hold onto an industry that is nothing like it was even 10 years ago.

I love watching movies at home. And lots of other people do too.
 
1. More in-home entertainment services (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, HBOGo, RedBox, etc) = less people going to the movies.

2. Less people going to the movies = increase in movie ticket prices.

3. Increase in movie ticket prices = even less people going to the movies.

4. Repeat steps 2-3 every year.

Combine all of that with a less than stellar summer line-up.

I don't know. Aside from HBO and RedBox, are there any great choices for movies? Netflix streaming is good for TV shows, but their selection of movies, IMNSHO, is lacking. I can't count the number of times I look for a movie and it's not available. HBOGo, with one exception is only available with a cable subscription. If you already have one, great, but if not, it kinda sucks to spend 17 bucks for HBO on top of a subscription that includes ESPN (which costs as much as a premium movie station).

Honestly, Redbox is the only bargain, but as they move into the streaming business, we have to wait longer to rent a disk.

The goal, of course is to increase BD sales, which I'm OK with, because the picture and osund is way better than any of the streaming services.
 
Most theaters are pretty uncomfortable experiences these days. They are crammed during movie premieres then ghost towns after that so when you actually go its like being herded on a ranch.

The food is too expensive , the ticket prices keep going up , they keep pushing technology that no one seems interested in (like $15 3D tickets.. or 48fps movies). Couple that with the experience of sitting in your home with a big screen or projector plus ANY food you desire and stark naked if you want and being able to pause the movie which is now a Blu Ray and of archival quality so you can go to the bathroom and not miss a single moment.

You can often get movies on VOD through several resources that are movies in theater for a little bit more money (worth it) as well. Theaters are dying. Only hardcore hold outs that love screenings (I'm one of those btw) have any reason to bother. Hollywood needs to grow with the times and stop thinking it can hold onto an industry that is nothing like it was even 10 years ago.

I love watching movies at home. And lots of other people do too.

And don't forget Color. Worst thing that every happened to movies ;)
I think it's too soon to tell on the 48-60fps front (if for no other reason than I've never been never seen a film in 48fps. I'll add that if it stops the jerky pans, I probably won't mind.
Considering how many on these boards can't live without 60FPS when gaming, I'm not sure why anyone would be against 48 for film. We really won't know though until the Avatar sequels start coming. Cameron is the one guy who can make a movie with new tech that always seems to work. There are few 3d movies that I felt justified the use of 3D and Avatar was one of them. Gravity was good to, as I recall.

If 3D they'd stop gouging us on the glasses 3D wouldn't suck. When they first started out, it was a buck more, now it's 3 more (at least where I'm at). That said, the reason why 3D is everywhere is because in China it's almost impossible to get movies distributed if they're not available in 3D (even if they were originally in 2D).
 
I have not seen a movie at a theater in ages. The cost is too much, then you have people making noises, etc.
Best to rent it or wait till it comes out on cable and relax at home to watch.

Where I lived had a great drive in, that was nice.

Two movies for around $8 and the serenity of relaxing in your car to your own stereo.
 
Quit going to church and catch the first showing on Sunday. There are no annoying people. This isn't me trashing people that go to church, it's just that the theaters are virtually empty, so the odds of being near an annoying person are slim and none.

this strategy doesn't work as well in areas with lots of agnostics and atheists ;)

You must not live in urban Florida.
 
Caught The November Man today and really enjoyed it. Brosnan is still awesome.
 
IMO the movie industry needs to keep tanking eventually they will break down and realize the best way to make the summer blockbuster break sales records is to switch to something more like a pay per view model. Its simple charge people a set reasonable price, and stream it directly to every home in America, or the world.

The only point of watching a move in the theater is if you want to get in on the talk, the buzz, posting your useless drivel about the movie on facebook, wasting your bosses time at work discussing it with co workers. If not for these issues you can simply save money waiting till it comes out for rental. Allowing everyone to get in on that on day 1 at the same time or within the first week could reignite that fire. Remember the less people that go and watch movies, the less other people will care to do the same. And for many reasons it can be impractical to go watch a movie. For 1 the theater experience sucks, second it can happen at any time which may not coincide with your schedule, being their on open, their may not be enough seats or you may not want to sit in line anyway.

Take all that away and let people just order it right in their home.
 
