Hollywood Confused

[avatar]

LOS ANGELES - Americans' love affair with movies is far from over. Yet like many relationships, it seems to be suffering from a case of familiarity breeds contempt. Summer 2005 was the worst since 1997 for movie attendance, which dropped sharply and rattled the complacency of studios.
ADVERTISEMENT

For the 18 weeks from early May through Labor Day, domestic movie grosses are expected to total $3.6 billion, down 9 percent from summer revenues of $3.96 billion last year, according to box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. Attendance figures are even bleaker. Factoring in higher admission prices, the number of movie tickets sold should come in around 562.5 million, down 12 percent from summer 2004.

What went wrong?

"What didn't go wrong? That's the question," said Paul Dergarabedian, Exhibitor Relations president. "This was a summer that really could be characterized as under a cloud from the beginning. Usually, the first weekend in May, you have a big film that kind of kicks off the summer. It didn't happen that way this time, and that was sort of an indicator of things to come."

Some movies did score big, but the overall downturn lingered and then worsened, prompting gloom-and-doom predictions that audiences were growing tired of rising ticket prices, concession stand costs, pre-show advertising and other movie theater hassles.

With so many other entertainment choices — video games, limitless TV programming, home-theater setups — audiences may be edging away from moviehouses.

In an Associated Press-AOL News poll in June, nearly three-fourths of adults said they would prefer to stay home and watch movies on DVD, videotape or pay-per-view rather than traipse to a theater. Almost half said they think movies are getting worse.

For years, Hollywood has thrived with an if-you-film-it-they-will-come mentality, relying on an assembly line formula of explosive action films, lowbrow comedy and dippy romance.

That approach failed in summer 2005, which had far more flops than usual, among them the action thrillers "Stealth" and "The Island," the comedies "The Honeymooners," "The Bad News Bears" and "Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo," and the historical epic "Kingdom of Heaven."

Martin Lawrence could not give tickets away to his basketball comedy "Rebound." Extreme-sports fans who seemed an obvious audience for the skateboarding flick "Lords of Dogtown" failed to show. Family crowds who made
Robert Rodriguez's "Spy Kids" movies a success generally passed on his "The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D."

Horror remakes once enjoyed a virtual can't-miss record, yet
Paris Hilton was unable to pack people in for "House of Wax." Even the man who created the flesh-munching zombie subgenre could not bring in crowds, as "George Romero's Land of the Dead" dug itself an early grave.

Ron Howard reteamed with his "A Beautiful Mind" star
Russell Crowe for the class-act of summer. But "Cinderella Man," the uplifting story of Depression-era boxer Jim Braddock, was a box office lightweight despite good reviews.

Summer 2005 did produce its share of big hits, led by "Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith" at almost $380 million. Films at or near the $200 million mark included "War of the Worlds," "Batman Begins," "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "Wedding Crashers" and "Madagascar."

There also were a few independent hits, such as the ensemble drama "Crash" and the surprise documentary smash "March of the Penguins."

It's unclear whether such breakout hits or the success of character-driven comedies such as "Wedding Crashers" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" will prompt studio executives to seek fresh ideas, or whether they will fall back on the safe old summer formulas.

"In an ideal world, people would say `OK, we have to think more creatively, we have to think outside the box and come up with new and different things,'" said Steven Friedlander, head of distribution for Warner Independent Pictures, which released "March of the Penguins."

"But I'm afraid what's going to happen is, we're all going to sit in a room and say `We need more penguin movies.'" So I don't really know what lessons we're going to take out of all this."



The problem I have with movies right now is that other stuff right now are just plain better.

Hell I enjoyed my comics more than a lot of the movies that came out this summer.

Edit: Didn't mean to post some of that extra crap.sorry

[arjue]

I'd say this has been one of the finest years for film that I can remember. 2 of my favorite films came out this year (Life Aquatic and Sin City), possibly three, but I gotta watch Mysterious Skin again for it to really sink in.

[AaronChance]

`We need more penguin movies.'

I see nothing wrong with this line of thinking.

[Giltch]

I agree with arjue - this has been a pretty kick-ass year for movies. There always seems to be something good playing.

