So even with the big hit that has been The Chronicles of Narnia and the struggling to keep up with it King Kong, the 2005 box office take was the worst since 2001 and suffered the biggest drop in 20 years.
Much like some self-absorbed contestants on The Apprentice (I’m AWESOME, it’s everyone else who’s an idiot) movie studio execs are scratching their heads wondering why and what to do.
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With a slew of movies that were not only remakes (which people are REALLY getting sick of), but AWFUL ones like:
Dukes of Hazzard
House of Wax
The Honeymooners
The Fog
Bewitched
Aeon Flux
as well as sequels along the lines of:
Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo
Son of the Mask
Elektra
XXX: State of the Union
Herbie Reloaded (What were they thinking with that title?)
I mean I realize that I’m not the target audience any more, but man… do they think ANYONE is going to think these movies are good? There must be something in the moviemaking process where one gets too close to the process and can’t see the ugly forest for “yes-man” trees.
Add to that with the escalating rudeness displayed by self-centered boneheads in the theater audience (You did notice your 4 year old kicking my chair for the past 60 seconds, didn’t you? Or did your ongoing conversation with him distract you from that?). And let’s not forget 6-8 commercials before the trailers even start along with mega-obvious product placement in movies, and gee… I guess I can’t figure it out either.
Of course on the other hand you have great movies like Serenity that you’d expect would do well, but of course the studios screw up on the marketing campaign and then wonder why no one showed up.
So what’s the answer?
More remakes, sequels and commercials, of course.
Yeesh.
Source: Movieweb
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8 Comments
Yep, I agree. We’re seeing the drop in box office because the industry is starting to see a fundamental shift in consumer expectations. Given the crowds, costs and hassles associated with theaters, more of us are choosing to see movies at home. That’s why most movies can make a profit off the DVD sales/rentals, even if they choked at the box office. I expect the downward box office trend to continue, at least until the studios wake up and join the rest of us in the 21st century.
Brian
Just to correct some things - Aeon Flux is not a remake exactly as it was a cartoon before. The movie, while it flopped, made me understand the cartoon and everything actually made sense after watching it.
Elektra is not a sequel. It was a follow up sort of. Garner had to do the movie due to it being in her contract for Daredevil. Had both of those movies (DD and Elektra) not been rushed things could have been different.
But yes, this past year there weren’t near as many “OMG I HAVE TO SEE THAT” type of films and a lot of “I could go see that or wait for it to hit DVD”
Not all sequels are bad. Take Pirates of the Caribbean 2. I’m looking forward to that movie more than any other movie ever.
But yea, they’ve been making a lot of really bad movies. The answer of course is easy, more nudity and sex, which always brings a box office revival. What they really need is a critically acclaimed porn flick to make a nation-wide theater release. Of course, I’m only being sarcastic (at least partially).
As to the “more nudity and sex” comment, I seriously doubt it. If anything there’s a backlash right now to being pummelled with those two particular items night and day in TV programs and even commercials.
Note how poorly R-rated movies do in general when compared to PG and PG-13.
Vic
Actually I tend to agree with the more nudity and vulgar language comment. Two of the biggest movies of the year are Wedding Crashers and The 40 Year Old Virgin. While there is no way in hell I would take my nephew to see either of these, both of these were movies that I saw more than once in the theater due to friends wanting to see them.
What needs to happen is focus on the things that actually work. For comedies it has to be good dialoge and physical comedy, For dramas, kids movies, romantic comedy it has to be a good story and character development, for thrillers and action good blow up scenes. It isn’t that hard, but when you do decide that you need to make a Herbie Reloaded and then digitally alter the size of LL’s breasts in every frame, something is definately wrong with the industry.
Revenge of the Sith
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
War of the Worlds
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Wedding Crashers
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Batman Begins
Madagascar
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Hitch
Only 1 “nudity and vulgar language” movie in the bunch. I’d actually forgotten about “Hitch”, which I really enjoyed.
On the other hand I don’t know how the heck “Madagascar” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” made it on that list. I guess that shows (again) that a movie doesn’t have to be good to make money.
Vic
Madagascar and Charlie both had “hugh” marketing campaigns. In fact the Charlie campaign kept me from seeing the movie, too icky creepy. Others pointed out to me that Gene Wilder was kind of icky creepy as well (I didn’t much like him in that role either). I was listening to a radio piece the other day and he predicted that in 10 years the megaplex theatre would be gone, victim of the home theatre system. He felt that what would remain would be large single screen luxury theatres (whats old is new again) playing the likes of a Star Wars or LOTR. Otherwise movies would release to DVD directly (we’re already seeing this more often). I think he may be right. :confused:
Vic
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