Hollywood in 19 Week Slump (Looks good on them!)

AP Breaking News ^ | July 4, 2005 | David Germain

[timsbella]

War of the Worlds" conquered the box office as easily as the movie's aliens overpowered Earth, but it did not have enough firepower to overcome Hollywood's prolongued box office slump.

Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise's sci-fi tale took in $77.6 million over the long Fourth of July weekend, lifting its total since debuting Wednesday to $113.3 million, according to studio estimates Monday.

That fell well short of the all-time high held by "Spider-Man 2," whose $180.1 million haul in its first six days led Hollywood to a record Fourth of July weekend last year.

The top 12 movies took in $160.1 million, off 25 percent from that 2004 record weekend.

It was the 19th straight weekend that domestic revenues were down compared with last year's, extending the longest slump since analysts began tracking detailed box-office figures. The worst downturn previously recorded was 17 weekends in 1985.

[Little Ray]

Read Enders Game when it was a short story, before he made it (several) novels. It was okay. Had a predictable "surprise" ending. Not worth a film. Whatcha gonna show? Some kids playin' games, then playin' wargames, then findin' out that wargames are for real, then Ender destroys the aliens' home-world by breaking the "rules" of the wargame?

Just doesn't sound very exciting or otherwise entertaining to me.

[Borges]

Actually I've never read it. Sp thanks for giving away the ending Mr Spoiler! :-<

[dsc]

"Actually, I didn't bring up Steinbeck, at least I don't believe I did."

My bad. I just got home after almost a 48-hour stint (I had a few hours in a hotel), it's after midnight, and ahm tard.

[Little Ray]

That was the short story ending - never read the novel. Might be entirely different.

[dsc]

Nobody's gonna bring up Somerset Maugham?

[steve-b]

The central message of Life After Television for the film industry is that the new technologies are targeted directly at Hollywood. Today some 70 percent of the costs of a film go to distribution and advertising. In every industry -- from retailing to insurance -- the key impact of the computer-networking revolution is to collapse the costs of distribution and remove the middlemen. In an information industry such as the movie business, distribution costs will predictably plummet.
Anyone with access to the information highway will be able to distribute a film at a tiny fraction of current costs. Moreover, webs of glass and light will free the producer from the burden of creating a product that can attract miscellaneous audiences to theaters. Instead producers will be able to reach equally large but more specialized audiences dispersed around the globe. Rather than making lowest-common-denominator appeals to the masses, film-makers will be able to appeal to the special interests, ambitions, and curiosities of individuals anywhere, anytime.
Just as digital desktop publishing equipment unleashed thousands of new text publishing companies, so the new digital desktop video publishing will unleash thousands of new filmmakers. The video business will increasingly resemble not the current film business, in which output is a hundred or so movies a year, but the book business, in which some 55,000 new hardcover titles are published annually in the U.S. alone. After all, scores of thousands of screenplays are already written every year. In the next decade, thousands of screenwriters will be able to make and distribute their own films.

Yep. It should be understood that Hollywood's obstructionism is motivated by a desire to preserve its existing middleman-heavy business model and its cultural gatekeeper power -- "piracy" is an excuse, and arguments based on it can be pretty much dismissed out of hand.

[durasell]

No problem. It's not that I dislike Steinbeck, he's just not one of my favorites.

[billnaz]

Too bad! (Copious crocodile tears)

When Hollyweird pulls its collective head out of the unauthorized location where it's currently stuck, I'll return to the cineplex.

When they give us more movies like "Master and Commander," which had the theme of duty, honor, and loyalty, they'll get my dime again. Until then I will stay home, pore over my extensive library of DVD's, and then pop a classic from back when they knew how to make movies into the player attached to my big-screen TV. Hey, Hollyweird! Are you listening?

[jpl]

I have a humble suggestion for the moguls of Hollywood to help them break out of their slump: make a movie about 9/11, the seminal historical event of our time. And I mean a patriotic blockbuster movie, not some piece of garbage like Michael Moore's.

It's been nearly four years now, so more than enough time has pased by, and the 9/11 families have been very well compensated for their losses, so there's no excuse at this point.

[dsc]

Spot on. What is that quote from?

[dsc]

"When they give us more movies like "Master and Commander,"

I bought that DVD. How did it do at the box office?

[timsbella]

Wow, I didn't realize this post was as emotionally charged as it was. I am never alone when in the company of Freepers!

I completely agree with Master & Commander, Gladiator, the LOTR movies. I have to say I liked "National Treasure" too. T'was fun.

All excellent. Did not go to the theatre to see any of them though. The price in the Toronto area went up to $14 a flick, and then someone gave their head a shake and brought them down to $9.95, but then they took away cheap matinees and the "two for Tuesday" deals.

Forget that noise, I'll watch when they come to the movie network.

[Borges]

14 dollars???

[timsbella]

You betcha! My kids to a fine job of making the floors sticky too ;)

[Borges]

MAC was an expensive Box Office disappointment.

[billnaz]

"I have a humble suggestion for the moguls of Hollywood to help them break out of their slump: make a movie about 9/11, the seminal historical event of our time. And I mean a patriotic blockbuster movie, not some piece of garbage like Michael Moore's."

That is one outstanding suggestion! But you know the finished product would be all touchy-feely PC so as not to offend liberals here at home and people in other parts of the world. Hollyweird has an agenda, and it's not favorable to the United States.

[Borges]

The two movies that have dealt albeit indirectly with 9/11 were Spike Lee's '25th Hour' and this new 'War of the Worlds' (the latter dealing with it in oblique and metaphorical fashion).

[durasell]

They should never, ever make a movie about 911. No kidding around, I feel very strongly about that.

[dsc]

"MAC was an expensive Box Office disappointment."

Too bad. I like it. I doubt that it's a timeless classic, but it's better than a lot of what they're making.

I wonder how "Intolerance" would be regarded if we weren't all infected to some degree with PC.

[DCPatriot]

This is all a fraud...this claim of a slump.

Last year "Passion of the Christ" was responsible for the huge success at the turnstile.

This fact is not widely explained.