November 3, 2017
The summer months are known for pleasant weather and altogether good vibes, but for Hollywood it was anything but pleasant, as a storm brewed on the horizon for the venerated industry. While it still made around $3 billion, the summer box office hit its lowest totals in 16 years.
This has a lot to do with the box office failures of several high-profile films. “The Mummy,” directed by Alex Kurtzman and starring Tom Cruise, collapsed domestically and only wasn’t a complete disaster due to strong international showings. “Transformers: The Last Knight,” the fifth in a series that has dominated in terms of box office numbers, only earned $40 million in its opening weekend as opposed to the previous film’s $100 million opening.
Many film studios have begun to specifically blame review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes for the decrease in box office receipts. Rotten Tomatoes compiles reviews from newspapers and websites to score films. A score of 0-59 is given a “rotten” rating, while anything higher recieves a “fresh” rating. Studios have complained that people see this rating and are turned off from a film if the score is low. However, this brings up a counterpoint. Why don’t the studios simply make better movies? Many of the films this summer were sequels that failed to improve upon previous entries or films that tried to jumpstart universes that share characters.
The expanded universe concept has been a particularly unsuccessful endeavor for most studios. Of course, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been very successful, but many of the copycat universes have begun to collapse. The DCEU, based on DC Comics’ superhero comics, have been commercially successful, but have struggled in terms of critical reception.
The aforementioned “Mummy” movie was supposed to kickstart a series of films about classic movie monsters like The Wolfman, called the “Dark Universe.” However, after its disappointment at the box office these plans are in flux. While a success in foreign markets, the film bombed critically and commercially in the US.
These studios use Rotten Tomatoes as a scapegoat for the poor performances, but there are some other factors that these low box-office figures can be attributed to. For example, streaming services such as Netflix continue to gain dominance over theater attendance. Many enjoy watching films from the comfort of their homes, rather than a movie theater.
Furthermore, poor release date schedulings were another major issue this summer. Several films were scheduled in July, such as “War for the Planet of the Apes” and “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” leaving August wide-open in terms of major releases. If these films had been rescheduled in August, many of them might have experienced more success as there would have been less competition.
Teenagers continue to be a major demographic for film studios as they make up a considerable amount of a summer blockbuster earnings. West Essex students gave their own opinion on why they personally did or did not see many movies over the summer.
“It’s costly,” junior Sam Chuzhin said. “Especially at AMC, they upgraded the theaters, but the tickets are way pricier.”
Others echoed the sentiment that rising ticket prices are turning them off from going to the theaters.
“The cost of concessions and tickets has gone up so it’s really expensive,” sophomore Amanda Barra said.
Hollywood needs to begin to change their thinking if they wish to preserve their dominance. TV shows have already begun to grow in popularity as the creative freedom and long-form storytelling they offer entices many potential filmmakers. With all of these changes in technology and the popularity of their films, Hollywood has a choice in front of them.
The industry must make a change in their business model or the industry will continue to fall for years to come.
