Has Following the Box Office Lost Its Appeal and Luster?

[TomCruiseTop]

18 hours ago, YourMother said:

That was a great move, that isn’t talked about enough. You cut out the oxygen supply to most of the worst posters causing them to either die out or get themselves banned eventually. Made the forum a better place.

Couldn't agree more. This was a stroke of genius, really sucked the air out of the room.

[excel1]

7 hours ago, Noctis said:

@excel1 I'm beginning to think you and Josh Hartnett were lovers.

 

Lovers in the sense that I loved the financial potential he would have brought to Superman in the early 2000s, yes. I also get a personal kick out of promoting people who underperformed their potential.

Edited April 16, 2022 by excel1

[excel1]

30 minutes ago, JamesCameronScholar said:

Couldn't agree more. This was a stroke of genius, really sucked the air out of the room.

 

Fanboys are part of what make following the subject exciting. Whether it is viewed as trolling or spamming or whatever. Forcing everyone to say the same things in the same style drains energy, excitement, passion, creativity etc from the discussion. That isn't an opinion, it's a fact, and it's a dynamic many forums have failed to properly manage over the years. No, one cannot tolerate personal attacks, but harmless posters making their feelings known bring life to forums. Forums tend to die when everyone saying the same thing/same style because they become boring.

[excel1]

6 hours ago, BestPicturePlutoNash said:

Nothing will ever (personally) come to the shock of reading Deadline on Saturday morning and seeing the 200m estimate for Avengers in 2012.

 

Or Spder-man's $114m. Or TDK's $158m. TDK no doubt the ultimate peak for fandom. The threads on BOM and KJ discussing those films were insanely long, everyone was glued to the news. It's happened before, it will happen again, just for younger crowds.

 

When I first started in 2000ish, there were vets who had been following since the early 1980s. People who vividly remembered the Star Wars and Indiana Jones sequels, Batman, Jurassic Park, Independence Day, etc...they would marvel at the insane expansion of theaters/screens and how it was changing runs to be much more front loaded - which was leading to much larger openings as well - while hating on the clear trends towards sequels, remakes, adaptions, and the move away from original tent poles that were so relevant in the 1980s and 1990s. 

 

They hated the trend that people were becoming less interested in new things, new experiences, few feelings, and instead more interested in reliving the past in the some way, of using films to fill some preexisting void as opposed to taking them to new places. I thought they were old then. Now I am that person, hating on the moves to streaming and how dominant Disney has become. 😂

Edited April 16, 2022 by excel1

[CJohn]

5 hours ago, Noctis said:

(edited)

 

Aaaaaand the message I sent about you to a mod just went down the drain.

[TomCruiseTop]

35 minutes ago, excel1 said:

 

Fanboys are part of what make following the subject exciting. Whether it is viewed as trolling or spamming or whatever. Forcing everyone to say the same things in the same style drains energy, excitement, passion, creativity etc from the discussion. That isn't an opinion, it's a fact, and it's a dynamic many forums have failed to properly manage over the years. No, one cannot tolerate personal attacks, but harmless posters making their feelings known bring life to forums. Forums tend to die when everyone saying the same thing/same style because they become boring.

I personally enjoy the forums now far more that the scope and scale of what we can discuss has been vastly reduced. I think that's also reflected in the rest of the forum users.

[Taruseth]

The pandemic certainly played its role, but Disney's dominance isn't helping either or so many Marvel movies. Didn't go to the movies because they were closed or no one else would and I wasn't motivated to drive there on my own. I moved about 2.5 month ago into a city - so now the next cinema ist about a mile away or so - so I will definitely start going again more regular and that makes the box office more interesting again.

 

Going to watch FB3 tonight.

 

I started following in 2015 - though I only was a lurker - made this account for The Last Jedi and that Christmas (2017) at least had Jumanji with the insane legs.

 

And University started consuming more time - I did finish last year - but now the Referendariat (no idea what that would be called in English) is already quiet time consuming (1.5 years of practical training and teaching to become a teacher).

 

[Noctis]

9 minutes ago, CJohn said:

Aaaaaand the message I sent about you to a mod just went down the drain.

 

Let it reach the sewers.

[Dale Cooper]

Well, I haven't really been active on this forum much, was more active back in the BOM days I think. I don't really know when I joined, but I remember the Superman Returns vs Dead Man's Chest thing, good times (wasn't much of a competetion boxoffice wise, though). But yeah, I followed box office more closely in the second half of the noughties, and it kind of peaked with Avatar. No box office run has eclipsed that one since, not least because of the incredibly different expectations on the film beforehand and then how it surpassed even the most optimistic predictions by quite some distance.

 

Then I guess, the declining interest is partly because it's basically all Marvel these days and it's so boring. Maybe the Avatar sequel can spike som excitement, but then again that's a franchise now as well which doesn't make it any better really. But then, the fact that the latest Batman movie, which is much better than any of the Marvel films, couldn't even muster half of the most recent Marvel outing really says it all.

