The Great Box Office Recession? -- Discussing the Up & Down Trends of the Box Office Market

[CJohn]

I don't mind other people sending a quick text, or quietly whispering to their friend here and there. Sue me.

Here and there is one thing. The entire movie is another.

[Ball Lightning]

Maybe some other Australian people could back me up (or not), but I swear the whole rudeness thing is pretty much non-existant in Australia.

For me it is there, however it's only for very specific teenage films. Inbetweeners and PA3 for example, yet even BD was pretty good in trends of rudeness.Ticket prices (adults, student is $3 less for all but cheap tuesday):Normal: $18.50VMAX: $20.503D: $21.50Both: $23.50Tuesday: $11

[Gopher]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z98vawSOlK4Good advice for theaters everywhere

[fishstick]

Lots of good thoughts! Recession is definitely affecting the boxoffice in that people are more careful where they spend their money. Ticket prices are trully outrageous while movies that are playing are less and less of must-see variety. However, Big Trio 2012 loonies need not worry because people will save for those event movies. By Big Trio I mean TDKR, TH and HG, of course.

[zlazer]

Here in the Uk its, Around £5.50 ($8-9 dollars) for no peak times, so Monday to Thursday and around £8.50($14-15 dollars) on Weekends and Fridays,so quite expensive, and for the imax in London that i am attending on Wednesday it cost me 10.50+2 card charge so around $18-20 dollars and thats with the student discount, as without it it would cost around £17 ($23-25 dollars.)For that is the reason why MI4 will be my 4th attendance to imax since its conception, and they where, Dark knight, Inception, Harry Potter 7B. So all big blockbusters.

[BK007]

Problem is the movies do not exclusively mean blockbusters. If the smaller releases don't do well, it also affects the studio. Sure, there are movies that are released that you can question and ask "Why?" but at the end of the day I don't think anyone sets out to intentionally make a bad movie.So, just being happy that TDKR or Avengers or whatever survives doesn't mean anything. Plus, if you continually skip out on original movies, how will you be next seeing a movie in the theatre? "I'll only see Dark Knight Rises" Well, that's only because you've seen Batman Begins and TDK, isn't it? If you don't give original movies or supposedly good movies a chance, then what's the point? "It's not big enough" I mean, really? For example, if people didn't give Rise of the Planet of the Apes or X-Men First Class a chance there wouldn't be sequels people are going to say when the time comes, "Only interested in POTA2/XMFC2". The whole "It's not worth $" argument is also highly subjective. I would say if it's hilarious as people thought Hangover and Bridesmaids were, or if they are Oscar-bait/fantastically reviewed etc. they deserve to be seen as well rather than just rented because it's not worthy enough.Back in the day the blockbuster was non-existent. Cinema has more variety, history and class outside the blockbuster. Sure, seeing a generic thriller, rom-com or action movie may not be worth the $ but why is a blockbuster? Because of the special effects? Is something like Transformers or Harry Potter or Avengers worth more because it has the latest technology on explosion effects? It's just having a good time, and that is wider than just the blockbuster. I'm trying to make an impassioned speech but it's late and my mind is jumping around so I'll have to make another post later on and see if this first one made any sense.All I'm trying to say is if you don't give movies a chance, then the faster the industry will collapse and be narrow-minded on their next projects a la Disney in general or Universal's cancellations, Warner's budget cuts etc. Yes they put out a lot of crap but when decidedly crap movies like Jack & Jill make $70m outgrossing movies like Source Code, Arthur Christmas, Hugo and whatever then of course the industry is going to put out more crap. People keep saying "This year sucks" when a lot of them end up paying to watch movies like Valentine's Day and Grown Ups and whatever else. If you're not gonna give a good movie a chance but go into another movie you know you may not like anyway because of friends or family or whatever social reason then, you're part of the problem too aren't you?But I'm sure I had a better speech on how quality isn't or doesn't really seem like it's the main factor which it seems like I'm making here.

