A future of Box Office Bombs?

[KH Martin]

 

Maybe. Then again a trailer is supposed to wet your appetite for a film, and this one didn't do the job.

Maybe for you, but all three of the GRAVITY segments that have turned up have utterly blown me away, and that is in spite of Bullock.

[James Steven Beverly]

You should BE so lucky to have Sandra Bullock in a movie. I'd KILL to direct her. GREAT actress!

[George Ebersole]

Some insight from Reuters;

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTm6l3BYmTA

[Matt Stevens]

3D is down down down. Studios are not even reporting the % of 3D sales this summer for most films. People are sick of the higher prices.

 

My sister and her husband took the kids to the moves a lot more two years ago. The past year or so they saw two price hikes in their local theaters and so no more 3D at all and even 2D they are cutting back. They are not alone. This is happening everywhere. $8 for a popcorn? $4 for a medium soda? Really?

 

Next summer is already so heavy with tent pole epics that the studios are going to find themselves in the same boat. May is going to basically be the month you MUST release your 250 million dollar film or you are going to face audiences with blockbuster fatigue.

 

Anyway... It's the ticket prices. They are too damned high. Period.

[James Steven Beverly]

If it was a short lived fad in the 50's, why wouldn't it be a short lived fad in the new millennium. I'm hoping the NEXT fad is GOOD movies that DON'T involve 30 story robots! B)

Edited August 2, 2013 by James Steven Beverly

[George Ebersole]

3D is down down down. Studios are not even reporting the % of 3D sales this summer for most films. People are sick of the higher prices.

 

My sister and her husband took the kids to the moves a lot more two years ago. The past year or so they saw two price hikes in their local theaters and so no more 3D at all and even 2D they are cutting back. They are not alone. This is happening everywhere. $8 for a popcorn? $4 for a medium soda? Really?

 

Next summer is already so heavy with tent pole epics that the studios are going to find themselves in the same boat. May is going to basically be the month you MUST release your 250 million dollar film or you are going to face audiences with blockbuster fatigue.

 

Anyway... It's the ticket prices. They are too damned high. Period.

 

I quit going to movies regularly around the mid 90s. People were rude, prices were high, and the movies were utter crap.. The tent-pole trend was really taking root back then (it actually had been rediscovered with Lucas's Star Wars and Spielberg's shark movie, but hadn't really caught steam to become the mainstream business model until the 90s).

 

Every time I went to the theatre films didn't deliver on the trailer. I kept having to tell people to shut up. And yes, prices were too damn high.

 

Nowadays movies aren't just bad, but they're really bad. I haven't seen Pacific Rim or that new shark movie, but like I said in a previous post, I have a hard time imagining a husband a wife years from now sitting down with their kids in front of their super-definition ultra-mega-wide-TV, and popping in "Pacific Rim" for a family moment.

 

The scripts are bad, the dialogue is bad, the plots are 5th grade level (giant robots....please), the CGI is bad, the only thing decent is the acting and directing, and I'd be embarassed as an actor to be in Thor 2 or the next Avengers film. If the money was right, sure, but as a quality project? I dunno.

 

And, on top of that, as a regular movie going Joe, I'm expected to pay $13 just for myself? To sit in a loud obnoxious theatre that reeks with people using cell phones, with audio systems turned up too loud, and people talking?

 

It's a wonder the industry hasn't collapsed already.

[George Ebersole]

I think Freya posted a link to this article; http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/07/21/now-with-added-batman-superman-heres-a-crazy-list-of-2015s-tentpole-and-franchise-films/

 

• Avengers: Age of Ultron
• Ant Man
• Star Wars Episode VII
• Jurassic Park IV
• WarCraft
• James Bond 24
• Pirates Of The Caribbean 5
• Terminator
• Independence Day 2
• Hunger Games: Mocking Jay Part 2
• Finding Dory
• Assassin’s Creed
• Fantastic Four
• Inferno – the Da Vinci Code threequel
• And then there are slightly smaller or less exciting propositions, such as Kung Fu Panda 3, Smurfs 3, Alvin and the Chipmunks 4, Cinderella.

And just looking at the list of movies one is hard pressed to see any hope here. I mean..."War Craft" the movie? I was playing WC when I went back to school to study engineering. Fun game; funny and over the top fantasy. But a movie? Erm, well, maybe. And an "Assassin's Creed" movie? You know, the movie audience used to be more than the pre-teen to mid-20 dem, because that's what these films are aimed at. And, they're aimed at the male audience; i.e. groups of young men hanging together, maybe taking a date.

 

But not one of these movies is aimed at the casual part time worker who has some free time. Not one of them is aimed at the single male or female who's a professional 20-something, 30-something, or god forbid, in their 40s and 50s.

 

And I think that's going to be the death knell of the industry.

[Matt Stevens]

We are at the point where the only men allowed to make original films are Spielberg and Nolan.

[Guest]

• Alvin and the Chipmunks 4,

 

Oh boy I can't wait!!!!

 

R,

[Freya Black]

I've said it before, but I really believe that there are two things propping up the industry right now.

One is 3D and the other is ironically film itself.

Neither one is exactly in a great situation right now.

