What Is Behind Summer's Free Fall At The Box Office

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Wait just a minute, I thought piracy was the go-to excuse when movies flopped at the box office?

Last year, Despicable Me 2 alone grossed $143.1 million in its first five days after opening on the Wednesday before the Fourth of July, one of the most lucrative holiday stretches of the year in terms of moviegoing. This year, the three new films making a major play eked out a combined $61.4 million during the same period — more bad news for an already miserable summer.
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Perhaps their movies just suck? Enough with Transformers bullshit, how many spidermen can you have before someone grabs the bug spray? Ben Affleck as batman, wtf, there goes next summer too! :eek:

Even Star Wars .... Disney, seriously, you know it's gonna suck, have singing by a Princess in it, etc.

Hollywood and the movie studios deserve to take a beating after the obsessions over "piracy", hell the piracy was their best marketing tool .... they killed their own best friend. :p
 
Shitty movies are also a reason for poor box office. If someone made something decent...
 
Put out good movies we want to WATCH AT THE THEATRE and we'll go, it is that simple-nothing so far this summer- to me- has had that I MUST GO SEE THIS MOVIE vibe.

there has not been Many "must see" movies out so far this year for me and my family- so we have not gone.

the next - for me at least- must see is..guardians of the galaxy-its Marvel....

last movie we saw was how to train your dragon 2, before that was capt america winter soldier...
 
besides the obvious, can we get something decent on screen, how many really cannot stand the whole "experience" of going to see a movie nowadays?

I know I can't. Spend lots of money on tickets/popcorn/drinks to be in a crowded theater with obnoxious people..oh please can i?? or i can wait a few months and see it on blue ray on my big TV at home where i can hit pause to go get another beer

heck, i have pretty much just stopped going to the theater. Last movie i saw in the theater was return of the king.
 
As others have said, give me a movie worth watching. I just can't get excited about another Transformers movie. The trailers for "Tammy" just looked painful (stupid fat woman goes on a pointless road trip, oh joy). Though I tend to like all of the Marvel movies, I'm not sold on the Guardians of the Galaxy either. It just looks moronic in the trailers. About the only movie on my radar that looks vaguely interesting is Lucy, and I'll wait for the reviews before I decide on that one.

Movies are expensive these days. They'll be out on video in 6 months anyway. It has to be a good movie to be worth the money and the time.
 
Shit movies results in shit attendance. Doesn't take a genius to figure it out.
 
Despicable Me 2 sucked and this summers movies suck even more? Despicable Me 1 wasn't bad and so everyone went to see 2. You can't expect that since everyone went out to see a movie that it was good, especially one that's a sequel.
 
DesertCat said:
As others have said, give me a movie worth watching. I just can't get excited about another Transformers movie. The trailers for "Tammy" just looked painful (stupid fat woman goes on a pointless road trip, oh joy). Though I tend to like all of the Marvel movies, I'm not sold on the Guardians of the Galaxy either. It just looks moronic in the trailers. About the only movie on my radar that looks vaguely interesting is Lucy, and I'll wait for the reviews before I decide on that one.

Movies are expensive these days. They'll be out on video in 6 months anyway. It has to be a good movie to be worth the money and the time.
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Pretty much this. Before video, they hit the second run theater near the house - only $4.00 to see a movie, new seats, plus, I can have a beer while watching it. So... why would I pay $9.00? If I don't want to pay $4.00, I can pay $1.25 at RedBox and sit on my couch and watch the movie. It has to be a really really good movie, or one a big group is going to go see for me to drop the cash to see it in a first-run theater.
 
kattana said:
besides the obvious, can we get something decent on screen, how many really cannot stand the whole "experience" of going to see a movie nowadays?
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I'm growing less and less satisfied with the "experience". I don't have the time now to hit the midnight releases with people who actually want to be there to see the movie. Rather I'm finding the time to see the movies I deem worthy enough with people who bring toddlers, who talk/point out things outloud, use their phones, or otherwise make me want to bring a potato gun in with me.

Part of my problem is probably that I'm fed up with paying so much that I hit the first show of the day(usually Saturday) when tickets are 5 bucks, but still. The movies are not a place for toddlers unless its rated G. It's not a place to discuss the movies as its happening, and certainly not a place for cell phones. /rant
 
The last movie I saw at the theater was The Raid 2. I missed Godzilla and Spiderman 2 but I'm holding out for the $1 theater on those. :D
 
You're going to see a ton of films pander to the Chinese now. Transformers is really raking it in from China box offices, I heard.
 
