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Przepraszam
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Posts: 14510
Location: Poland. New York.
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 Posted: Mon, 2nd Jan 2012 13:37 Post subject: US Box Office Revenue Drops; But Not Because Of Infringement |
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Move it to World News if wish mod, just thought this would be better section to post this
| Quote: | Every year for the past few years, we've been noting that, even as the MPAA whine and cries about "piracy," it's been doing record business at the box office. It's been up, up, up. Until this year. It appears that there's been a rather slight downturn in box office take, though it still exceeded $10 billion. A lot of people are focused on fewer tickets being sold, but the number of tickets is a pretty meaningless measure. What matters is revenue, and that's still strong, if slightly off from its previous highs. But, of course, no business always sets a record.
And what's good here is that it seems most folks involved in the movie business seem to recognize that online infringement has nothing to do with the dropoff in box office revenue this year. Reports are chalking it up to "a combination of a weak economy and expanding home entertainment options." The most thoughtful explanation I've seen comes from Roger Ebert, who puts forth a series of compelling reasons why box office revenue is down, starting with the lack of good quality movies that are "must sees."
The key thing about the reasons he gives? Almost every one is something that the industry could have fixed if it only was smart enough to have a long term strategy.
1. Obviously, the absence of a must-see mass-market movie. When moviegoers hear about "Avatar" or "The Dark Knight," they blast off from home base and land in a theater seat as quickly as they can
Definitely a huge and important point. If you don't make quality films that people want to see, the box office is going to suffer. It seems that the industry has become so risk averse these days, that it keeps churning out rather formulaic pieces -- sequels and reboots, mainly. Sometimes you can do those kinds of movies in amazing ways ("The Dark Knight" is certainly one example), but too frequently these movies seem to rely on their "built in" audience, rather than working to find an audience. So the ticket sales decline.
2. Ticket prices are too high. People have always made that complaint, but historically the movies have been cheap compared to concerts, major league sports and restaurants. Not so much any longer. No matter what your opinion is about 3D, the charm of paying a hefty surcharge has worn off for the hypothetical family of four.
This was bound to happen and there are two reasons for it. The first is that the industry was experimenting with different price points, and when that happens, sooner or later you're going to find the ceiling. That finally happened. I don't think it's wrong that there were experiments with price points, but the industry needs to be careful to avoid continually pushing those boundaries.
The 3D issue is a bigger one. As I've noted in the past, it's good that the industry looked to add value to give people more of a reason to buy. Doing things like 3D films and IMAX films give people good reasons to go to the theaters, rather than watching at home... but in typical Hollywood fashion, they understood the superficial aspect ("ooh, with 3D we can charge more") and ignored the real underlying reasons why it worked ("we have to add real value"). So they just rushed out a bunch of crappy 3D movies where the 3D added no value, and people started rejecting it. As they should. If the industry had focused on real value, rather than just assuming "3D = more money" perhaps this wouldn't be an issue.
3. The theater experience. Moviegoers above 30 are weary of noisy fanboys and girls. The annoyance of talkers has been joined by the plague of cell-phone users, whose bright screens are a distraction. Worse, some texting addicts get mad when told they can't use their cell phones. A theater is reportedly opening which will allow and even bless cell phone usage, although that may be an apocryphal story.
Preaching to the converted here. Some of us have been arguing this point for a decade and are still amazed that the theater owners and the Hollywood studios just don't seem to get it. People go out to the movies because it's a social experience -- with part of the key point being the experience. You can cook your own dinner at home, but people like to eat out at restaurants. What's amazing is just how bad the experience has become, and how little effort most in the industry (with a few notable exceptions!) have made in trying to improve the overall experience. If the theaters and Hollywood actually focused on improving the overall experience, they'd be having much better performance.
4. Refreshment prices. It's an open secret that the actual cost of soft drinks and popcorn is very low. To justify their inflated prices, theaters serve portions that are grotesquely oversized, and no longer offer what used to be a "small popcorn." Today's bucket of popcorn would feed a thoroughbred.
This goes back to number 3, really. The food is a part of the experience. Making it ridiculously overpriced doesn't contribute to the overall experience at all. You can price it reasonably, make a good profit and use that to attract more people to the theater. Or you can do what the theaters do and seek to gouge.
5. Competition from other forms of delivery. Movies streaming over the internet are no longer a sci-fi fantasy. TV screens are growing larger and cheaper. Consumers are finding devices that easily play internet movies through TV sets. Netflix alone accounts for 30% of all internet traffic in the evening. That represents millions of moviegoers. They're simply not in a theater. This could be seen as an argument about why newspapers and their readers need movie critics more than ever; the number of choices can be baffling.
I'd argue it goes beyond just other forms of delivery, to competition from other forms of entertainment. The wider internet has grown quite a bit over the past few years, and video games, in particular, have become a much, much, much bigger industry. Plenty of people who might have wanted to go out to see a movie in the past, might prefer to just stay home and play video games online instead.
