Posted on 01/15/2011 5:43:50 AM PST by Dr. Scarpetta
2010 closed as the second highest-grossing year of all time, but it still couldn't shake an air of disappointment. Not only did 2010 end with a whimper, estimated ATTENDANCE was the LOWEST in 15 years.
The box office tally for 2010 was $10.57 billion, or around $30 million shy of 2009. That translated to an estimated attendance of 1.27 billion, which was off eight percent from 2010.
1995 was the last year to have sub-1.3 billion attendance. Since the modern attendance peak in 2002 (1.58 billion), attendance has been trending downward, but 2010 marked the second severe drop-off, following 2005.
Hollywood often failed to offer an appealing slate of movies, and there were fewer movies made available than before. In 2010, 141 movies reached nationwide release (600 locations or more), down from 158 in 2009 and the smallest number since 2001.
The top-grossing movie of 2010 was a holdover from 2009: Avatar, which made $476.9 million of its $760.5 million lifetime total in 2010.
Toy Story 3 was the second-biggest movie in 2010, drawing $415 million. Alice in Wonderland ($334.2 million), Iron Man 2 ($312.4 million) and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse ($300.5 million) rounded out the Top Five.
Animation business was up 16 percent over 2009 to $1.49 billion, while movies presented in the 3D illusion surged to $3.27 billion (an estimated $2.1 billion of which from 3D alone).
All of the major animated titles of 2010 were shown in 3D, and the industry shoved 3D down people's throats in the wake of Avatar's success, adding enough screens to the point in December when several movies had simultaneous nationwide 3D runs.
All those 3D movies contributed to the gross, but they boiled down to more money from fewer people.
(Excerpt) Read more at boxofficemojo.com ...
“The King’s Speech” — Now THERE is a movie I do want to see! (altho I’ll wait for it to get to ‘on demand’.
Colin Firth is such a good, yet under-rated actor. The first time I saw him, in a Zelweiger movie, I wondered who he was. And every movie I’ve seen him in, he just stands out, in his quiet way. I hope this movie gives him what he deserves.
My problem is that I don’t like the female lead — Carter. I can’t put my finger on it, but she bothers me. There are movies I won’t see because of the actor — Sean Penn and others come to mind. But I think I will simply tune her out just to watch Firth in this one. I just looked at the trailer and now want to see it more than ever.
I know I’m showing my age, but if you want to spent an enjoyable evening rent a Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers movie.
What we need is another Cannon Group.
Run by the great team of Golan and Globus, Cannon Group turned out a huge number of low budget movies in the 1980s. If just one out of every ten of their movies was a hit, it would pay for the production of all ten, and still turn a big profit.
The big studios today are owned by non-entertainment parent corporations who just want a few, huge budget movies with big name actors. Movies that cost $200m to make, and earn $210m at the box office still have just a $10m margin of profit.
Compare that to producing 10 movies for $1m each. One of them is a hit that brings in $30m. That original $10m makes $20m in profit. So those silly ‘B’ movies make more money than big budget blockbusters.
And the movie going public at least gets to see *one* good movie, even if it is low budget.
That’s quite a review!
I loved “The Green Hornet” TV series as a kid.
Yes, great movie. Very enjoyable.
The King (Colin Firth) is watching a newsreel clip of Hitler ranting about something, turns to an aide and says, “I don’t know [what he’s saying] but he seems to be saying it rather well.”
He was Frank Burns in the movie M.A.S.H.
I might’ve seen a movie or two during Christmas week — if I could’ve gotten my car off the street.
I have a friend that is obsessed with CGI animated films.
He thinks they will replace actors with CGI.
I think he is nuts, and I agree with you.
I want to see actors.
My bet is that if they cut the ticket price in half, attendance would more than double.
That’s the kind of post I was looking for. Going to the theatre is a big part of the experience.
It’s not the movies so much as it is where they’re shown that is the problem.
can’t be because of me, I haven’t been to a movie since the mid 50s.
***You have to be cautious about taking kids to PG-13 movies these days. PG-13 movies have sex, language, and violence that you would never expect. ****
Back in 1969, when the ratings systems first began, I went to see several R rated movies.
Twenty years later these same movies were shown on TV, uncut with a PG-13 rating.
My personal favorite “talker” was the $#(%&* behind me telling his buddy the ENTIRE plot of the movie 10 seconds before it happened: “Now watch, when she opens the door there’s a ....”
I had someone do this in the seat behind me when I first saw PSYCHO at the theater in the 1960s.
***Bring back plots that make sense, and actors that can act, rather than one-liners.***
We had some cold weather and ice not long ago, so I got out my DVDs and watched the 1960s versions of BECKET and THE LION IN WINTER.
Great drama for a cold night!
I saw more movies in flight from NYC to Korea last month than I did in the theaters throughout 2009 and 2010 combined....and I am in the business.
***The last movie I rented (a year ago) was “Appaloosa”. I like Westerns and really wanted to see it. It didn’t disappoint me. ****
We HAD a big DVD rental store near here not long ago. I went in several times but of all their thousands of modern movies I could find NOTHING worth renting.
Put me BACK on your ping list.
We didn’t even make our annual trip to a movie theatre last year.
Besides skyrocketing ticket costs, nothing new - just remakes of what had been successful and sometimes hadn’t, poor acting and of course liberals, who hate America in key roles were reasons not to make our annual single movie trip. Last but not least use of the F bomb throughout a movie is an instant turn off.
We dropped Netflix and Dish midyear and went to Comcast. We have watched one pay movie on Comcast in 8 months, the new Robin Hood. A Brit friend, who is a writer and amateur Brit Historian, told us to watch it for what might have been history at that time plus Russell Crowe doing an excellent job.
With Comcast we don’t have any premium movie channel and may watch 1 or 2 free movies per month on Comcast’s On Demand. Most of those movies are 1-2 decades old. My wife has a F bomb rule. Use of it 3 times in the first 5-10 minutes means the free movie gets cancelled. My rule is any reference that America is a terrible country, I’m out of the family room. My wife has noticed how the F bomb is often part the Anti America movies’s limited dialog.
We have a sequel about music's impact on and penetration of Islamic countries in production, "Other Walls 2 Fall." But down the road I have a very good three-person dark drama; a terrific story about a Kennedy-like Mars project; and our ultimate goal (of course, keeping PHUSA in mind) is a story about the defense of Malta vs. the Muslims in 1565. Everyone tells us, "Hollywood will never make that movie." Exactly. That's why I have to.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.