..classics
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.
The main problem I see is the salaries they are paying the top actors.
.....Every Year they record, record profits.....
I don't think so. They pay their actors and others some of their compensation on the net. If there is no net they keep it all themselves. The trick is to spend all the revenue doen to the wire so there are no profits.
What? You're not gonna go see " ButtCrack Mountain ? "
If Hollywood only had a good gay cowboy movie to bail them out.....
I love many of the B movies. Watch them on Turner whenever I can. I agree that Hollywood doesn't turn out enough good movies. We have a home theater and love to watch movies there, but we still like to go see good movies when they're released. We plan to see Narnia and King Kong at the theater. If there were other good movies, we'd go see them too. But then, we're not from the young male audience, so I guess what we like doesn't count.
The B movies are going straight to cable. So all they got is blockbusters and so called "important films".
Coincidence?
If not,is there a lesson to be learned here by the movers and shakers,and the major actors,in Hollywood?
To simple for them.
-PJ
Perhaps these $20-$30 million per flick movie stars ain't worth what they pay them.
No no no! Sequels! That'll get'em! Cheaper by the Dozen II!
Actually, I am looking forward to the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie next July. :p
I'm with you 100%!
No, he made exactly ONE great film (He was incredible in "Ray"), and now he thinks he's God's gift to the world, and has gone off the deep end with ol' Tookie-bird.
Personally, I'm sick of movies where the male lead is a girly-man led around by the nose by his super-strong, but still sensitive woman. If that's what Hollyweird thinks of the American male, I will continue to vote with my feet and do other things than visit the movie houses...
"The Passion of The Christ" set the bar to a level Hollywood cannot see, much less attain. Notice this movie isn't mentioned in this article?
..classics
People have paid their money to be entertained, not subject to sales pitches.
Hmmm, I thought it was called 'Buttcrack Mountin'...
I just IMDB'd (?) Jamie Foxx, and he played Tookie Williams in a movie about Tookie Williams. The comments on the page are interesting in light of recent events.
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