6. Lack of choice. Box-office tracking shows that the bright spot in 2011 was the performance of indie, foreign or documentary films. On many weekends, one or more of those titles captures first-place in per-screen average receipts. Yet most moviegoers outside large urban centers can't find those titles in their local gigantiplex. Instead, all the shopping center compounds seem to be showing the same few over-hyped disappointments. Those films open with big ad campaigns, play a couple of weeks, and disappear.
This is also a big one that gets very little attention, unfortunately. It's typical Hollywood thinking though. They're driven solely by the hits, and have never understood the value of solid movies that can make a profit without being a blockbuster. We're not even talking about the full long tail here, but anything beyond the "short head." If Hollywood would stop thinking in terms of finding only the "big hits," and actually looked at how to make profitable movies, they'd do things pretty differently. Unfortunately, that's just not how they think.
All in all, I believe the movie industry will eventually figure this out, though it may take some outsiders and fresh thinking, rather than today's studio bosses. Unfortunately, in the short term, we're likely to hear the MPAA and others pretend that the decline has something to do with "piracy," when there's little (if any) evidence to support that. |
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111229/16024817230/us-box-office-revenue-finally-drops-not-because-infringement.shtml
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| Posted: Mon, 2nd Jan 2012 13:51 Post subject: |
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I don't go to the movies anymore because a) I have a sexy new 50" TV and b) many movies here are playing in 3D ONLY, which I think sucks.
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garus
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Posts: 34197
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| Posted: Mon, 2nd Jan 2012 13:53 Post subject: |
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snip
Last edited by garus on Tue, 27th Aug 2024 21:27; edited 2 times in total
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| Posted: Mon, 2nd Jan 2012 13:55 Post subject: |
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Tell that to the people who go to the movies for popcorn. Yes such retards exist (and I know a lot of them).
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garus
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| Posted: Mon, 2nd Jan 2012 13:56 Post subject: |
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snip
Last edited by garus on Tue, 27th Aug 2024 21:27; edited 1 time in total
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| Posted: Mon, 2nd Jan 2012 14:20 Post subject: |
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He pretty much nailed it with those points, plus these days a lot of movies get released on dvd/blu-ray just a few months after theatrical release. There's VERY few movies getting released nowadays that I just have to see as soon as possible - less than one a year, usually.
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garus
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| Posted: Mon, 2nd Jan 2012 14:26 Post subject: |
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snip
Last edited by garus on Tue, 27th Aug 2024 21:27; edited 1 time in total
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| Posted: Mon, 2nd Jan 2012 14:45 Post subject: |
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Looking at it from a family perspective in the uk the average ticket for an adult is around 7 quid and a child a fiver. You can add around 3 quid on per ticket for 3D. So 2 adults and 2 kids going to watch a 3d mopvie is around 30-35 pound. Then you have the fuel to get there which will be around a gallon where I live which is approx 6 pound. As stated add on drinks and chocolae for everyone ( around 6-7 quid from the supermaket) . This totals around 50 pound in the UK for an average family.
Now add in recession, lack of job security , poor wages, inflation etc etc
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ixigia
[Moderator] Consigliere
Posts: 65093
Location: Italy
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| Posted: Mon, 2nd Jan 2012 15:07 Post subject: |
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The last time that I went to a cinema was a couple of years ago (because I was forced to), mainly because movies are all dubbed here, and it sucks ;p
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| Posted: Mon, 2nd Jan 2012 15:09 Post subject: |
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50 inch tvs are 0 for me when compared to the screen of a cinema.
absolutely nothing compares with a cinema / imax. loved the dark knight in cinemas. tried to see it again after 6 months on bluray at home. bored the fuck out of me.
>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> ♪ Viva La Vida ♪ <<<<<< <<<<< <<<<<< <<<
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couleur
[Moderator] Janitor
Posts: 14362
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| Posted: Mon, 2nd Jan 2012 15:14 Post subject: |
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Since I got my 46" and the 5.1 Teufel System, I really do enjoy BluRayRips at home. Some movies are still meant to be viewed on the big screen however. But I have to admit the bigger TV made me stay at home a lot more often.
"Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed nonage. Nonage is the inability to use one's own understanding without another's guidance. This nonage is self-imposed if its cause lies not in lack of understanding but in indecision and lack of courage to use one's own mind without another's guidance. Dare to know! (Sapere aude.) "Have the courage to use your own understanding," is therefore the motto of the enlightenment."
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| Posted: Mon, 2nd Jan 2012 17:45 Post subject: |
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Last edited by Yondaime on Mon, 2nd Dec 2024 15:43; edited 1 time in total
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| Posted: Tue, 3rd Jan 2012 02:42 Post subject: |
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I jsut went to a movie the other day and I can damn well tell you if I didn't have a gift card for it i wouldn't have wasted my money. Just for 2 people it was almost 20 bucks...to watch a 2 hour movie!