 

And of course, as many already mentioned, the change up of BOM as a site was just terrible, way to ruin something.

Edited April 16, 2022 by Dale Cooper

[excel1]

1 hour ago, JamesCameronScholar said:

I personally enjoy the forums now far more that the scope and scale of what we can discuss has been vastly reduced. I think that's also reflected in the rest of the forum users.

 

wonder what it had done for traffic trends

[poweranimals]

On 4/15/2022 at 10:54 AM, Eric Says Trans Rights said:

I should have gotten a BOFFY for ridding us of the Fanboy Wars thread 😒

I actually kinda miss the Fanboy Wars thread. 😞 I mean, yeah it was a bit toxic at times but it seemed like a better alternative than banning those discussions altogether.

[Webslinger]

I still enjoy looking at the charts and seeing weekend-to-weekend performances, but it's been a loooong time - like, maybe 2014? - since I regularly made box office predictions. Considering that that was about the point where I started working a real adult job, it was mostly a matter of not really having the time to do more than look at the most cursory comps. Honestly, I've found it more fun to just be a casual observer than to get too into the weeds on what I think a movie is supposed to do heading into a weekend.

 

I do wish we could see more surprise breakouts and leggy runs, but it's understandable that COVID and the consequent shifts in viewing habits for many potential moviegoers have hamstrung big runs for almost everything outside the franchise/event film categories.

[HouseOfTheSun]

It hasn’t been interesting since the shock and awe of Endgames 357m domestic / 1.2B worldwide opening. Marvel continues to be the only interesting follows as they’re the only ones capable of doing enormous numbers. 

[Brainbug]

6 hours ago, HouseOfTheSun said:

It hasn’t been interesting since the shock and awe of Endgames 357m domestic / 1.2B worldwide opening. Marvel continues to be the only interesting follows as they’re the only ones capable of doing enormous numbers. 

 

Excuse me??

 

 

[Wormow]

Ever since The Hunger Games left our theatres, the industry has never been the same.

 

Fear not, Panem is returning soon.

[EmpireCity]

I say this with all due respect, but what a completely miserable thread and most of you would be well served to find a different hobby if it makes you this miserable.  It reminds me of a lot of sports writers that clearly are depressed by or hate the very thing they are paid to cover and supposedly love.  

 

 

[CJohn]

You are probably right. I feel pretty miserable looking at the USA and local box office every weekend and it isn't healthy at all. 

[Eric Duncan]

On 4/16/2022 at 1:18 AM, charlie Jatinder said:

I think you guys (the one's who joined it in 2000s) are just getting old and growing out of it. Fairly common thing to happen. Will happen to those of us joined in 2010s as well.

No offense, but let me ask you, and everybody else here who are acting like people like me are the problem: let's propose a different scenario. Let's say the biggest movie franchise was Transformers, or some other maligned franchise you hate. Let's say that there were 3 or 4 Transformers movies per year, each one was making billions of dollars, and they were the only franchise making billions of dollars, while everything else was tanking left and right.

 

Charlie, and everybody else for that matter, would you be saying the same thing still? This is a legit query, because it feels like the MCU stans are the people who are doing this whole "things are better than ever! You're just getting older" mantra to everybody here. And I think you, and other people here for that matter, would magically be on our side if Marvel wasn't top dog. I think that's a really, really gigantic sign that when only one group of people are happy, that yes indeed, the box office has lost its appeal and luster and that it was better back in the olden days, and that maybe, just maybe, there is a problem with the box office at this point. Just a little food for thought.

[Brainbug]

As long as the Jurassic World movies are hits, there is no problem with the box office

[EmpireCity]

13 minutes ago, Eric Says Trans Rights said:

No offense, but let me ask you, and everybody else here who are acting like people like me are the problem: let's propose a different scenario. Let's say the biggest movie franchise was Transformers, or some other maligned franchise you hate. Let's say that there were 3 or 4 Transformers movies per year, each one was making billions of dollars, and they were the only franchise making billions of dollars, while everything else was tanking left and right.

 

Charlie, and everybody else for that matter, would you be saying the same thing still? This is a legit query, because it feels like the MCU stans are the people who are doing this whole "things are better than ever! You're just getting older" mantra to everybody here. And I think you, and other people here for that matter, would magically be on our side if Marvel wasn't top dog. I think that's a really, really gigantic sign that when only one group of people are happy, that yes indeed, the box office has lost its appeal and luster and that it was better back in the olden days, and that maybe, just maybe, there is a problem with the box office at this point. Just a little food for thought.

 

This right here is most of the problem.  You have created a narrative in your mind where only Marvel wins and everything else is a giant bomb.  That is silly and far from the reality.  There are great runs, films that are surprising, films doing great and a lot of things to look at other than Marvel.  

 

Charlie is right, many of you that started following in your teens are now getting older and aging out of your hobby.  It happens.