And don't forget Color. Worst thing that every happened to movies ;)
I think it's too soon to tell on the 48-60fps front (if for no other reason than I've never been never seen a film in 48fps. I'll add that if it stops the jerky pans, I probably won't mind.
Considering how many on these boards can't live without 60FPS when gaming, I'm not sure why anyone would be against 48 for film. We really won't know though until the Avatar sequels start coming. Cameron is the one guy who can make a movie with new tech that always seems to work. There are few 3d movies that I felt justified the use of 3D and Avatar was one of them. Gravity was good to, as I recall.

If 3D they'd stop gouging us on the glasses 3D wouldn't suck. When they first started out, it was a buck more, now it's 3 more (at least where I'm at). That said, the reason why 3D is everywhere is because in China it's almost impossible to get movies distributed if they're not available in 3D (even if they were originally in 2D).

I've seen The Hobbit in 48fps in 3D at IMAX and it looked bad. It really distracted me from the movie overall and it wasn't a very pleasant experience. I re-watched it at a normal theater at 24fps and it was beautiful looking. 48fps will never take off , it just won't. The requirements for theaters to upgrade will doom it as theaters are already operating at a loss sometimes years after opening.

Cameron is just as diluted as Jackson is when it comes to 48fps. Cameron saw the potential for 3D and seized it but with 48fps being available in very , very limited theaters it would take millions upon millions of dollars of upgrading to even get it seen by the general audience and many people just hate it.

Film still has a place. It has a look , feel and experience working with it that keep it alive (plus some talented directors that refuse to let Film die helps).

3D being popular in China doesn't mean a lot to the West honestly (except for profits but China is weird about that when it comes to movies). If it isn't popular in your home then its very unlikely it'll be so at the theater. Dolby Just introduced ATMOS and its already a bomb. Very few receivers are planned to even support it because it requires tons of speakers and people already think of surround sound as 5.1 not 10.2.

There really isn't any kind of revolution in tech that will save theaters as we know it. IF Oculus manages to stimulate the long promised VR market then it could finish off theaters in a swift blow.
 
Cinemas here have it all. 3D, ATMOS, 2D, and the normal ones. It's pretty much empty early in the day during the weekdays and pretty packed at nights. During the weekends and public holidays, you'll have a hard time getting tickets because they'll mostly be sold out. At night,most of the viewers are couples that are dating and have no where else to go. During the day, you'll see a lot of people who watch movies during their lunch breaks or whatever. Dressed up in their office attire and what not.

Anything ATMOS and 3D are expensive, but I've never really been much of a fan. Regardless, those movies are also sold out during weekends. They make their money from the snacks and popcorn. And on the weekends, both movies and that keep those places alive. As for me, I like going to the cinema to watch certain movies but it's a hassle because you have to book the tickets online, then actually go to the cinema. Find parking (which is always a problem at shopping malls and what not).

The satellite television we have here has the latest movies available for rental that appear in the cinemas but I'm not sure if they get much response. It's a 24 hour rental and it costs as much as a ticket for a 2D show.

I have Netflix, Hulu Plus, Showtime, HBOGO, and a few other channels that I have on Roku and that pretty much covers all the TV shows and movies I need. Full HD, great sound streaming in. There are other ways of getting latest movies that don't make it to those channels though, so I'm covered.

They just need to come up with better movies. I haven't been excited about many movies recently, I'm looking forward to the Boxtrolls, so that tells you something. LOL
 
I really liked guardians and captain America...

Not much else grabbed my attention this summer.
 
I see quite a few movies in the theater, and usually enjoy going.

I'm one of the few who really liked Spidey 2, but I can see why many wouldn't.
Maleficent was surprisingly good, and I'll even stretch a bit and call it original.
Cap'n was exactly as advertised, which is good.
Expendables 3 was as great as its predecessors. Stupid and awesome.
Edge of Tomorrow was fun, but you could drive a truck through the plot holes.
Lucy was a steaming pile of crap, that I felt insulted my intelligence; and remember, that's coming from someone who really liked Expendables 3.
 
This summer, I've seen How To Train Your Dragon 2, Hercules, and Guardians of the Galaxy. I missed Godzilla and Captain America 2 but bought the BD of the latter.
 
Movies are made with risk management so hollywood try to minimzie risks which also cause bad scripts to be greenlighted and using safe actors (big names) to bring in cash.

I seen the cap america, guardians and x-men future past, divergent, hunger games and I wait for the Hobbit with 3D and 48fps as for me its awesome. Movies really comes alive on the screen with 48fps.
No other movie has held my interest to go there.
 
