As Hollywood’s summer movie season draws to a close — only two weekends to go — box office watchers are expecting slightly more than $4 billion in total revenue largely because of superhero blockbusters “The Dark Knight,” “Iron Man” and “Hancock”
A final number around last year’s record $4.18 billion would approximate last summer’s record box office, but it’s important to note that while revenues are up, attendance — the number of people actually going to movies — is down about 3 percent from last summer. What accounted for the difference? Higher average ticket prices.
The decline in attendance leads us to think that maybe, despite the success of “Dark Knight,” “Iron Man,” and even “Sex and the City,” maybe audiences weren’t too thrilled with Hollywood’s summer. Can anyone say “Speed Racer”?
Or, how about Indy’s fourth movie? Was it worth it for director Steven Spielberg and actor Harrison Ford to team up again for “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”?
Maybe the moviegoing experience just wasn’t worth the price of admission, which is $10 or more depending on the theater and location. Or, maybe the Olympics were just too much late night competition for late-summer movies such as “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” slowing momentum from June and July.
In any case, we’re curious as to what moviegoers thought about Hollywood’s summer movies. Let us know.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis)
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We are lacking more movies to think and feel-good movies, such as “Mamma Mia”, “Elegy” and “VickyCristinaBarcelona”. Instead the blockbusters are based on comics (dont’ you ever get tired of them). Another good movie was “21″ and “Indie 4″ was full of glaring geographical mistakes, such as setting the plot in Peruvian jungle but shot in Hawaii and having Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa speak in quechua, the language of Peruvian indians. Give me a break!!!
- Posted by richard, hollywood, Fl.I am on a college-student budget, and a few years ago would have made ten or twenty trips to the theatre at $5.50 or $6.00 a pop. Now I feel lucky to have two or three worth seeing, and even then I can’t justify the cost if the movie isn’t eye-poppingly awesome. Dark Knight and Hellboy II (beautifully artistic and underrated IMHO) were proper theatre picks, a few other older ones in the cheap weekday-night theatre down the street ($1.50 a show), but I can’t see spending that much when watching on a nice screen at home is usually as good, and more comfortable to boot.
Ditto to most of the above.
- Posted by Da6dIn response to Tom’s email re “Well you think $10 is bad, in the UK the price is more like £7.50 which is around $14/15…….” How about £11 in Central London, down the West End - and that was last year - and that was for a Matinee, 4 pm!! AND they allot you a specific-numbered seat. When I was ushered into the Cinema (Marble Arch), there was 1 other person in there, but the usherette insisted I sit in the allotted seat given to me - which was directly behind the 1 other person in that cinema!! I said to her “What!!!!” and rolled up laughing! Yes, you have it made America, in many, many ways and you just don’t know it! I love the Cinema, 100% more than sitting at home in front of the TV, which I can do any time.
- Posted by Val HolmesThe reasons why people aren’t going to the cinema is because of: prices, sequels, remakes & the internet.
Price’s have gone up sky high and I won’t see a film in the cinema unless I have heard good things.
Sequels have gotten stupid. Indy 4? Rocky? The reason Hollywood do this is because they’re scared to make a loss by taking on a new film when they know they can make money from sequels.
Remakes are killing the industry. Taking good films and then making them. How long before they make a Hollywood version of Oldboy?
People are downloading illegally now more than ever because people aren’t willing to pay see a film which could be potentially pants and get ripped off whilst paying for that priviledge.
It’s all a vicious circle which is only going to get worse and by the minute Hollywood are loosing respect.
Worst film this year: The Love Guru.
- Posted by MattBest film this year: The Dark Knight.
Increasing prices are definitely to blame for attendance decrease. And let’s be honest, aside from 3 or 4 memorable films, everything else that came out this summer was average or less. I saw The Dark Knight in IMAX, which was by far the best movie this summer. Other films that come to mind which were good are Iron Man and Wall-E. These 3 were actually worth buying the ticket for. At the other end of the spectrum is Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Brainless Story, The Mummy: Rise of the Yawning Bore. Honestly, I felt like calling Spielberg personally and demanding my money and braincells back. The problem is that since these were sequels, certain quality was implied and expected. Indy 4 was an assault on reason. If you saw indy 4, and think that the entire fridge scene was not the most ridiculous insult to your intelligence, you need to go see a doctor and be put on brain-creating medication. Mummy 3 was an assault on my patience. It was so boring, uneven, and unfunny, that I actually feel stupid for having sat through all of it.
So quality of films has not increased this year, which is also a contributor to attendance problems. Studios seem to think that if you throw CGI into the mix, you have a good movie. Wrong. I sometimes miss the body suits (a la Star Wars IV), which were a lot more entertaining than the latest computer projected image usually is nowadays.
- Posted by RGHey James - “If you think movies “aren’t good anymore” then by all means PLEASE write a new John Wayne flick(or some other old fart movie) or shut your ignorant whining old mouth.”
Are you still in highschool? The question is about what moviegoers thought about Hollywood’s summer movies. Most of us are saying that the movies are not up to par. The article goes on about the drop in attendance and again we are responding that the movies are not up to par.
- Posted by DaveDark knight = bland. Heath Ledger was the only redeeming thing in the movie, I say thing because now he’s a corpse.
Tropic Thunder and Pineapple Express were the only watchable movies this summer, and I thoroughly enjoyed them both.
