A Very Different Summer Box Office

Thus far, this summer's box office has seen a number of big-budget flops. 'The BFG', 'Alice Through The Looking Glass', 'Warcraft', 'The Legend of Tarzan' each with production budgets above $130 million, not to mention marketing and distribution costs, spells not so good news for the studios.

The cinema box office is showing strains, and as CMG has pointed out before, the superhero and fantasy sequel films may have run their course.  Now, not to be too negative, this summer has seen big hits as well.  'Finding Dory' and 'Captain America' helped rise box office receipts by 2% over 2015, but admissions are down which does not bode well - and it's the younger audience (18-39) that is staying away.

It is too much of the same. Audiences can only digest so many super hero films.  Moviegoers need something new and fresh on the big screen.  Coupled with endless competition from TV and on-line content (which is getting better and better) there is little incentive to visit the local cinema.  From Netflix to Pokemon Go the variety of entertainment options is huge.

Much of the box office pain is self-inflicted, by both the studios (repeating the same movie themes over and over) and the exhibitors (in their lack of imagination and originality in selling their cinemas).  Thank goodness for 'The Secret Life of Pets' which essentially rescued July's box office.

Sequels - there are too, too many and people are sick of seeing the same old, regurgitated films. Most sequels are 'deja vu' all over again.  Reboots flock to the big screen in mass: 'Ben Hur', 'Blade Runner', 'Spider Man', 'XXX', 'Beverley Hills Cop', and 'Indiana Jones' just to name a few that are coming up - and which may fall flat as well. Movies need good storylines, a la 'Fast and Furious' which is based around characters who audiences associate  and relate to.

The box office is getting more skewed each year. Last year, the top five movies generated 25% of all admissions.  This is seen at the studio level as well. Disney ponied up $15 billion to purchase Pixar, LucasFilms, and Marvel but their investment is paying off.  This year, Disney has four of the five highest grossing films and thus far over $5 billion in box office receipts - a 31% market share.

All of which begs the question: does Hollywood need consolidation?  Fewer studios, fewer but better movies. Eliminate the waste, the marquee fodder and box office fillers. Stop making movies that were made 10 years ago.

The movie making business and cinemas are up against changing tastes, unyielding competition, and an aging business model. A wider and deeper range of fewer movies is called for and, for their part, cinemas need to keep up with presentation technology.