10 more years and we'll be direct-to-disc or direct-to-stream, whatever it may be.

Movie houses are on their way out.
 
It couldn't possible be that tickets are 15$/each now, plus 20$ for a soda/popcorn... All so I can get crammed in between some mouthbreathers who talk through the whole movie.. On top of only shit being released... I'm glad they are losing a ton of money.
 
rsbennett00 said:
Shitty movies are also a reason for poor box office. If someone made something decent...
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Decent movies are not enough for me to spend $10 on a ticket, plus parking, plus $5 soda and $7.50 popcorn. Last time I was in a movie theater was Avatar....before that was the first Lord of the Rings flick. No movie is worth $20+USD for one person for 90 minutes of actual entertainment as is common. I can wait for the disc to come out.
 
Well, let's see:

Transformers 3 was a severe disappointment, so I wasn't looking forward to Transformers 4. I still haven't seen it, and from what I've heard from those who have, I'm not missing much. So, I wasn't going to go out and see that one.

The last X-men movie was a disappointment as well, so I put off seeing it, but I did see it the weekend previous to July 4th. So that one was out.

All the other movies out didn't interest me in the slightest. They aren't even worth mentioning by name. So, I just didn't go see any movies this weekend. I know I'm not the only one. There are several people I know that didn't go see movies either. Overall, people just weren't interested in the movies that were out.

I am looking forward to Guardians of the Galaxy, though. That's been the only movie this summer that has looked interesting to me. The last one I was really anxious to see was Winter Soldier (Excellent movie!) back in April. One that mildly interests me is Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, but I'm not going to pay theater ticket prices to see it. I'll wait until it's on Amazon and rent it.

They'd better just blame the drop in ticket sales on their own incompetence. If they'd actually put effort into writing and making the movies well, they might get more response from people.
 
Skripka said:
Decent movies are not enough for me to spend $10 on a ticket, plus parking, plus $5 soda and $7.50 popcorn. Last time I was in a movie theater was Avatar....before that was the first Lord of the Rings flick. No movie is worth $20+USD for one person for 90 minutes of actual entertainment as is common. I can wait for the disc to come out.
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The latest Captain America movie definitely was worth the money. I found it far better than Avatar. However, that was the last movie I saw that I figured was worth it. The latest X-men movie was rather disappointing.
 
dgingeri said:
Well, let's see:

Transformers 3 was a severe disappointment, so I wasn't looking forward to Transformers 4. I still haven't seen it, and from what I've heard from those who have, I'm not missing much. So, I wasn't going to go out and see that one.

The last X-men movie was a disappointment as well, so I put off seeing it, but I did see it the weekend previous to July 4th. So that one was out.

All the other movies out didn't interest me in the slightest. They aren't even worth mentioning by name. So, I just didn't go see any movies this weekend. I know I'm not the only one. There are several people I know that didn't go see movies either. Overall, people just weren't interested in the movies that were out.

I am looking forward to Guardians of the Galaxy, though. That's been the only movie this summer that has looked interesting to me. The last one I was really anxious to see was Winter Soldier (Excellent movie!) back in April. One that mildly interests me is Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, but I'm not going to pay theater ticket prices to see it. I'll wait until it's on Amazon and rent it.

They'd better just blame the drop in ticket sales on their own incompetence. If they'd actually put effort into writing and making the movies well, they might get more response from people.
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The problem of the movie industry is the cornerstone of their success. The home movie player (system).

All the plot formulas have been done before. Everyone has seen them, and can see them cheaper and with less hassle without leaving home. "Putting effort into better writing" doesn't do much when in the last 70 years of movies all the forms have been done before. Hence why we are caught in sequel hell.
 
Kinsaras said:
Not true. Good movies can have poor sales too.

But yeah nothing decent has came out this summer.
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Good movies is subjective. Just cause it got good reviews and won oscars doesn't make it a good movie. In fact, that's how I know it's going to be a bad movie.
 
dgingeri said:
The latest Captain America movie definitely was worth the money. I found it far better than Avatar. However, that was the last movie I saw that I figured was worth it. The latest X-men movie was rather disappointing.
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Avatar wasn't great...but it was good enough to make me curious to see it in theater. Also the run time made it worth the effort to go to a theater, most movie barely break 100 minutes. I wanted to see HitMan lots, but when I saw the runtime I said hell with it and waited for DVD.


