With ticket sales down and newly released movies hitting streaming and video-on-demand (VOD) services in record time, it’s not surprising that films are struggling to make it big in theaters. For comparison, 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road grossed a whopping $45 million over a non-holiday opening weekend, which ultimately led to an impressive $380 million global box office draw. Meanwhile, Furiosa, which is equally well-received, earned just $32 million over the four days that make up Memorial Day weekend. Sadly, Hollywood’s slump is becoming much more of a pattern, and there are clear-cut reasons why.
They are:
- The Movie Theater Experience Isn’t Always Great
- Movie Theaters Are Expensive
- Bigger Budgets Puts Greater Box Office Expectations On Some Movies
- The COVID-19 Pandemic Changed Moviegoing Habit
- Audiences Have Been Conditioned That New Theatrical Releases Will Quickly Go To VOD
- Streaming Means There’s More Choice At Home Than In Theaters
I suppose Garfield might be woke AF, I haven’t seen it.
One of the comments does mention the strikes and that has caused all sorts of issues. An earlier article on here suggested the film studios were largely writing 2024 off as a bust. All hopes now seem pinned on D&W for doing good money and Joker 2 and Alien: Romulus have potential to do well. I think my top ten of the year is going to look pretty anaemic.