Wall-e was a bunch of little baby garbage.
Iron man was alright, not worth the hype.
Everyone that’s complaining about paying too much for movies should really stop before they make fools out of themselves. How about researching the full plot, get some spoilers, get a freaking clue what the movie’s actually about before seeing it and then whining that it wasn’t “up to your expectations.”
If you think movies “aren’t good anymore” then by all means PLEASE write a new John Wayne flick(or some other old fart movie) or shut your ignorant whining old mouth.
No one really cares about your opinion.
- Posted by JamesTo the blog writer: I hope you’re not getting paid to write this blog. Your company could pay someone $5 to make a little poll. Question: “Movies worth it this summer” Answers: “Yes” or “No”
*P.S. My home theater is a 10 foot screen and a projector with surround sound. Cost: $2,000 (which roughly equals 20 trips to the theater. We watched that many movies in the first month of owning this system)
- Posted by JCost of taking my family of five to see a movie: $60
Add in snacks, popcorn, and cola: $80+
Cost of buying a dvd and watching it on my home theater (snacks, soda, and the ability to pause included: $25
You wanna charge $12 a seat? You want a movie experience to cost $20 per person? It better come with dinner and a glass of beer or wine.
This doesn’t even take into account the price of gas. Hollywood’s actually had some good movies come out this year. The fact that the entire season has been carried by about 4 of them is, IMO, pretty good. In a typical summer I usually don’t see more than 2 interesting flicks. Hollywood has good years and bad, but with movies like Batman and Iron Man ruling the box office, it’s pretty clear what we want. If any shortcoming on the part of Hollywood can be argued, it’s that they’re not giving us enough of what we want. The big issue however remains the same. If we can’t afford to put the gas in our cars to get there, how can you expect us to pay $100 for an evening of entertainment?
- Posted by JThis was an odd summer for movies. I consider myself an avid movie goer, and believe that the experience of the theater can not be closely matched by watching at home. Even with a 47″ plasma, a pause button, 5.2 surround, and whatever snacks I want, the theater is still better. Lets be clear though, certain movies don’t need the big screen experience (most comedies, dramas, etc.) Really I go to the theater for eye candy and sound.
The reason for the low attendance is a combination of two things: Cost (of a ticket/food/gas), and Quality of the films.
I like to go to many movies. To give an example, in the summer of 2005, I saw a new release every week, opening weekend, for 14 weeks in a row. That’s 14 new movies in one summer. Then, I paid about $6 for a ticket. This summer, I saw: Iron Man (2x), Wall-E (2x), The Dark Knight (2x), Wanted, Indy 4, Hellboy II, and Get Smart. That’s 10 movies, at an average price of $12.50 (accounting for different theaters and seeing Dark Knight twice in IMAX). Most of those were worth seeing, even if they weren’t that good (Indy 4, Get Smart). The great ones I saw twice (simply because there was so much to see, and you always catch more the second time around, especially with Dark Knight and Wall-E).
To summarize: 6*14=84, 10*12.5=125. I saw less, but paid much more. There were about 6 or 7 others I wanted to see, but they weren’t at the top of my list, or not great quality, so they didn’t get viewed. Maybe on DVD then.
And just to be clear, the Dark Knight is the best film of the year (so far as I’ve seen), without question. And those who don’t think so didn’t understand it. The plot was easy to follow yet very deep. There was enough reality to make it hit close to home but still feel like it won’t happen to me. The characters were deep and incredibly well acted. Just the right amount of humor, countered by the best portrayal of chaos I’ve ever seen. But if you didn’t like it, my description won’t convince you otherwise. I just suggest you try and see movies with no expectations what-so-ever and you’ll find yourself pleasantly surprised more often than not.
- Posted by DashI wonder if I am the only person who didn’t think The Dark Knight was brilliant. I thought Heath Ledger did an amazing job as the joker, but the movie was all over the place, and Harvey two-face should have been introduced in the end, and made the villain for another film. The high prices and a new baby have kept me out of the theatre this summer…but after a fall of movies that were all depressing subject matter, it was good to see the summer fun movies come out. Wish I’d been able to go see more of them. Everyone is always talking about how great it is to be able to “sit in my own leather chair” and use the pause button…but nothing beats the experience of going to the theatre. That is how the movies are made to be seen and heard, and I’ll keep going when I can even if tickets get up to the UK prices that one comment mentioned.
- Posted by nancyIf Batman is agreed as being perhaps the best of the summer, that says it all. Batman was 30 mins cool, 2 1/2 hours of stinker… for 11 bucks! I guess I’m done with the theater, I’ll stick to the DVD and keep my finger on the eject button.
- Posted by johnDI thoroughly enjoyed the first “Batman Returns” episode, and it appeared we would get more of the same with all the pomp proceeding “Dark Knight”. I liked Heath Ledger, too, from his previous films - “The Patriot” in particular.
But they killed the heroine! Not just killed her - they BLEW HER AWAY! Not the way it should be done - no, thank you. Who’s writing crap like that? Not the kind of “entertainment” I enjoy watching. ‘Even went to an IMAX theater to see it - ’same one I saw “Superman Returns” in - great flick. But no, I don’t need to see the ugly “reality” of our world put into entertainment like that. If you want to see that, just keep watching the 6 o’clock news on TV.
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- Posted by The Joker is...