 

The best hope in the near future is 4K but I'm not personally sure to what extent they are going to make that fly.

They could easily do so, but then they could have easily made 1080p work and they did a bit of a botch job of that and that was easier than 4K will be. Basically I can easily imagine them messing it up too.

 

To be honest the digital revolution has already heavily undermined the more indie side of the film industry and the whole thing seems like it is standing on wobbly legs right now.

 

Freya

[Freya Black]

We are at the point where the only men

 

 

You have a good point right there too Matt! ;)

 

 

allowed to make original films are Spielberg and Nolan.

 

 

Well it doesn't even seem to be true of Spielberg going on what he has been saying recently.

A lot of directors are decamping for TV. Spike Lee is doing a kickstarter and David Lynch has decided to just take a break from it all.

 

On the upside Joss Wheedon who directed "The Avengers" marvel/disney movie has shot his own version of "Much Ado about Nothing" in his house. He is working to the Cassavetes/Orson Welles model of using money from the commercial stuff to fund the good stuff:

 

http://muchadomovie.com/

 

Freya

[George Ebersole]

 

Oh boy I can't wait!!!!

 

R,

 

rofl :lol:

 

I thought that list was bogus, but it appears they're real. ID2 is gearing up right now; http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1628841/combined

 

 

Movies are just entertainment. You can't take Alvin and the Chipmunks any more seriously than the musicals your parents ad grandparents grew up with, but at some point, if you're a producer, you've got to look at the garbage you're offering the public, and then scratch your head as to why returns are plummeting.

[Guest]

I was asked to direct Alvin and the Chipmunks 4. But was fired after I insisted on using real chipmunks. Apparently they thought the animals rights activists would be upset if I crazy glued little objects into their hands. Good grief, what's the big deal. Then there was the explosions.....

 

R,

[George Ebersole]

No stunt chipmunks?

[James Steven Beverly]

I was asked to direct Alvin and the Chipmunks 4. But was fired after I insisted on using real chipmunks. Apparently they thought the animals rights activists would be upset if I crazy glued little objects into their hands. Good grief, what's the big deal. Then there was the explosions.....

 

R,

Damn Hollywood LIBERALS!! Don't they know chipmunks, if trained properly, can DODGE explosions even WITH props super-glued to their paws!! GAAA!! You would have been a GREAT Chipmunks 4 director. I just feel, being Canadian and having worked with woodland creatures in your last two movies (OK, an English Bulldog isn't TECHNICALLY a WOODLAND creature, but given a chance, I'm sure it would have taken a DUMP in the woods so it's PROBABLY close enough, besides you were also working with kid actors and I'm sure THEY had at least something to do with the woods),I KNOW you would have done your utmost to develop a rapport with the rodents and the total ability to discuss the intricacies of their character's emotional inner life on THEIR own level!! With YOU at the helm, this would have been the "Laurence of Arabia" of singing squirrel motion picture comedy, you know, without the whole blood soaked Arab Rebellion, WWI artillery bombardment, massacre of an entire Turkish column thing.

[James Steven Beverly]

Oh, wait a minute, you used CRAZY glue, not SUPER glue....... No WONDER you got fired, that's just SICK, man!!

[Guest]

They used real animals in Hammy Hamster, did that show ever play in the US in the 70s? 80s?

 

R,

[James Steven Beverly]

REALLY!? No, but I was in a movie Hal Ashby directed Called Second Hand Hearts" that was originally titled "The Hamster of Happiness" Now I have GOT to see it!!

Edited August 3, 2013 by James Steven Beverly

[Jon Lester]

 

I quit going to movies regularly around the mid 90s. People were rude, prices were high, and the movies were utter crap.. The tent-pole trend was really taking root back then (it actually had been rediscovered with Lucas's Star Wars and Spielberg's shark movie, but hadn't really caught steam to become the mainstream business model until the 90s).

 

Every time I went to the theatre films didn't deliver on the trailer. I kept having to tell people to shut up. And yes, prices were too damn high.

 

Nowadays movies aren't just bad, but they're really bad. I haven't seen Pacific Rim or that new shark movie, but like I said in a previous post, I have a hard time imagining a husband a wife years from now sitting down with their kids in front of their super-definition ultra-mega-wide-TV, and popping in "Pacific Rim" for a family moment.

 

The scripts are bad, the dialogue is bad, the plots are 5th grade level (giant robots....please), the CGI is bad, the only thing decent is the acting and directing, and I'd be embarassed as an actor to be in Thor 2 or the next Avengers film. If the money was right, sure, but as a quality project? I dunno.

 

And, on top of that, as a regular movie going Joe, I'm expected to pay $13 just for myself? To sit in a loud obnoxious theatre that reeks with people using cell phones, with audio systems turned up too loud, and people talking?

 

It's a wonder the industry hasn't collapsed already.

 

I still haven't seen any of the current generation of 3D movies. Yesterday, "Star Trek Into Darkness" started in second run at our local discount theater, at the mall, so I went to see that for $2.50 (plus the cost of driving out there), and it was a 2D real film print,too, because this theater has no plans to go digital (and probably can't spend $300k to install 6 digital systems with its current business model, anyway). I was lucky enough to see it with a small and mature audience, too. The last movie I saw was the very last regular showing of "The Purge" in my area, during the "bargain" matinee hour, and because I was the only one in there, I got a virtual private screening for $5.50.

