There might have been fewer films this summer but the films that were released many were given poor release slots that caused many films to cannibalize each other. Warner Bros are normally masters of the summer but couldn’t do anything right with the dating of Edge of Tomorrow one of the worst decisions of the summer. Had it been given a better slot it would have been a huge success; but opening so close to X-Men Days of Future Past and Maleficent and against The Fault in Our Stars that was receiving huge social media everyone was predicting weeks before its release that it was going to flop.
Had all the films that were due for release in 2014 opened it wouldn’t have made much difference it would of spread the money wider. 20th Century Fox won’t see it as a as doesn’t matter summer as after one of their worst summers they had one of their best summers.
The biggest issues the studios have to deal with is the majority of the $90m openings of the summer had 60%+ drops in the following weekends. After Transformers Age of Extinction’s $100m opening it was seen as the summer saviour but has ended up being the worst performing Transformers movie of the franchise (the $300m taken from China hides much as Paramount accountants will only see 25% of that).
Everyone is saying 2014 is a blip and it’s nothing to worry about but the US marketplace like the UK has not expanded in many years admissions aren’t increasing dramatically and box office has been artificially inflated by 3D box office since 2009. Cinemagoers are fed up of extra charges exhibitors add to see 3D will they be adding additional charges for cinemas showing The Maze Runner in the new Escape format that’s Cinerama for the modern age.
In previous summers there used to be surprises this year the two films being called that are Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Guardians of the Galaxy two $150m budget films that the studios spent another $150m+ to market how either can be described as surprises. Where are the sleeper hits Sleepless in Seattle, Forrest Gump, My Best Friend’s Wedding, The Sixth Sense and There’s Something About Mary that were a major part of the summer.
Experts are saying 2015 and 2016 will be bigger and better I see the incredibly line-up of films but I do still ask how they will completely change the last 10+ years of cinema going. 34 years ago the failure of the $44m budget Heaven’s Gate destroyed United Artists but today $200m+ movie failures like John Carter and The Lone Ranger are still tiny compared to the multibillion dollar turnovers that the studio mega-corporations owners spend in a year. 2015/16 will see some massive earning films but also some massive earning failures there are I’m sure very nervous studio executives looking at their slates for the coming years wondering if they will still be there by the end of 2016.
