Posted on 12/13/2005 11:34:35 AM PST by Millee
Even a much-hyped giant gorilla, a geisha and a schoolboy magician won't be able to create a happy ending at the US box office, as Hollywood ends its most disappointing year in nearly two decades. Plunging movie ticket sales, after a string of uninspiring remakes and movie sequels coupled with an explosion of the DVD and video game markets, are keeping audiences at home and have sent Hollywood into a deep existential crisis. "This industry is facing significant challenges said Jack Kyser, chief economist of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp, a business support and research body.
Ticket sale revenues dropped five percent in the first 11 months of 2005 while the number of Americans going to the cinema fell by 6.2 percent compared with the same period in 2004, according to box office trackers Exhibitor Relations Co Inc.
The result is Tinseltown's most disappointing box office performance in 15 years as audiences, dazzled by their entertainment choices and disappointed by the mediocre films on offer, turned away from the cinema in droves.
Even the late November and December releases of blockbusters "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," "King Kong", "Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" and "Memoirs of a Geisha" are unlikely to turn around the downward trend.
"It's not just a slump in box office, but also in sales of DVDs," Kyser told AFP. "This is mainly because of unattractive movies that don't appeal to young male audiences, the cost of movie tickets, parking, the shrinking window a movie's theatrical and DVD releases.
In addition, Hollywood faces a major external threat: runaway production costs, the growing trend of movie producers to shoot in places such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand to cash in on much lower staff and production charges.
"Some studios are doing some moderate lay offs. LA's future is at stake," Kyser said, demonstrating the depth of despair in the nine-billion-dollar a year industry.
Industry movers are battling to isolate the true causes of the slump, crossing their fingers that the big-budget money-spinners up Hollywood's sleeve will help ease the pain.
"Is it the movies? Is it the ticket prices? Is it because home theater and DVD?," pondered Exhibitor Relations Co's chief Paul Dergarabedian."I think is it because all this happening at the same time, it is a combination of facts."
But he was optimistic for the future of the industry, saying that when Hollywood does dish up a good film, audiences still go rushing to see it.
"'Harry Potter' is showing that people still want to go to the movies but still they need a good reason to go," Dergarabedian told AFP.
The fourth film of JK Rowling's cult novels opened on November 18 and has so far raked in 244 million dollars, making it second most successful film of 2005, behind "Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith".
"When a good movie strikes, people go to the theatres," said Dergarabedian.
The last in the "Star Wars" series raked in a whopping 380 million dollars in North American box office, "War of the Worlds," starring Tom Cruise took 234 million, the comedy "Wedding Crashers" notched up 208 million in ticket receipts and Tim Burton's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" took 206 million.
But the successes were few and far between in 2005.
Ron Howard's 88-million-dollar biopic "Cinderella Man," starring Oscar winners Russell Crowe and Renee Zellweger, took only 61 million dollars, while Ridley Scott's crusade epic "Kingdom of Heaven," which cost 130 million dollars to make, reaped only 47 million at the all-important domestic the box office.
Other fizzlers that did not recoup their budgets included the much-touted sci-fi flop "The Island," which hauled in only 35 million dollars, while Jamie Foxx's military drama "Stealth" bombed with a US and Canadian haul of 31 million dollars. It quickly disappeared from screens.
"Movie goers are very picky and they want the price of the ticket to be worthwhile, the studios had to offer more," said Gitesh Pandya of movie industry tracker Box Office Guru.
"There should be more creativity and new ideas, not just sequels and remake. Let's hope Hollywood listens to the audiences," he added.
Dear Hollywood;
We will not pay to watch people whose anti-American views we despise. You keep insisting on shoving your depraved ideologies down our throats so just keep on sinking.
I think there IS a Retief story where he takes out a Bolo (not an AI one, though). And they figure as "agricultural" or "mining" equipment in several other Retief stories.
..Klaatu didn't sell tainted penicillin I assume ;-)
I wonder what the musical score is like for that movie.
--I want to be a Cowboy, and you can be my..., COWBOY? Good grief.
Agreed, but Hollywood produces sequels and remakes *because* they are fresh out of creativity and new ideas. Not to mention appealing storylines.
They'd rather bastardize old popular movies than think of anything new or appealing.
"...I NEVER saw myself represented, ..."
Maybe if you're a SL^T or GAY you'll be represented in a movie these days!
Very cheap budget and they made a whole lot of money.
thisa seems like the stupidest reason ... don't the companies decide when to release on DVD? they otter wait longer
I disagree...
Creativity and new ideas = HIGH RISK
A Hollywood fixated solely on the economics of return-on-investment/profit avoids risk like the plague...remakes entail significantly less risk because they are already proven profit generators
Hence, you can expect to see today's Hollywood make a 'blockbuster' based on every single marketable entity you had some degree of affection for as you were growing up (i.e. Brady Bunch, Spider Man, Batman, Scooby Doo, Herbie, Bad News Bears, Dukes of Hazzard, etc etc etc)
Exactly! Hollywood KNOWS what movies do well and which do not...and those espousing a political agenda, homosexual lifestyle, and the like MIGHT make the critics happy, but the audiences will stay away! BUT Hollywood just can't help themselves. THey think audiences SHOULD like movies like "Brokeback Mountain" and the rest, so they keep making them.
Also featured on soundtrack: "A Boy Named Sue". ;o)
Bitchism! Lol! I know you made it up - but I like it!
It is also key to point out that "Hollywood" as things are now is essentially a global monopoly
:How come movies like Casablanca, The Big Sleep, Roman Holiday, Sabrina . . ."
Also Hollywood doesn't portray real men anymore. They are all weenies and mealy mouthed jerks. I want to see a real man on the screen, like John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Clark Gable, Humphrey Bogart. Men like that were a dime a dozen back then but don't seem to be around anymore, in hollywood anyway.
Entertainment is one of the few highly profitable exports we have now. Yet some people insist on hating it.
Now your inflation adjusted list sounds more in line with my ideas of good movies than that all time box office list.
I guess as long as the liberals are in charge, you get liberal slanted movies.
I think I'll watch "True Grit" tonight. My favorite TG quote....,"If I had a big horse pistol like that, I wouldn't be afraid of no booger man"
I think this is more attributable the increase in big screen HDTV screens, higher quality DVDs, and the proliferations of available DVD movies. Lets face it, a movie looks better on a plasma or LCD flat screen, and you can watch in your underwear.
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