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
1, 4, 5 and 6 seem to me all connected by the pandemic and its knock on effects: avoiding COVID is worth it especially if you can watch at home without some of the bullshit of the cinemas and with streaming ready to meet you there anyway.
2 and 3 just then become more glaring in the light of the other factors (as does the saturation of reboots and se/pre-quels).
I personally love the cinema experience but have definitely dropped off from going post-pandemic. Part of it is that my partner and I have gotten COVID too many times for how cautious we are (twice each) and have slowly realised we probably have mild-long-COVID. Cinemas are pretty safe AFAICT, but still. And too many times has there been some annoying asshole in the cinema or some group that think it’s more funny than I ever could, or have I been forced to sit at just too much of an angle, or needed to go to the bathroom without being able to pause.
Realistically, once home TVs, audio and streaming tech got good enough, this was somewhat inevitable.