I pay 7, and I'm OK with that. I'm sure most theaters would be more than happy to let you in for free if you buy popcorn (or even candy), but the studios would cut them off when they found out. All the money is in concessions. much of the of the candy sells for 3 or 3.50 and the grocery stores sells it for a buck (or less) and you know it's marked up there too.

Soda is a big winner too. Cheap to make and expensive at the theater.

17.00/ticket (non-imax) in San Diego.

Fuck Hollywood. Movies suck compared to almost anything else i can spent my entertainment budget on. This downward spiral will continue for them - they have priced themselves out of the entertainment market in many major cities.
 
Less Michael bay
More Plot
Less trailers that show all the "good" parts or worse Lie about the film
More good script writing
Less adding of ridiculous "Hollywood" action sequences just to have them.
More real feeling characters (not so 1 dimensional)
Less rehashing of old and tired story's and tropes.
More real creativity
Less FX for the sake of FX. (Good FX is something that draws you into a movie)
More non humanoid aliens (sick and tired of aliens that are human and are a different color or have some forehead appliance.
Less fireball explosions
More Humor
 
Tickets are like $7.00 for Matinee 2D, and like $17 or so for IMAX.

I still go see the big movies that come out, and still enjoy them. I don't have a theater at home, and hate paying for cable TV, so I don't have On Demand or movie channels. I do have Playstation Network which is nice, and I can rent from there store.
 
I have gone to the theatre 5 or 6 times this year, that's more than I have gone in the past10 yyears.
But so far everything I saw was shit. I wasn't a fan of the guardians gogodzilla was terrible.
Edge of Tomorrow was the best movie since District 9

My family owns 2 theatres and a drive in a few hours away and theyaare doing fine.
 
The only movies worth watching this year have not yet been released: Hunger Games 3 and The Hobbit 3.
 
I find I can't really watch 3D movies. I can't relax into them. HFR 3D is much better but not quite there. I'd like to see HFR 2D.
 
I typically see a lot of movies during the summer. They ranged from excellent (Guardians of the Galaxy), very good (Winter Soldier, Godzilla), good (Edge of Tomorrow, How to Train Your Dragon 2, Planet of the Apes 2, Days of Future Past), just OK (Maleficent, Lucy, Spiderman 2, Sin City 2), and disappointing (Hurcules, TMNT).

I usually go to an early showing on Saturday morning and don't spend a lot on concessions. While I understand the arguments against going (noisey rude people being my primary pet peeve), it could be argued that even at home it might not be an ideal environment for movie consumption. Distractions from a knock on the door to your personal phone ringing as examples. Other people in the household who don't care about the movie doing whatever they do. This is especially true if you have young children. My personal fave was the ex mother in law who loved to wander in and out of the room and want a verbal recap of everything that happened while she was out of the room, only to wander out again shortly after.

Some movies are just plain cooler in a big crowded theater too. A movie that can sweep up the whole audience in an awesome scene, or make everyone gasp at once. Its a strange connection to your fellow man when it happens. Plus no matter how nice your home system is, its not a 6 story tall imax screen with sound to match.

Having said all that I still agree with most of the sentiments from the board. Just offering another point of view.
 
movies come out so quickly nowadays on home video (Blu-ray/DVD/streaming) so it's really not worth it to spend the extra $$ in the theater when you can enjoy it in the comfort of your home (hopefully with a large projector or plasma screen and 5.1/7.1 speakers)...and you can rewind, pause etc...3 months from theater to home video seems to be the norm these days

I just watched Amazing Spider Man 2 on Blu-ray 2 weeks ago
 
I liked Captain America, but it came out in April . . . that's a spring movie, not a summer movie. So I'll stand by my statement that the only good Summer movie has been Guardians of the Galaxy.

Godzilla was not a good movie. It had potential, but didn't live up to it. Also, it came out in May, which is not the summer.
Edge of Tomorrow came out June 6th, not quite summer. Also, I haven't seen it yet (cash poor).

So yeah, Guardians of the Galaxy has been the only movie worth seeing this summer.
 
I liked Captain America, but it came out in April . . . that's a spring movie, not a summer movie. So I'll stand by my statement that the only good Summer movie has been Guardians of the Galaxy.