And now, consessions are OUTRAGEOUS. How can they even justify charging these prices. My theater, for 2 large pops and a large popcorn is 18 dollars. THAT SHIT IS WORTH LIKE 10 AT MOST. And they dropped the popcorn refills down to 1 refill only if you buy the large bag. The 15 dollar one is like 2 smalls and a medium bag. Fuck that.
The reason for going to the movies is atmosphere. The taste of awesome buttery popcorn being washed down by unhealthy soda. Just for 2 people it's nearing 50 bucks to have a good time. That's flat out robbery.
Of course it's economy, who the fuck else can afford that shit?
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| Posted: Tue, 3rd Jan 2012 12:14 Post subject: |
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Another problem is that cinemas are gradually eliminating projectionists in favour of automated projection systems. I've lost count of the number of times I've been to the cinema and had a film displayed in the wrong aspect ratio, or improperly framed, because the cinema has hired one guy to oversee an entire 12 screen multiplex.
But most of all, everyone is skint and there are very few films good enough to justify the expenditure of a trip to the cinema.
| chiv wrote: | | don't quote me on that |
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| Posted: Tue, 3rd Jan 2012 12:19 Post subject: |
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It's worth going to it if you wait a bit for the crowds to die down. Then just goto a day-time screening and usually it's an all but empty theatre. Maybe you, and a couple other people essentially doing the same thing. Wanting to actually watch the movie.
Still, you can't beat the 3D movies like Avatar on an IMAX screen. Yes, the movie itself without the visual experiance is just bland. However, being that size and 3D was a once in a lifetime experiance IMO. I also saw Inception on IMAX. Again, I could never recreate that in my home. Ever. Yes, some people make noises here and there - But in IMAX cinema's the volume is usually cranked a little higher and people generally just shut the fuck up given the fact that they just paid $20 per person to see a movie.
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thudo
Posts: 6309
Location: Mellonville North, Canada
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| Posted: Tue, 3rd Jan 2012 16:37 Post subject: |
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Except, Mchart, those experiences are sooooooooo few and far between I'd rather spend on a decent home theater with 99.9% of all the movies I get (R5, Screeners, DVD/BRrips, etc). Money WAYY better spent even in the short term on so many levels. $40-50 for one theater go with time, parking, annoying "lugan" teenagers, smells, etc etc as factors.. Yeahh no. It would have to be ONE SERIOUS MEGA-EPIC release for me to go now. Almost 100% of all movies are just fine @ home where my system is far superior and built for my specs. Going forwards, this is the logical approach for us but for the "lugan" generation whom cannot afford it: go knock yourselves out in the theater. I did all that but now I've progressed far beyond that and get movies stupidly fast and conveniently. Works for my schedule and for all my families schedule also.
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| Posted: Tue, 3rd Jan 2012 16:45 Post subject: |
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Well, i've got money for both. So I guess I don't really care.
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| Posted: Tue, 3rd Jan 2012 17:20 Post subject: |
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yeah. stay at home! plug that hdmi cable straight into your brain. the outside world is overrated.
the whole point of a cinema is the big screen of course but imo.. the whole atmosphere .. of a bunch of ppl gathered to watch the same movie. anticipating the movie, laughing at the same jokes and so on.
im a big bond fan and i can't imagine watching skyfall at home 3-4 months after its premiere.
but yeah. there are only 3-4 movies per year that are worth going to the cinema.or if you have loads of monnies and just dont care. 
>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> ♪ Viva La Vida ♪ <<<<<< <<<<< <<<<<< <<<
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thudo
Posts: 6309
Location: Mellonville North, Canada
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| Posted: Tue, 3rd Jan 2012 19:43 Post subject: |
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Yeah.. "atmosphere" of "loser-dom" and "general lugan dumb-a*sery" is what I want at the theater this day. Hell.. I'll take my Taze and mobile cell blocker with me to da flick houz for general sh*tz and gigs. 
D00d.. the days of standing to get into or buy anything 0 hour is for lame-os! Can't do sh*t like that and nothing anymore is worth waiting in line for bragging rights. You sooo learn it as you get older what a frick'n HOLLOW PURSUIT it was unless of course it gets you "bedded" with the high skuel prom queen. [blush]
Nah... patience pays off in the long run waiting for the flick to show after 3-4 months. Sure if yer aged 10-25 years I guess but after that its a complete folly. Just BS all in the end really..
MSI GT72S 6QF Dominator Pro S 29th Anniversary Intel i7 6820HK @ 4.0Ghz, 32GB DDR4-2133 RAM, 2x256GB Raid0 Toshiba NVMe 2.5 inch PCIe SSD, Nvidia Geforce GTX 980 OC'ed 200+ Core / 200+ Mem, 17.3 inch LG IPS HD Display @ 75Hz, Intel 7265AC Wifi, Windows 10 Pro BIOS version: .112 EC Firmware version: .105
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