With ticket sales down and newly released movies hitting streaming and video-on-demand (VOD) services in record time, it’s not surprising that films are struggling to make it big in theaters. For comparison, 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road grossed a whopping $45 million over a non-holiday opening weekend, which ultimately led to an impressive $380 million global box office draw. Meanwhile, Furiosa, which is equally well-received, earned just $32 million over the four days that make up Memorial Day weekend. Sadly, Hollywood’s slump is becoming much more of a pattern, and there are clear-cut reasons why.
They are:
- The Movie Theater Experience Isn’t Always Great
- Movie Theaters Are Expensive
- Bigger Budgets Puts Greater Box Office Expectations On Some Movies
- The COVID-19 Pandemic Changed Moviegoing Habit
- Audiences Have Been Conditioned That New Theatrical Releases Will Quickly Go To VOD
- Streaming Means There’s More Choice At Home Than In Theaters
They need one more reason, too many reboots, remakes, sequels and franchise movies.
Also LOL at all the comments on the article saying it’s because movies are woke.
People have been saying that about movies for decades now. Ever since the early 00’s when gay culture became significantly more accepted into the mainstream, there has been an overly vocal crowd of bigots who just want their movies to be straight white folks facing problems. It’s just a nice reminder that a large majority of Christians aren’t actually Christian, they’re just hateful and using a centuries old fantasy anthology as an excuse for it.
My mother used to whine so much when watching a movie and a character shares a romantic moment with someone of the same sex.
Like, to the point where weeks after the movie,any time someone brings it up or references it, she will roll her eyes and go “they just HAD to ruin it by being gay”
She also used to insist that she only complained because “it’s not like that happens in other movies, it’s just with gay people”
So I made a point from the on, any time someone is watching something around her, and a straight couple share a moment, I go way over the top acting like it’s gross PDA and complain that they ruined a perfectly good movie by adding heterosexual relationships into it for no reason.
First of all, it’s true. Romance subplot are way too common and it detracts from many movies because of it. More movies need to choose won’t they
Second, it got my point across, and she even did the exasperated fine I get it it’s not just gay people grumbling.
And then just kept complaining, she just stopped saying it never happens with straight couples.
that a large majority of Christians aren’t actually Christian
Yes they are, Christian doesn’t mean “good person.” It mostly means someone who believes that a sinless god-man died, and now they get to go to heaven if they want to.
With the old testiment being a different religion’s text, and the new testament being mostly made out of letters that people supposedly wrote to each other, you can make the Bible say basically anything you want it to. It’s not a consistent or coherent storyline.
Also LOL at all the comments on the article saying it’s because movies are woke.
I suppose Garfield might be woke AF, I haven’t seen it.
One of the comments does mention the strikes and that has caused all sorts of issues. An earlier article on here suggested the film studios were largely writing 2024 off as a bust. All hopes now seem pinned on D&W for doing good money and Joker 2 and Alien: Romulus have potential to do well. I think my top ten of the year is going to look pretty anaemic.
Too much low quality content.
#1 IMO is that they don’t make anything original anymore. I don’t want to go see a live action remake of a classic cartoon movie. They can’t possibly recapture what made the original great, and to be honest, what made the original great was probably the ignorance of youth and the nostalgia filter through which you personally view it.
If movie theaters are doing poorly, the movie industry should try to make smaller budget and slightly riskier original movies and movie theaters should charge less for a seat if they’re having trouble filling cinemas. They make most of their money from concessions anyway and those are optional, so just get butts in seats and you’ll make more money.
I agree to a point, but Mad Max is an example of something original that seems to have come from a place of creativity instead of a committee and yet is still doing poorly.
So I don’t think it’s just that Hollywood has a tendency to do remakes instead of original stuff.
The movie from 1979, from 1981, from 1985? Maybe the movie from 2015, or the spin-off from this year?
Just because it’s a sequel doesn’t mean it’s derivative. All 5 movies are directed by the same guy. I can’t speak for the first 3, but if you saw the 2015 movie and couldn’t tell that it was a passion project, then I don’t know what to tell you. We don’t call Sherlock Holmes soulless even though Doyle wrote over 50 short stories starring Holmes.