[Space Pirate Roberts]

The root of the problem is that the theatres and studios have a business relationship that's ultimately bad for everyone - the studios get the entire gross for the first few weeks a film is out. This results in high ticket prices (both because the studios want every dollar they can get and because the theatre needs to squeeze as much as they can out of the latecomers they'll actually make money from), high concession prices (since this is now where the theatres make their money), and worst of all, lots of crappy films - what incentive is there to make a film with box-office staying power when the studio won't see most of the money and it will take up screens they could be making money from? Better to make something mediocre that they can market the hell out of so it can open huge then disappear to make way for the next forgettable cash run.

If they would have a certain ratio of gross-splitting that would apply to a film's entire run, most of the problems would disappear within a decade.

[animegirl]

I hate going to the moives around where I live because people are fucking rude. Talking, putting their feet up, you name it they do it. I have a 51 inch HD TV and an awesome surround sound system at home, with no assholes. I see a lot of movies still in the theatre but it sucks.

[Regus]

2005 has been one of the worst years for movies in a long time, especially when compared to last year. I think I could count the good movies I saw this year on one hand, the majority of the movies I saw this year were pretty mediocre. And let's not forget about the flood of remakes this year: Willy Wonka, War of the Worlds, Herbie fully loaded, Bewitched, Bad News Bears, Dukes of Hazard, Honey Mooners, and I'm sure I forget one. Pretty pathetic stuff.

[Mzo]

I think the problem here is that really shitty movies are being made, and people are somehow confused to see them fail.

They should hire me to let them know that their movies are shit before they put them out there.

Also, ticket prices are hella expensive, and I'd much rather chill with some homies and bitches and watch a DVD at home, complete with extras like deleted scenes, making ofs, and commentary, then pay half the price of the DVD to see it on a shitty resolution big screen with 20 assholes yelling out, babies crying, and cell phones ringing.

Huge fucking mystery, why the industry is down.

[YellerDog]

No worse than any other year. The only thing making this year less profitable than the last was Passion of the Christ, because that seemed to replace Church for a lot of Christians in this country. At 8 bucks a pop.

[Drewbacca]

I'd say this has been one of the finest years for film that I can remember. 2 of my favorite films came out this year (Life Aquatic and Sin City), possibly three, but I gotta watch Mysterious Skin again for it to really sink in.

All of the moneymakers were movies that offered people a good experience. Wedding Crashers grew because it got a lot of good word of mouth feedback. I remember telling my friends who were fence sitting that I wanted to see it again because I couldn't stop laughing throughout the entire thing. They went.

Same with the 40 Year Old Virgin at the moment. People were expecting a Rob Schneider brainless comedy and got a thoughtful, funny comedy. I remember diffusionx saying how stupid the 40 Year Old Virgin looked a couple of weeks before its release, and then a week or so after he was talking about how Steve Carell was a genius like he knew it would be a hit. (he didn't, he was saying how shitty it was going to be) It's word of mouth that sold these movies. To Echo Boomers or Generation Y word of mouth is pretty much it because we're not a fan of bottled messages. Madagascar was decent, but to kids it was the cream of the crop.

Who were movies like Stealth and The Island trying to attract? I think it stems from that fact that Echo Boomers (our generation) don't buy in to shitty hype as easily as the generations from the 60's and 70's did.

I see nothing wrong with this line of thinking.

I do. It has nothing to do with a pro-penguin attitude.

I hate going to the moives around where I live because people are fucking rude. Talking, putting their feet up, you name it they do it. I have a 51 inch HD TV and an awesome surround sound system at home, with no assholes. I see a lot of movies still in the theatre but it sucks.

I'm fortunate to live in Canada. People shut up and watch. Actually in Kill Bill there was some guy giggling and turning to his sister every time something violent happened, but he wasn't being rude he was just young and probably hadn't seen violence like that before. Anyway, long story short I murdered him.

No worse than any other year. The only thing making this year less profitable than the last was Passion of the Christ, because that seemed to replace Church for a lot of Christians in this country. At 8 bucks a pop.

Exactly. Every year has its ups and downs. Has its good movies and it's crap. They lost like 60 million dollars this year out of 3. whatever billion they made. It's like people saying how Nintendo was going to die because the company only made 800 million instead of 1.1 billion. I wish I had a bad financial year like these companies.