Movies Have Worst Summer Since 1997
LOS ANGELES - American moviegoers sent a clear message to Hollywood over the summer: We are tired of more of the same.
But don't entirely blame the sequels and superheroes.
The film industry had its worst summer in North America, still the world's No. 1 movie market, since at least 1997, after adjusting for inflation. Between the first weekend in May through the end of August, ticket sales in the United States and Canada are expected to total roughly $3.9 billion, a 15 percent decline from the same stretch last year, according to Rentrak, a box office data company.
Analysts in the spring had predicted an 11 percent drop, citing viewing distractions like the World Cup and scuttled release plans for films like 'Fast and Furious 6' and Pixar's 'Good Dinosaur,' which both had production problems. But the decline was worse than expected, and the reason, analysts and studio executives said, may have been a nasty case of déjà vu.
Tom Cruise's futuristic 'Edge of Tomorrow,' for instance, looked like a hit - and that was exactly its problem. The title was too similar to 'The Day After Tomorrow,' released in summer 2004. The barren landscape too closely resembled Mr. Cruise's 2013 film 'Oblivion.' Characters walking around in robot exoskeletons? Been there ('Pacific Rim'), done that ('Real Steel').
Despite stellar reviews, 'Edge of Tomorrow' took in $99.9 million at North American theaters, a major disappointment for Warner Bros., which spent at least $250 million on production and domestic marketing.
'Hercules,' which arrived seven months after 'The Legend of Hercules,' turned out to be a box office weakling. 'Sex Tape' was heavily marketed on Cameron Diaz's legs, but moviegoers shrugged: Sorry, we've seen them. 'Both 'Sex Tape' and 'A Million Ways to Die in the West' failed to stand out among the other R-rated comedies,' said Phil Contrino, the chief analyst at BoxOffice.com.
Sameness sells tickets, no doubt about it. The Top 10 movies of the summer all came from familiar brands (Marvel, DreamWorks Animation), featured familiar characters ('Godzilla') or turned on familiar stories (the raunchy college comedy). Still, only a few of those films truly popped, Mr. Contrino noted, adding that the ones that did 'each gave fans something that was unique, fresh and surprising.'
Marvel's 'Guardians of the Galaxy' was the No. 1 movie, selling more than $258 million in tickets and still going strong. 'Guardians' was widely praised as offering something moviegoers had not seen before - namely, comedic D-List superheroes, including a talking raccoon and a walking plant, against a 1970s-era soundtrack.
Disney's 'Maleficent' also became a runaway hit, taking in $237.6 million in North America to become third-biggest movie of the summer. Not bad for a film that one Wells Fargo analyst earmarked in the spring as a too-weird-to-succeed bomb.
Although the characters were familiar to anyone who knows the 'Sleeping Beauty' tale, which is just about everyone, 'Maleficent' offered a revisionist story line with an unexpected twist. Angelina Jolie's titular villain, an evil fairy with a fondness for bondage gear, transformed into a hero by the movie's final reel.
'Maleficent' may have had skeptics, but nobody saw 'Lucy' coming. A modestly budgeted science-fiction movie starring Scarlett Johansson, 'Lucy' delivered a hefty $115.1 million in ticket sales. Fresh marketing may have made the difference: Universal Pictures backed 'Lucy' with an unusual black-and-white ad campaign that stood out against a sea of uninspired billboards.
Movie companies are quick to point out that overseas audiences turned many films into hits, arguing that they work in a global marketplace, and that judging a movie's success or failure based on North America is unfair.
What they do not often mention is that overseas ticket sales are often less profitable. In China, for instance, as little as 25 cents of every box office dollar comes back to Hollywood; in the United States, it's 50 percent.
Studios released 12 sequels this summer, from the mega-budgeted 'Amazing Spider-Man 2' to the low-priced 'Step Up All In.' If sequels are doing their job, ticket sales go up: Existing fans come back, new crowds come in. At the very least, sequels are expected to tread box office water.
But only three managed to deliver significantly improved results, compared with their series predecessor: '22 Jump Street,' 'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes' and 'X-Men: Days of Future Past.' One, 'The Purge: Anarchy,' was approximately flat.
That left eight sequels to nose-dive in North America. Ticket sales for Paramount's 'Transformers: Age of Extinction' totaled $243.9 million, a 35 percent decline from results for 'Transformers: Dark of the Moon' three years ago. ('Age of Extinction' was nonetheless the summer's second-biggest film.) 'Planes: Fire & Rescue' dropped 38 percent, and 'Think Like a Man Too' came in 31 percent lower. Sony's 'Amazing Spider-Man 2' was down 25 percent.
What separated the few winners from the many losers? For the most part, the winners convinced ticket buyers that they were not just more of the same.
Mark Weinstock, the president for domestic marketing at 20th Century Fox, made 'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes' distinctive by using a bold advertising image of a machine-gun-wielding chimp on horseback. The movie, a sequel to the 2011 film 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes,' also received rave reviews and meaningfully advanced the franchise plot.
Fox also shepherded a seventh 'X-Men' installment, 'Days of Future Past,' to blockbuster results; the studio offered something new by bringing back older cast members like Halle Berry and Patrick Stewart.
Mr. Contrino of BoxOffice.com, while no defender of retreads, said that a well-done sequel can still feel fresh. 'More than anything, fans want something that feels unique and surprises them,' he said.
Post a Comment for "Movies Have Worst Summer Since 1997"