It’s entirely possible for someone to be creatively invested in a world they’ve built and want to keep exploring it in future works.
I absolutely love the Mad Max series, but I’ll be the first to say that yes, it’s derivative, except for the very first one.
All the others follow the same formula: Max Rockatansky wanders into a shitty situation while dealing with Bad Guys™️. Shitty situation escalates and ropes him in. He reluctantly helps and, with a ragtag team of anti-heroes, they save the day at a great cost. Max is left to wander the Outback once more.
It’s a great formula, I love it, but I won’t blame anyone for not wanting to watch more of the same.
In '85, they brought on Tina Turner just to cash in on previous releases. Kinda like casting JLo or Beyonce in another Mad Max and expecting it to do better.
She did a bang up job, though.
I’m glad you enjoyed it. I love Tina’s music.
If you’re being that reductive then you’re describing like 10% of all movies.
Mad Max Furiosa is doing badly because Fury Road completely killed the franchise. If they want people to go see it they should have communicate in some way that Furiosa is not a badly written fashion show, and the best way to do that is by not calling it “Mad Max”.
(Honestly, I have no idea what Furiosa is about, and no interest in finding out.)
Uhh didn’t Dune Pt II break some Star Wars records?? It was a pretty massive hit.
1, 4, 5 and 6 seem to me all connected by the pandemic and its knock on effects: avoiding COVID is worth it especially if you can watch at home without some of the bullshit of the cinemas and with streaming ready to meet you there anyway.
2 and 3 just then become more glaring in the light of the other factors (as does the saturation of reboots and se/pre-quels).
I personally love the cinema experience but have definitely dropped off from going post-pandemic. Part of it is that my partner and I have gotten COVID too many times for how cautious we are (twice each) and have slowly realised we probably have mild-long-COVID. Cinemas are pretty safe AFAICT, but still. And too many times has there been some annoying asshole in the cinema or some group that think it’s more funny than I ever could, or have I been forced to sit at just too much of an angle, or needed to go to the bathroom without being able to pause.
Realistically, once home TVs, audio and streaming tech got good enough, this was somewhat inevitable.
4 is a big one as it hits more than cinemas - the manager of my local reckons dozens of regulars never returned after pubs reopened.
Could’ve carked it
The last time I went to the movies pre-covid in New York… A guy who clearly didn’t want to be there was sitting in the front of the theatre watching a sports broadcast on his TABLET with the loud speaker engaged…
That’s definitely a time to get the manager, or just get a refund.
2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road … Meanwhile, Furiosa,
Maybe make something original for a change? We’re tired of these mega franchises. Where are the Princess Bride masterpieces, with actual soul and charm? Not looking for another formulaic cash grasp with a thin veneer of woke posturing (looking at you, Barbie).
Hey! Barbie stayed true to its roots! It’s a brave thing to make a movie out of a music video and we should honour that commitment, not shame it.
Princess Bride was an adaptation.
Multiplexes killed off smaller theaters, so you have to drive out to where land is cheap, just to get advertised at for half a fucking hour before the movie even starts.
Or you could watch Netflix on your enormous television.
There’s also the fact that video games are getting to be better quality than movies.
My nearest movie theater’s projectors are going wonky. The most noticeable issue is that they look like they’re not projecting enough red in the center of the screens, but the color on the edges is fine. It makes everything look way too blue, and it’s often a toss up if you’ll end up in a theater with a bad projector or one that’s still working right. Definitely makes me go less, and usually only when I can guarantee which theater a showing will be in.
I’m sure this isn’t a nationwide issue, but it’s my reason for going less at least.
A Regal cinema that I go to is also somewhat in disrepair. I’m guessing the theater chains aren’t very interested in paying money to keep them up. Every time I go there are maybe 5 people in a single theater.
Meanwhile republicans will throw all these words out of the window and scream: WOKE!