 

The things you've itemized pretty much sum up why I don't see evening shows of movies when they're first released, plus I really don't like crowds. I also abstain from soda and candy these days, and I can get free popcorn at my favorite bar after the movie, so I just take a drink from the water fountain before the show. It might not be doing the most I can to support the venue, but that's the set of choices they offer me.

[George Ebersole]

 

I still haven't seen any of the current generation of 3D movies. Yesterday, "Star Trek Into Darkness" started in second run at our local discount theater, at the mall, so I went to see that for $2.50 (plus the cost of driving out there), and it was a 2D real film print,too, because this theater has no plans to go digital (and probably can't spend $300k to install 6 digital systems with its current business model, anyway). I was lucky enough to see it with a small and mature audience, too. The last movie I saw was the very last regular showing of "The Purge" in my area, during the "bargain" matinee hour, and because I was the only one in there, I got a virtual private screening for $5.50.

 

The things you've itemized pretty much sum up why I don't see evening shows of movies when they're first released, plus I really don't like crowds. I also abstain from soda and candy these days, and I can get free popcorn at my favorite bar after the movie, so I just take a drink from the water fountain before the show. It might not be doing the most I can to support the venue, but that's the set of choices they offer me.

 

Thanks Jon; the SF Bay Area is kind of unique in that we have a very high cost of living, but, even so, sitting in a theatre with people who don't know how to behave, and watching a movie revolve around a script that looks like it was written by a team of ten year old boys, I mean, wow. It's like "why am I here again?"

 

On the other thread I posted a Reuter's clip about SONY and their media "empire" and how their films were under performing. Well, if you base "serious" pictures off of comic books, then you're going to get comic book audiences, and that audience usually, not exclusively, centers around immature males.

 

Thor 2 ain't Casablanca, and their audiences are worlds apart.

 

And now TV's no better.

[Freya Black]

• WarCraft

And just looking at the list of movies one is hard pressed to see any hope here. I mean..."War Craft" the movie? I was playing WC when I went back to school to study engineering. Fun game; funny and over the top fantasy. But a movie? Erm, well, maybe. And an "Assassin's Creed" movie? You know, the movie audience used to be more than the pre-teen to mid-20 dem, because that's what these films are aimed at. And, they're aimed at the male audience; i.e. groups of young men hanging to

 

Well the good news about WarCraft is that it is going to be directed by Duncan Jones who made Moon and Source Code, so maybe he can find a way to do something interesting with it. Don't the games also have a HP lovecraft connection too?

 

I think it might be better than expected as I think Duncan is likely to take it seriously rather than just see it as a pay cheque, tho what he can make of it remains to be seen!

 

Freya

[George Ebersole]

Heh, you're joking, right? I don't think you can take it seriously at all, but a bunch of teenage boys apparently did and have. For me WC was something to do between study sessions. But a movie? It's just another tentpole bomb in my prejudiced view.

 

Here's WC as I remember it;

 

 

If somebody wants to turn this into a movie, well, lol, be my guest :)

[Freya Black]

It's actually originally a board game too!

 

In theory I think these kind of projects could give a lot of freedom, in the sense that if there isn't much there to start with then there is a lot more scope to do what you like with it.

 

You are right tho, probably won't work that way in practice.

 

Freya

[George Ebersole]

Well, I went back to school just as my initial film/video career was winding down. That would have been around 1996 or so, and that's when WC2 first came out. I guess they turned it into a board game, but I don't see the cinematic potential of one over the other. I'm guessing it's to tap off of the World of Warcraft crowd, which I still perpetually hear about when I cruise by a game site (yes, I still play games).

 

I dunno Freya, I popped in "Seems Like old Times" with Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase last night in the DVD player. There were two swear words, no CGI, the film relied mostly on masters with some movement, but otherwise few (if any tracking shots), and there was one car chase sequence that was comprised of maybe just over a dozen shots or so, including one crane shot where you see an old fashioned brown 1970's station wagon do a "bootlegger reverse".

 

Call me crazy, but I'd rather pay good money to see and watch that movie over and over again that film than blow money on what has got to be the next big franchise movie.

 

Just me :)

 

p.s. I don't think I'm alone here.

[Freya Black]

 

I dunno Freya, I popped in "Seems Like old Times" with Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase last night in the DVD player. There were two swear words, no CGI, the film relied mostly on masters with some movement, but otherwise few (if any tracking shots), and there was one car chase sequence that was comprised of maybe just over a dozen shots or so, including one crane shot where you see an old fashioned brown 1970's station wagon do a "bootlegger reverse".

 

Call me crazy, but I'd rather pay good money to see and watch that movie over and over again that film than blow money on what has got to be the next big franchise movie.

 

Just me :)

 

p.s. I don't think I'm alone here.

 

Not my kind of thing at all although I do understand where you are coming from with your basic point.

I think there is a need for greater diversity in general.

It's just become too narrow.

 

Freya