Godzilla was not a good movie. It had potential, but didn't live up to it. Also, it came out in May, which is not the summer.
Edge of Tomorrow came out June 6th, not quite summer. Also, I haven't seen it yet (cash poor).

So yeah, Guardians of the Galaxy has been the only movie worth seeing this summer.

technically summer starts on June 21st...but unofficially the summer 'season' kicks off on Memorial Day and ends on Labor Day
 
I finally went to see a movie in the theaters last night.
It was GHOSTBUSTERS!!!
Me and my lady had the entire theater to ourselves.
I actually had a good experience at the theaters hahaha
 
Best movie I've seen this year so far is when I watched Midway on SonyHD.

They need to go back to basics. That movie is awesome.
 
Or maybe just maybe people are voting with their dollars saying that 15-20 bucks for a movie ticket is assine for what they are getting.
 
Captain America 2 sucked. I don't think I've ever seen a movie that was so action packed and yet so boring.

Well of course I disagree. The story was relevant and the actors did an excellent job unlike GoTG where Bradley Cooper and Chris Pratt carried the acting. Zoe was stagnant at best and David Bautista was horrible and Groot...well he is Groot.
 
Or maybe just maybe people are voting with their dollars saying that 15-20 bucks for a movie ticket is assine for what they are getting.

I payed 3 euros for stuff like Planet of Apes or Transformes and I still feel like I really overpayed for them :D
 
I think people are misunderstanding Lucy. It's not about scientific facts, it was about taking an intriguing hypothesis and creating an entertaining feast for the eyes. You can't look too deeply into a movie like that. I thought that the movie was great. I have yet to see a film by Luc Besson that I do not like. People where I live obviously like it because the three theatres near me are still all playing it with 5 showtimes throughout the day, 5 weeks after its release. How many movies today stay on screen for more than a month, let alone with half a dozen showtimes after that period?

Lucy and Edge of Tomorrow were the best movies of the summer in my opinion.
 
This is an interesting article with the movie and financial statistics. I've only been to see a couple movies this summer. My personal reasons for not going to the movies so much as in the past are:

1) General availability of entertainment at home. Streaming movies, TV series, Cable, Gaming, etc. I lost the "I need to see this when its in theaters" mindset largely because most of my social circles have done the same. Its much better quality to watch movies at someone's place comfortably than at theaters.
......
4) Price. At theaters this keeps going up, while watching at home (the better experience) keeps going down.

I suspect the general public may share some of these same opinions or enlightenments about this topic.

I believe these are the core reasons. I can just wait 3 months and watch the movie in the comfort of my lay-zeee-boy with a big tequila drink. The "dinner theaters' are the only place I even contemplate going to anymore. Best TV dinners evar!
 
I account for some of this because I simply have no interest in watching a movie in a movie theater...for all the same reasons that we've beaten to death.
 
I've seen a few movies this summer/year. Don't go to theaters a lot as of late.

1. Winter Soldier. <-- Solid movie with an good story line. Enjoyable.

2. Lucy <-- Good movie. interesting concept. So far from fact and SO TALKED ABOUT the out of the world ness of it and the fact they tried to SOMEWHAT ground it in present day kind of made it less enjoyable. Or perhaps it was I had high expectations of the movie house. Alamo Draft house in Richardson. It was very mediocer at best and the food was.. lackluster.

3. Guardians of the Galaxy.. I LOVED this movie. It is like another Matrix for me. I would see it with new watchers over and over. Tons of details to catch.

I still want to see Herculese. But that is because I like what I have seen from Duane Johnson.
 
technically summer starts on June 21st...but unofficially the summer 'season' kicks off on Memorial Day and ends on Labor Day

The movies I listed still don't fit in that range, other than Guardians of the Galaxy. They were all pre-Memorial Day.
 
Guardians of the Galaxy was the best movie of the summer & best Marvel movie ever!
 
1. More in-home entertainment services (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, HBOGo, RedBox, etc) = less people going to the movies.

2. Less people going to the movies = increase in movie ticket prices.

3. Increase in movie ticket prices = even less people going to the movies.

4. Repeat steps 2-3 every year.

Combine all of that with a less than stellar summer line-up.

I wouldn't care about netflix if only moves that came out 15 years ago are still better.

There were times when Kevin Spacey, Robert Williams and Tom Hanks were young and still doing good movies. It didn't involve built up boys stripping and punching every fking two minutes while a girl is shaking her boobs left and right.
 
Back
Top