The 1 Reason Media Won’t Cite for Bad Box Office
Hollywood is having a lousy summer, and there’s no relief in sight.
Domestic box office revenue for the season is trailing last year by 11 percent and none of the major releases still coming are expected to change that trajectory. In fact, things are likely to get worse for U.S. studios before the leaves change. Without a film debuting widely over the Labor Day weekend, BoxOffice Media predicts the film industry will end the summer of 2017 with sales down by up to 15 percent.
The ugly numbers inspired the usual array of think pieces pointing to several suspects.
- Social Media
- RottenTomatoes.com
- Poor product
There’s a problem with those theories, particularly the first two. Both social media and Rotten Tomatoes have been readily available for years. That’s not to say they don’t impact interest in a particular film.
They do.
But they did last year, too. And the year before. So why do they suddenly hold such sway over our film choices?
And while this summer showcased a one-two punch of rancid movies (“The Mummy” and “Transformers: The Last Knight”) the season produced a number of solid blockbusters (“Wonder Woman.” “The Fate of the Furious”) and original treats (“Baby Driver,” “The Big Sick”).
RELATED: 5 Critical Lessons from ‘Snatched’ Box Office Fizzle
Esquire.com coined “dazzle fatigue” as part of the problem. Too many noisy blockbusters squeezed into one modest space. As theories go, we’ve heard much worse.
So what’s missing? The one theory makes more sense than most, even if it can’t be measured in any traditional sense. And, of course, it involves the man who’s been sucking the oxygen out of the news cycle for the past seven months.
Only you can’t blame President Donald Trump for this. He’s actually the victim here. Or, to be more precise, those who pulled the lever for him last November.
‘He’s Hitler!’ Lather, Rinse Repeat
Hollywood’s insane reaction to Trump’s ascent may be coaxing customers to skip the multiplex this summer.
Here’s the rub:
Many Americans who lean right, support Trump or check both boxes are aghast at what Hollywood has been up to for the past year. They’ve read the tweets, seen the interviews, watched the smug videos telling them how to vote and heard stars directly attack their candidate.
He’s Hitler. And you’re a Nazi for supporting him. Amy Schumer called Trump voters KKK members (guess which comedy star saw her 2017 film tank at the box office?) Michael Shannon told a reporter Trump votters were ready “for the urn.”
More recently, “Scandal” star Joshua Malina called Trump voters homophobic, anti-semitic, misogynistic and transphobic.
This only intensified following the cowardly attack on protesters over the weekend in Charlottesville. Suddenly, stars like Mark Ruffalo are calling out Trump and his supporters (again) in the ugliest ways possible.
But please see our movies! See the disconnect?
Anecdotal, but Telling
This reporter is very active on social media. For the past year I’ve seen and heard conservatives rail against Hollywood like never before. They’ve had it. The celebrity rhetoric is too much – too mean, too alienating and sometimes too ill-informed.
And social media amplifies every last message coming from Tinsel Town. You can’t miss it. Select Red State dwellers wouldn’t mind sending a message by refusing to directly support Hollywood product.
It couldn’t be easier, too.
Want to see a movie in 2017? Parents have to arrange for a sitter for a night at the movies. Teens have to pool their cash to pay for the increasingly high prices of the average ticket. Families eager for an afternoon of air-conditioned fun get sticker shock at the concession stand.
That doesn’t mention those unruly patrons talk through movies, yapping to each other or on their cell phones.
Life Is But a Stream
So why aren’t we seeing a stark plunge with TV show consumption? HBO’s “Game of Thrones” keeps drawing viewers in, and everyone is taking about the latest Netflix originals.
It’s simple. Watching TV or streaming devices takes virtually no effort. A few calculated clicks and you’re suddenly asked to choose between hundreds of shows for a fraction of the price you’d pay at the theater.
Who could resist?
Now, compare that to going to the movies. Many right-leaning Americans are saying, “thanks, but no thanks.” The fact that it might send a message to an industry hostile to their world view is icing on the outrage cake.
Some may not actively wish to boycott Hollywood. But it’s a breeze to say, “what about seeing a movie?” and decide on a half dozen home-based options instead.
Battling an Ugly Stereotype
Now, there are many stars who don’t say a peep about politics. A much smaller group are magnanimous toward President Trump (see Jeff Bridges and Tom Hanks for solid examples).
The industry’s image, as a whole, is another story. Conservatives think “Hollywood” and they imagine an elitist group smiting their world views, their candidates … their values. So even if a film features a gaggle of stars who are respectful of others’ views it’s too late. The stereotype has taken hold.
You can point to a number of reasons for the sluggish summer ticket sales. Just don’t ignore the political factor. It’s real, and it may be growing.
Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Foter.com / CC BY-SA
Alienating and insulting your customers is never a good idea.
Some friends brought “My Name is Khan” and “The Butler”. The first is Bollywood, afaik, and had some anti-US nonsense. Couple of discontinuities. Point is, our friends owned the things and nobody made a dime when we watched them.
