It’s that time of year again — escaping the sweltering heat to sit in a dark air conditioned room to watch a plotless movie rife with explosions. However, it seems that fewer and fewer people have been doing that for the past few years. Summer Ticket Sales were down 20 percent in 2011 and down another 3 percent last year. Overall, the movies have been generating $100 million less than they have this time last decade. As the summer closes, it will be interesting to see the numbers. But until then, I’m going to complain about the movie industry, because complaining is kinda therapeutic (for me anyway).
First of all, tickets cost way to much. Studios and theaters have been raising the prices a few dollars across the board in order to pay for failed business ventures (ie. 3D, Summer Blockbuster flops, etc.). Simple economics: raising the price of a good will attract fewer customers.
Secondly, the content sucks! Rather than studios looking to create art, they are mindlessly throwing out content with flashy special effects that lacks soul and humanity. A movie can have robots, zombies, aliens, orgies, and explosions, but god dammit, it better have substance.
Just recently, George Lucas said that it may soon cost $50 dollars to $150 dollars a ticket to see a big budget production, while it may cost only $7 dollars to see a movie like Lincoln. When these pictures tank, they bring the studios down with them.
Apparently, Lincoln was “this close” to being produced by HBO, a company that has a great track record for monetizing content. Shows like Game of Thrones, The Sopranos, and even more recently, Girls have knocked audiences out.
This brings me to the next week’s topic. Are we leaving an era of movies and moving toward an era of TV?
Is Maeybe Funke right?