Just saw, in the NY Times, that ticket sales are down 9% and attendance is down 11% for summer movies. One quote jumps out, which pretty much says "yeah, in summer’s past we could get away with crappy movies:" Besides Wedding Crashers and the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, I didn’t see any other movies this summer, iirc.
you could still count on enough people to come whether you failed at
entertaining them or not, out of habit, or boredom, or a desire to get
out of the house. You had a little bit of backstop.
Now, Hollywood has to compete for our entertainment dollars, although they’ll more vocally use this as an excuse to rant against piracy and file sharing. Just so they know, here’s what they were up against for my attention, and dollars, this summer.
- Netflix – for $15 a month i can see at least 4 movies in the comfort of home.
- World of Warcraft – for another $15 a month I get at least 15 hours of fun questing and levelling.
- Battlestar Galactica – yup, I’d rather watch the series on a Friday night or Saturday afternoon than schlep out to the theater.
- DC United games ok a minor competitor in the scheme of things but I’d rather spend $50 to go to the stadium than $30 to go see a movie.
And that’s the stuff the fills any disposable time outside of chores and other commitments.
Updated: Oh year, I saw Star Wars too but have apparently blocked that out of my memory.