Shahrukh Khan is a megastar in India and hates it when US Border entry officers flag him for further inspection due to his last name. So there’s a story behind why he’d make a movie like that. A recent fun Bollywood two-parter is Baahubali. There’s also the Dhoom movies.
I see the story says tom hanks has been polite to the President, BS hanks is a known hillary and bill kneed pad wearer and donated to their legal defense fund when they left office he is a world class piece of manure
nothing worthwhile comes from any branch of show biz.
Hear, hear! Hanks is garbage, a fascist poseur.
Two words: Matt LeBlanc.
who , what, why
You haven’t seen “Episodes” on Showtime? He kills it. A worthwhile branch, however small. Also, Marco Polo and Narcos on Netflix are well-done story telling.
Movies earn most of their money outside of the United States now. That is why they don’t bother with a story requiring any subtlety that people with limited English proficiency will probably not understand and the dislike for America is as common overseas as it is in Hollywood.
“Anecdotal, but Telling”
Yes, that is the problem. This is correlation, but without a comprehensive survey, that is all. Other factors that are mentioned are, in my opinion, more important: the “craptacular” nature of most movies make it so that your average family has to choose more wisely and carefully, which means they go to fewer movies in the first place. Add to that the fact that you average movie costs upwards of $11 and it makes it almost cost-prohibitive for an average family to go to the movies more than once in awhile.
Additionally, despite the fact that Joss Whedon has said some absolutely batcrap crazy things about Trump and conservatives, if he gets involved in another Avengers film, people will turn out in droves, liberal AND conservative, to see it. Watch how Thor: Ragnarok does. Even if it isn’t as good as the others, it will do well at the box office. Liberals alone cannot propel a film to box-office success. All of my church-going friends went out and saw Spiderman: Homecoming and loved it. They had no idea who directed it or what their political views were. To most of them, it simply did not matter. They knew going in that the film was well-done and told a good story. Despite the presence of the incredibly-left leaning Robert Downey, Jr., everyone agreed that the presence of Iron Man was a plus.
I am not saying there isn’t *some* truth to the premise, just that the R-square might not be as big as we hope it would be.
Most comic book movies aren’t overtly political. And Hollywood will go out of their way to make sure non of their movies is political for the overseas market, especially China.
Once in a while Hollywood crosses certain line, like that all female reboot of the Ghostbuster series, which flopped here and did slow business in the foreign market. Truth be told, I think even foreign audience is growing a bit tired of messaging in films. At Naver (a Korean news portal) reader reviews often ding Disney for planting social messaging in their animations.
the thing is, I know how rancid hollywood is. It’s the Stars Wars bar on steroids. A hive of scum and villany. Who the hell are they to demean me? GFY you child molestors and misogynistic swine.
The only movies I have watched in the last … 15+? years were Dinesh D’souza movie/s and Atlas Shrugged. I tired of the “indoctrination” a couple of decades ago. Wait … I did see Star Trek 2009 and wished I hadn’t.
been 31 years since i set foot in a theater and no plans to ever do it again.
hollywood is filled with child abusers, mohammedan apologists, and racists
anybody who buys the product is supporting this and is no better
Some people complain about superhero movies – but they’re the ones that are still doing reasonably well. Why? Because they still have a remnant of good, old-fashioned individualism and heroism in them, because a huge chunk of their market is China, which doesn’t appreciate “social justice” and “feminist” memes.
But even there, the movie makers can’t help themselves, and the superhero movies are being gummed up under the weight of PC cult nonsense, just as the comics have been (and the comics are dying for the same reason).
The amusing thing, I think, is that it’s not just Right-wingers who are sick of the same old same old, I suspect “liberals” themselves don’t go to see the movies their ideological kin make.
Yep, I now use the left’s tactics against them: the personal is the political. Why patronize people who hate me?
Yep. I don’t give my money to people who despise me.
Same thing is happening to American football.
Hopefully it won’t be long before I have a good alternative to Netflix as well and I can dump their “dear white people” crap too.
Hollywood left me years ago. So much churning of special effects & a lack of a good story. Bastardizing Tom Clancy’s The Sum of All Fears sent the message. I also cancelled cable. Why subsidize the contempt that media has for you?
“Just don’t ignore the political factor. It’s real, and it may be growing.”
If Hollywood is for something, the odds are overwhelming they are wrong and the best response is to do the opposite. Really, these idiots generally have enough money to insulate themselves for the repercussions of a bad decision. That is why we don’t take their advice and if they get too annoying, we won’t bother to fund their careers.
As I noted on another site:
There are movies whose clear intent is simply to entertain. This includes drama, adventure, comedy and romance. Those tend to do well. Movies whose first priority is to send a message or to clean out our pockets? Not so much.
Ironically, what’s the genre keeping Hollywood afloat? Superhero films.
What genre most consistently promotes and/or at least RESPECTS Conservative values? Superhero films.
COINCIDENCE…?