Box Office: Existential Crisis Ahead As Hollywood Rethinks What Makes a Hit https://t.co/aMp8nTXKxJ
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) January 5, 2024
The article is long, so here’s some highlighted quotes:
– One out of every five moviegoers has vanished since the pandemic, according to research compiled by one Hollywood studio.
– “Audiences’ tastes are changing, and it feels like they want more challenging fare,” says chief Comscore box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian.
– “Everything is so lopsided,” says Wall Street analyst Rich Greenfield of LightShed Ventures. “The number of big-budget movies in 2023 that didn’t make money felt like an all-time high. Consumer interest in moviegoing has been permanently altered. The question is, can theaters survive another horrific year?”
– Notes a top studio executive: “We are definitely going through an evolution, and we can’t just keep cranking out the same old franchise fare. We have to do better. The ways we did things for decades don’t work anymore; now you have to hit the bull’s-eye or get close to it. And a lot of that has to do with the abundance of streaming product. When there’s a multitude of options for audiences to watch at home, there had better be a special reason to go to the theater.”
– “The one that brought back a lot of confidence for me was Asteroid City because it showed you can still do a movie like this theatrically,” says Focus chief of distribution Lisa Bunnell. “We are seeing a stronger marketplace now for specialty film, and I think you’re starting to get younger folks coming to the movies to see specialty film. It’s not just the established art crowd showing up now.”
They really need to re-adjust their expectations and lower budgets imo. The audience just isn’t there anymore. I dont think a New Hollywood 2.0 is going to happen either.