Super hero movies even on disk do next to nothing for me...last run of Bat Man flicks not withstanding, although those too I could wait until they made the DVD shelf.
 
Biznatch said:
It couldn't possible be that tickets are 15$/each now, plus 20$ for a soda/popcorn... All so I can get crammed in between some mouthbreathers who talk through the whole movie.. On top of only shit being released... I'm glad they are losing a ton of money.
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dgingeri said:
The latest Captain America movie definitely was worth the money. I found it far better than Avatar. However, that was the last movie I saw that I figured was worth it. The latest X-men movie was rather disappointing.
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Both of these together. Captain America was worth the $50+ for the family to go see. Most others, not really. It's not that there are shitty movies. There are just movies that I can't justify the cost anymore. I'd go see Transformers if the tickets were $7.50. Not at $10-12 each. Plus food (wife & kids). The value I'm getting for what I'm paying just isn't there. Hell, even some Blu-ray's I won't buy at $25 new. I'll wait until they hit $10 to buy. The movie just isn't that good to pay more for it.
 
well, if you're like me and you work a lot, there is not much time to go to the theater, besides.. between netflix, amazon, hulu and tivo, i have plenty of media to watch at home.
 
$20 for a large popcorn, $10 for a large soda, and $15.95 per person just to get in for a non 3D movie ($17.95 for 3D) might also be part of the problem too. Taking a family of 4 plus a couple of the kids friends to a movie isn't a cheap endeavor. When we took the kids and 2 friends to see Frozen (the last movie we have been to at the theatre) it was about $150.00.
 
rsbennett00 said:
Shitty movies are also a reason for poor box office. If someone made something decent...
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I guess you haven't heard of Tammy then. Here is a gem with the same oinker actress that plays herself in every single movie - lifting her leg and farting and making a funny face. Only this time, she does it in a car, on a roadtrip.

rs_560x415-140213063613-1024-Melissa-McCarthy-JR-21314_copy.jpg
 
csgill75 said:
$20 for a large popcorn, $10 for a large soda, and $15.95 per person just to get in for a non 3D movie ($17.95 for 3D) might also be part of the problem too. Taking a family of 4 plus a couple of the kids friends to a movie isn't a cheap endeavor. When we took the kids and 2 friends to see Frozen (the last movie we have been to at the theatre) it was about $150.00.
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Ouch.
 
Ashbringer said:
Good movies is subjective. Just cause it got good reviews and won oscars doesn't make it a good movie. In fact, that's how I know it's going to be a bad movie.
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Yes it is subjective but people skip movies simply by title alone. Dredd is the latest example I can think of. Everyone I know sings praises after they saw it on DVD but did terrible in theaters.

Surprised at the lack of X-men love in here? I thought the new one was great. Best one since X2.
 
Another thing holding movie sales back this year has been the competition for your free time: awesome weather here on the East Coast. That cool winter has held back the very worst of summer by a coupe months, and we're seeing our first full week of 90s JUST NOW here in Maryland.

I believe I have been doing something outdoors almost every weekend this spring/summer. Cookouts are a whole lot cheaper than movies, and there's no point in going unless you want to beat the summer heat :D
 
What markets do you people live in that you're paying $15/ticket? The theatre near me is only $7 for a matinee, $9.50 at night... $14 gets me two 48oz sodas and a large popcorn (can't remember the volume), and still come with free refills. Even 3D movies are only $10/$13. Combined with it never being crowded, I guess that's why I still see a lot of movies on the big screen. This isn't some broken down, outdated place either. It was bought out and renovated in 2004, and had a full equipment refresh in 2012.
 
Armenius said:
What markets do you people live in that you're paying $15/ticket? The theatre near me is only $7 for a matinee, $9.50 at night... $14 gets me two 48oz sodas and a large popcorn (can't remember the volume), and still come with free refills. Even 3D movies are only $10/$13. Combined with it never being crowded, I guess that's why I still see a lot of movies on the big screen. This isn't some broken down, outdated place either. It was bought out and renovated in 2004, and had a full equipment refresh in 2012.
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Probably in a large city. It's about $12 for me. $9 for matinee.

What I don't get is why do people buy food there. Eat before or after the movie.
 
