Posted on 03/14/2017 12:59:06 PM PDT by drewh
Hollywood studios could be in for another year of “big-budget bombs” and increased volatility around mid-budget releases, film industry analyst Doug Creutz warned in a report this week.
As he has been warning for years, the Cowen and Co. media analyst said that film studios’ increasing reliance on tentpoles and superhero movies will contribute to a decline in per-picture box office grosses in 2017, making what once seemed like sure-fire bets on big-budget flicks a decidedly risky enterprise.
According to Deadline, Creutz says the film industry in 2017 will be “at least as difficult” as it was in 2016, when operating profits at the major studios fell 14.6 percent, even as total box office receipts inched up 2.2 percent over 2015 numbers.
That increase was due largely to inflation and the increasing cost of movie tickets, the analyst warned. And Disney — with its stable of established franchise properties like Star Wars and Marvel films — reportedly captured the lion’s share of the haul with a staggering 60.5 percent of the industry’s $4.18 billion in total operating profits.
Creutz noted that nearly three-dozen upcoming releases from major studios this year boast budgets north of $100 million, and predicted Fox and Paramount could struggle the most with offerings like War for the Planet of the Apes and Transformers: The Last Knight, respectively. He added that Disney would likely continue its dominance with a new Star Wars film and the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel, while Warner Bros. could see success with Wonder Woman, Justice League and Christopher Nolan’s World War II epic Dunkirk.
The Cowen and Co. analyst has expressed skepticism for years about the major studios’ shift toward pursuing similar release strategies, or what he described as putting “more and more eggs in the franchise picture basket.”
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
The last movie I saw was Fred Ott’s Sneeze in its original release.
2016 was the first year in quite a number of years that I saw fewer than 20 first-run movies one way or another (ten), and none of the top ten. I’ve had my fill of comic book movies full of plot holes, “reboots” and remakes, and sequels that nobody needed.
Attendance is down due to high ticket prices, rude people at theaters talking and playing with their phones and the home theater technology. A lot of the multi-screen theater complexes have closed in past few years.
As for myself, I can't think of the last movie I wanted to see. It's been awhile.
DC is doing the same with Justice League. The ‘Marvel Universe’ just seems childish to me..
What is “real life” for fictional characters?
At some point I will get to the “Dad’s Army” movie made a while back.
Disney needs Beauty and the Beast to hit for merchandise, theme park rides books etc...crucial to their bottom line
If my wife didn’t insist on date night to the movies, I probably would never watch a movie again in my life. I’ve enjoyed very few since Gladiator in the early 2000’s.
Disney hedged its bet. If B&tB tanks, Marvel and Star Wars will pull them out. And even if B&tB tanks here, it will d great foreign box office, which can be up to 2x the domestic draw.
CC
We had an idea about [Ricky Bobby], that he goes and drives over in Europe, you know, so it could be like an international, more of an international type movie, American driver going to Formula 1. We kicked it around a little bit.” http://www.cinemablend.com/new/What-Talladega-Nights-2-Would-Have-Been-About-According-Adam-McKay-97487.html
Real life is why Chris Evans looks at Peggy Carter and Scarlet Johannson and his other female co-stars like they were older sisters while filming with them.
The gay aspect to Dunkirk will be the Scotts Guards in kilts (skirts in H’wood), oh, and lots of fart jokes.
At this point attendance is fallow, it dropped a bit 10 years ago but it’s basically staying the same. Complexes have closed due to rising competition with ticket sales the same new franchises popping up are slicing the pie hard. Also the digital switch, not everybody was ready for that; digital projectors are insanely expensive, hundreds of thousands, and if you have a 16 screen theater that’s a wallop. That’s actually what drove Harkins in to kick a lot of butts, all digital and well financed, also well advertised pushing digital as better (it’s not, at least until bad projectionists screw up film) they ate a lot of market during the transition.
And of course the market always changes. Local dinner theaters started showing up with recliners and beer and good food, now AMC is introducing new theaters with recliners and beer and good food and rebranding the old style “classic”. It’s a smart move, for theaters the money has always been in the concessions anyway, and by serving good food they still make that cash, and get goodwill instead of the constant complaints about overpriced stale candy.
If marvel universe doesn’t do it for you, stick with the “Deadpool” franchise. Snarky, irreverent gratuitous gunplay at its finest.
CC
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