[Jonwo]

I think while a drop in ticket prices is unlikely, maybe a price freeze would be a suggestion? I do think studios are becoming cost conscious with stuff like comedy and drama and saving their money for their tentpoles, Bad Teacher cost just $20m but rake in 10 times as much WW I can definetly see more midrange films being released.As for audiences, I try and avoid Fridays and weekends as well as 2for1 days because it attracts people who really have no manners, my pet hates are talking and texting, while pay to see a film if you're talk all the way through it?I've noticed this year, the breakout hits have been comedies, I wonder if perhaps audiences in these times are looking for something to lighten the mood rather than the usual blockbusters.

[kayumanggi]

America YOU need to do something.

[Shawn]

Yea, elect a new President, throw out most of Congress, and get our society's heads out of our collective asses....Oh, and make better movies!

[Fake]

I don't think it is recession. I think movie-going has already reached its peak and overall admissions will continue decling every year. On top of that, number of blockbusters is increasing, hence everything is getting smaller chunks of bread.

[kayumanggi]

I want Algren for President. If not, then Truu.

[fmpro]

Good luck with that Kayu

[CJohn]

Algren would be awesome as president.Every week a new movie with Stallone would be released

[A Marvel Fanboy]

[fmpro]

Algren would be awesome as president.Every week a new movie with Stallone would be released

And it was decided by law that you had to see it OW..There were even talks about puplic hanging if you missed one

[tonytr87]

Said this in another thread but I guarantee sometime between now and March the box office recession talk will end because a handful of movies will either break out or exceed expectations, thus temporarily ending our worries until another slump rears its head, and so on and so forth. This happens every year. Yes, it's true admissions have declined. But going to the movies will always be relatively popular, at least for the near future.Also, quality of movies isn't a problem. It's the same it's always been. There are just as many movies that are fresh on Rottentomatoes as there are movies that are rotten from 2011. People watch crap and avoid great movies every year. Should they make less remakes and less sequels? Absolutely. But there's plenty of original films every now and then and people don't watch them, they watch franchise movies like Transformers, Potter, Twilight, Pirates, or comic-book movies. And while there's nothing wrong with that, audiences are sending a message to Hollywood when they frequent those and not anything else, and that message is: we flock to brands. The message may be unintended, but that's what studios hear when Transformers makes 300mil and Drive or The Descendents make only 40mil.

Edited December 18, 2011 by tonytr87

[A Marvel Fanboy]

Oh, and every critic has to give it a 10/10 review...

[fmpro]

Minimum..

[kayumanggi]

And they need to be re-released on Algren's, ehem THE PRESIDENT'S birthday.

[kayumanggi]

'Fast Five,' 'Hangover II,' 'Thor' Top List of Year's Most Pirated Movies

But the average number of BitTorrent downloads for this year's top 10 was significantly lower than last year.

Movie pirates felt the need for speed this year as Fast Five tops the list of 2011's most-pirated movies on BitTorrent, according to data released Friday by TorrentFreak.

Fast Five was illegally downloaded 9.3 million times this year. That actually marks a significant drop from last year's most-downloaded movie, Avatar, which was downloaded more than 16 million times.

In fact, the average number of downloads for the entire top 10 list is lower than 2010, which TorrentFreak attributes to the "increase in legal alternatives" as well as "alternative piracy sources" including cyberlockers and streaming sites.

But the number of active BitTorrent users isn't decreasing, which also suggests that the downloads are simply spread out over more titles.

Coming in at No. 2 was The Hangover Part II, with 8.8 million downloads, followed by Thor (8.3 million), Source Code (7.9 million) and I Am Number Four (7.7 million).

The complete top 10 list follows:

1. Fast Five (9.3 million downloads)

2. The Hangover II (8.8 million)

3. Thor (8.3 million)

4. Source Code (7.9 million)

5. I Am Number Four (7.7 million)

6. Sucker Punch (7.2 million)

7. 127 Hours (6.9 million)

8. Rango (6.5 million)

9. The King's Speech (6.3 million)

10. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (6 million)

Some of these films were GREATLY affected.