Hollywood is suffering its worst-attended summer movie season in 25 years

[SVPete]

Hollywood is suffering its worst-attended summer movie season in 25 years

Ryan Faughnder
8/30/2017

As Hollywood wraps up the all-important summer box-office season this Labor Day weekend, a sobering reality has gripped the industry.

The number of tickets sold in the United States and Canada this summer is projected to fall to the lowest level in a quarter-century.

The results have put the squeeze on the nation’s top theater chains, whose stocks have taken a drubbing. AMC Theatres Chief Executive Adam Aron this month called his company’s most recent quarter “simply a bust.”

Such blunt language reflects some worrisome trends. Domestic box-office revenue is expected to total $3.78 billion for the first weekend of May through Labor Day — a key period that generates about 40% of domestic ticket sales — down nearly 16% from the same period last year, according to comScore. That’s an even worse decline than the 10% drop some studio executives predicted before the summer began.

Unsurprisingly, the LAT's list of reasons for the decline doesn't include public rejection of an institution that denounces normal people as racist and everything else evil. I can't say I'm surprised at this blindspot.

[Old n Grumpy]

The movies are a bunch of CGI shit with a left leaning message, with a bunch of actors who think we care what we think about their lefty political beliefs. Add to that the cost of going to watch their shit it is no wonder they are in decline. They deserve to lose some revenue just like the overpaid athletes pushing their political bull shit.

[MrsSmith]

Who would have ever thought that constantly insulting the working class would cause them to stop spending their money on you?   

[Fourwinds]

It doesn't surprise me. Even with Hollywood's moonbat politics out of it the lineup is lackluster at best. It's almost nothing but remakes, reboots, sequels and a ton of crap that hasn't been marketed whatsoever. Just for fun I looked up what's playing in my city. Most of the movies showing have been in theaters for months and the other offerings I just haven't flat out heard of. I'm not out of the loop, there just hasn't been a single trailer that's played for some of that crap.

[SVPete]

It doesn't surprise me. Even with Hollywood's moonbat politics out of it the lineup is lackluster at best. It's almost nothing but remakes, reboots, sequels and a ton of crap that hasn't been marketed whatsoever. Just for fun I looked up what's playing in my city. Most of the movies showing have been in theaters for months and the other offerings I just haven't flat out heard of. I'm not out of the loop, there just hasn't been a single trailer that's played for some of that crap.

At the consumer level - the theater - movies have been in a tail-chasing spiral of declining attendance and increasing prices. As with so many things, the higher the price for the same thing, the lower the demand (There oughta be a law!). That means that consumers are being made ever more sensitive to quality, messages preached (and preachiness), and types. If you multiply early-mid 1960s prices (under $2) by inflation, modern prices are 2X-3X what they "should" be. So people are less willing to takes chances with unknown quantities.

[freedumb2003b]

At the consumer level - the theater - movies have been in a tail-chasing spiral of declining attendance and increasing prices. As with so many things, the higher the price for the same thing, the lower the demand (There oughta be a law!). That means that consumers are being made ever more sensitive to quality, messages preached (and preachiness), and types. If you multiply early-mid 1960s prices (under $2) by inflation, modern prices are 2X-3X what they "should" be. So people are less willing to takes chances with unknown quantities.

Lets face it, home theater technology has progressed to where even people of middle class have an experience better than in the theater.  People who are "poor" even moreso, given the poor's tendency to buy stuff and not save.

I haven't been in a theater in 7 years (Tron Legacy) and that after not being in one for 5 or 6 years.  And I have no intention of doing so.  Not only are there no movies I "must" see, but the few that look interesting I will rent for a bucks at Redbox down the line.

[SVPete]

Lets face it, home theater technology has progressed to where even people of middle class have an experience better than in the theater.  People who are "poor" even moreso, given the poor's tendency to buy stuff and not save.

I haven't been in a theater in 7 years (Tron Legacy) and that after not being in one for 5 or 6 years.  And I have no intention of doing so.  Not only are there no movies I "must" see, but the few that look interesting I will rent for a bucks at Redbox down the line.

That's another aspect of why theater business is down. The size and quality of modern video equipment is light-years better than NTSC television. It really is like having a movie theater in your living room. That means that, as you say, people can be ultra-selective about what movies, if any, they see in theaters.

[thundley4]

That's another aspect of why theater business is down. The size and quality of modern video equipment is light-years better than NTSC television. It really is like having a movie theater in your living room. That means that, as you say, people can be ultra-selective about what movies, if any, they see in theaters.

Also considering that many movies are available on Pay-per-View while still playing in theaters. 

Hollywood's own greed plays another part, too. Not only is it ridiculously expensive for a family to go see a movie. The studios usually release a movie on DVD in a very short time.

[SVPete]

Also considering that many movies are available on Pay-per-View while still playing in theaters. 

Hollywood's own greed plays another part, too. Not only is it ridiculously expensive for a family to go see a movie. The studios usually release a movie on DVD in a very short time.

The big studios in Hollyweird have their fingers in the production and distribution of movies, but not in theaters showing movies4 decades or so ago, theaters and TV were the only venues in which Hollyweird's products could be shown. It took about a decade for VCRs to become ubiquitous, and even when they did, screen size and resolution were still a very large qualitative difference. Still, it was partly a new revenue stream, and partly a diversion of some revenue from traditional theaters into various types of retail/rental outlets. It's probably been only in the past 10 or 15 years that HD, flat panels, and DVDs brought in-home quality up to the point where it was a near theater experience (theaters have had their own huge technology improvements, but may have reached a point of diminishing returns, or crashed into the wall of, "Good enough").

I won't say the current situation is one where Hollyweird can say, "@#$%^ you!" to theaters, but the shift in revenue stream balance has made policies such as early release to PPV and DVD viable revenue enhancers. The big studios are shifting their business models to reflect modern home technologies, and theater companies need to do so as well (e.g. some are remodeling to more comfortable seats with motorized reclining mechanisms, to try to bring in home-like comfort). We may be approaching a point where theater-only release periods could be shortened to 2 or 3 weeks. And theater-only release revenue may soon no longer be (or may already no longer be) the gauge of whether a movie is a success.

Business model change is something Hollyweird can do and has been doing. It just shifts where/how they get their $$. Whether a dollar came from a theater, PPV on satellite or cable, or from a service like Netflix, it's still a dollar. OTOH, if Hollyweird keeps producing condescending, pedantic ideology lectures that are bombs regardless of venue, those reduce rather than reshuffle revenue. It's becoming a sort of race, how much $$ is Hollyweird willing to lose in order to keep lecturing normal people.

[J P Sousa]

From Breitbart;

  The ideological conformity within Hollywood is not only destroying the greatness that comes from artistic tension, is not only shelving great stories, it is alienating and insulting half the customers. 

http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2017/09/02/worst-box-office-in-25-years-hollywoods-problems-are-permanent-deep/

  With 11,873 screens in 1,009 theaters, AMC Entertainment is the single largest theater operator in America and — are you ready for this? — its stock price has collapsed a whopping -45% since Memorial Day. Two other monster chains, Regal and Cinemark, have seen their stocks drop by -28% and -18%, respectively. Even Imax, one of the pillars (along with 3D) of the premium pricing schemes that have kept the box office looking relatively good these past few years, saw a -31% drop in the price of its shares. 

http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2017/09/01/deadly-summer-box-office-crashes-movie-theater-stocks/

When investors leave, your business is in BIG trouble.