Many box office experts have said that this year’s summer was a blip and things will be bigger and better again in 2015. But just because there might be more bigger mega-movies like Avengers Age of Ultron the same problems that caused issues with the performance of many of this year’s summer films will be repeated next year on a bigger scale.
The issue is not only about the movies it’s the way they are dated it used to be that blockbuster titles were giving weekends to themselves but with so many of these films being released it is causes them to bunch up causing them to cannibalise each other. The other issue is they open bigger but then drop big the following weekend. In the summer when Transformers Age of Extinction opened with $100m over the weekend it was seen as the summer saviour but then it drooped over 60% in the following weekends and became the worst performing film of its franchise.
There is the 3D factor with films having 3D added to the films only to boost box office as exhibitors charge a third more for tickets. Audiences have grown tired of studios and exhibitors ripping them off with these films and normally the 2D version makes more money than the 3D version even though it has the extra charges. If the 3D is art of the film audiences will happily see the film in 3D as seen last year with Gravity.
3D has hidden the biggest problem with movies in the last 5 years+ admissions aren’t increasing and box office isn’t also increasing take away the extra charges from 3D and large formats box office levels haven’t increased dramatically for years.
Studios would used to make a wide range of movies but now they seen to be putting all their eggs in the blockbuster cake making different levels of these movies all of which would be called blockbuster movies a few years ago but now with the mega-movies of the likes of The Avengers films like Jurassic World and Terminator: Genisys aren’t as big as they once were. Found it madness that Paramount Pictures have already dated two more sequels to Terminator as the last film took $375m with a $200m budget that would be seen as a success nowadays but Paramount are so desperate for franchises that they are making sequels from films like Hansel & Gretel.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 took $700m and was seen as a disappointment by Sony Pictures causing them to delay sequels. These films have huge budgets attached to them and massive marketing costs to try to get them seen and heard from all the others. The bubble will burst soon on comic book adaptations as it has done in the past but with these massive costs behind them the Impact could be 10x 1980’s Heaven’s Gate.
In years gone by there were real surprises films that were sleepers and played throughout the summer this year there were films like Begin Again and What If but they both barely entered the top 10 charts. In the UK there is a British comedy Pride opening this next weekend which has been given the Full Monty tag but 17 years after The Full Monty was released its doubtful we will get films like that again that will play all summer.
I look at the films that were released at the summer and some I might buy on DVD but I wonder if I will ever watch them but there are many more films from years gone by that I would happily watch again and again and again.