Skripka said:
Decent movies are not enough for me to spend $10 on a ticket, plus parking, plus $5 soda and $7.50 popcorn. Last time I was in a movie theater was Avatar....before that was the first Lord of the Rings flick. No movie is worth $20+USD for one person for 90 minutes of actual entertainment as is common. I can wait for the disc to come out.
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Part of the problem is cost of living adjustments. The movie is the same no matter where you see it so just because you live in a more upscale part of the country, you have to pay more, but you don't get more. Here, non 3d movies are $5 and I haven't bought concessions in years so not a clue but this being a poor part of the country, it's bound to be less.

This is the same reason netflix and redbox are having issues, for us $1 is a lot of money, but for most of the country, it's not.
 
What a stupid article. The article itself is written by someone who is clearly part of the 'hollywood idiot culture'. How is comparing two different Adam Sandler films from two different years going to prove anything besides some sensationalist idle speculation? As long as Hollywood keeps treating movies as just a line item on a balance sheet nothing will change.
 
The new Transformers movie could be the stupidest one yet, but it's making a killing. I can't wrap my head around that, but it's not likely that it's just 10 people who have gone to see the thing over and over and over and over. Clearly people are willing to pay to see CGI crap blow up.

The last movie I saw in the theater was ST : Into Darkness I think. $10 for an afternoon matinee, and I smuggled my own bottle of water in. It was meh, I could have waited for the bluray. Before that.... Iron Man 3 I think (the worst of the 3 so far, or at least tied with 2). Before that I can't remember. Dark Knight Rises I guess with wife & friends, and THAT was the worst one of the 3 (and 3 hours long, ugh).

I read an article that some AMC theaters are ripping the regular seats out and putting in recliners. Interesting concept, but will they jack the price up for those premium seats? I bet they do...

I want to go see something at the new Alamo Draft House theater by my house... real food and cocktails during a movie? Sure. But there just isn't anything I want to see... plus do I really want to eat in the dark and can't see what I'm eating? I guess I'll cross that bridge in 2015 when Star Wars comes out.
 
DPI said:
I guess you haven't heard of Tammy then. Here is a gem with the same oinker actress that plays herself in every single movie - lifting her leg and farting and making a funny face. Only this time, she does it in a car, on a roadtrip.
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Wow, that sounds almost as bad as that child exploitation movie making the rounds.
 
Kinsaras said:
Probably in a large city. It's about $12 for me. $9 for matinee.

What I don't get is why do people buy food there. Eat before or after the movie.
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Tickets at my local cinema range from £6 to £44. $70 gets you a reclining chair with speakers and a call button but I dont think those seats get used much. :)
 
Maybe you all should check out your local indie movie cinema. Give it a chance and you'll enjoy it greatly. They are also generally cheaper and not crowded. Occasionally you'll get the annoying middle aged intellectual couple discussing the movie with each other, while the movie is still happening.


You all complain about the current tired stock of sequels, but yet it seems those are exactly the kind of movies you like to watch. "I'd never watch Batman, but i'd definitely watch Avengers." To movie studios those two are the same thing. That's why you've got 4 transformers movies when there wasn't even enough plot to make 1.
 
rsbennett00 said:
Wow, that sounds almost as bad as that child exploitation movie making the rounds.
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Earth to Echo? First thing I though when I saw the trailer for that was "Wow, they're trying to recreate ET for this generation and it's going to fail hard." I was always more of a fan of Flight of the Navigator myself...
 
So what movies are they talking about opening before the 4th? Fucking article goes all over the place throwing out millions here, billions here, but starts with comparing Despicable Me 2 to "three movies" I found one of them is Tammy, yeah who really wants to watch a female comic pull the "oooh look at all the awkward fat people stereotypes" show, then Echo something or other at the very end of the article (which I swear is a re-imagining of "Batteries Not Included") ... so yeah... no big movies come out for the 4th weekend, not much money made... but hey lets actually compare it to a big movie that came out last year at the same time!!

I saw Dragon's 2, and Captain America 2, that was good enough for me so far, I might get in on a preview of The Fluffy Movie because I love that guy's funny (he knows how to make the "fat guy" thing funny)
 
csgill75 said:
$20 for a large popcorn, $10 for a large soda, and $15.95 per person just to get in for a non 3D movie ($17.95 for 3D) might also be part of the problem too. Taking a family of 4 plus a couple of the kids friends to a movie isn't a cheap endeavor. When we took the kids and 2 friends to see Frozen (the last movie we have been to at the theatre) it was about $150.00.
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1) Don't buy popcorn and drinks in the theater.
2) Get discount tickets online: http://www.costco.com/.product.1000...vc=itempageVerticalRight|CategorySiloedViewCP

Much cheaper. :D
 
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