Ticket Sales Fail to Make Hollywood’s Summer

[alp227]

Source: NYT

This is one summer Hollywood would like to remake.

Ticket sales at North American cinemas declined an estimated 3 percent, to $4.28 billion, for the period from the first full weekend in May to Labor Day, compared with the period a year earlier. The last time studios experienced a decline for the summer was seven years ago, according to Hollywood.com, which compiles box office data.

But even higher ticket prices could not offset empty seats. Attendance for the period, when studios record about 40 percent of their annual ticket revenue, was the lowest since at least 1993, when independent records started to be kept. About 533 million people went to the movies, a 4 percent drop compared with last summer.

These dour statistics, offset somewhat by international sales, come despite a season that included two huge hits: “The Avengers” took in about $620 million in North America for Disney (over $1.5 billion worldwide); and “The Dark Knight Rises” sold over $431 million in tickets for Warner Brothers (closing in on $1 billion globally).

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/03/business/media/ticket-sales-fail-to-make-hollywoods-summer.html?pagewanted=all

[itsrobert]

1. Don't cry for Hollywood too soon

They are still making more money than ever off DVD/BluRay, Video on Demand/pay per view, Pay movie channels, etc. Plus they also make a lot of television content.

[taught_me_patience]

4. Not true

DVD sales are down from a $14B category in 2005 to $9B this year. There are a lot of layoffs in home video amongst the studios over the last several years. VOD, Redbox, and Netflix revenue is not even close to making it up.

[bl968]

2. The problem

Hollywood priced movies out of the reach of the average family. It's $10 for the average movie per person, and then another $10 for snacks. Multiply that out by a family of 4 you are talking about almost $100.00 in a tight economy to go see the latest Hollywood blockbuster.

[Bjorn Against]

3. I think the summer blockbuster is starting to die

People used to like to go to the big summer blockbusters for the special effects and were able to look past the lame storylines, but great special effects have now become so commonplace that people are not as impressed by them as they used to be. There really were not that many great movies this summer, the Dark Knight Rises was a big disappointment and there were very few must see films.

I would recommend people go see The Campaign however, I just saw it today and it was very funny. Yes it is crude, so if you are easily offended stay away but if you can handle some vulgarity then it is quite funny and takes lots of shots at the Koch brothers and the absurdities of the American electoral system.

[daleo]

5. I agree with you about special effects

They have gotten in the way of story telling and character development. In addition, I find the cheesy special effects of old movies and TV more interesting than those in recent productions.

[tjdee]

6. They should stop making sequels, adaptations, and remakes. Just a thought.

I saw The Avengers and it was great, and there was really nothing else of worth to see. I don't even remember what else was out.

[wildeyed]

9. What I was going to say.

They need to stop making so many boring movies. It's all remakes and sequels with cartoon characters. They need to come up with something new. Also need to stop playing ads at the beginning. At least at home I can fast forward through the ads. And it's cheaper. And the popcorn is better.

[onehandle]

7. We are Huge film buffs, but are going to the theater less and less.

The problem is that people think that the movie theater is their living room.

They talk, text, take phone calls, bring toddlers and crying babies...

Who needs that. We just got a nice, big flat screen TV. We have an Apple TV hooked up to it.

We'll probably go see 'The Hobbit' in the theatre, but it will be a late showing on a school night.

[Frank Cannon]

10. My wife and I used to go just about every week.

Now it's more like once a month, or once every two months.

The ticket prices are just ridiculous anymore. I feel like we're paying for a Garth Brooks concert every time we go, while going to the movies used to be one of the cheaper forms of out-of-the-home entertainment.

At the same time, the quality of the films is just awful. The best movie we saw this summer was Ted, about a talking teddy bear, which probably cost very little to make but was truly creative and funny. (And yes, we saw The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises. Don't even get me started on those.)

[fugop]

12. I concur...

Paying $50 for the movie (for a family of four, for example) is crazy. Then another $25-plus for drinks and snacks? Then studios wonder why people would rather use redbox or On Demand? We're forced to limit ourselves to must-see movies, of which there are fewer every year.

I really miss going to the movies, though. I love movies, and I used to go several times a month at one point.

[high density]

8. I'm not surprised

The films have been pretty lackluster. I can understand why many are avoiding them. I feel like Hollywood has come to expect tripling their money on any piece of crap they pump out there. Perhaps there's always been some of that, but it seems incredibly pervasive now.

[Tom Ripley]

11. The television/movies equation is now reversed:

In the past, television was the home of schlocky, lowest common denominator junk, while movies dealt with compelling subjects and were character driven.
That is no longer the case.

[gtar100]

13. Easy fix - just charge more per ticket.

if you can afford to go to a movie these days, a little more won't hurt, right?

I'm sure they thought of this already, anyway. It's a tried-and-true strategy that has worked for years. Why stop now?