What caused 'the summer of flops?'

[RebeldeFaith 5,520]

Streaming. People are getting used to wait for movies to arrive on streaming platforms and watching comfortably at home instead of going to movie theaters.

[Ultimecia 6,050]

What the success of the Barbie and the Five Nights at Freddy's movies show is the power of internet culture.

It might be time to pay attention and get with the times, Hollywood.

[Batwings 12,885]

I know I'm repeating what others have said, but 1. people are getting tired of sequels and remakes, and 2. people don't want to pay a lot of money to go see a movie in a theater when they can stream it in the comfort of their home for around the same price (if not cheaper). Barbie is the only movie I've seen in a theater since House of Gucci, and that's just because I was hyped for it. 

Hollywood needs to get a grip on understanding modern audiences, and movie theaters need to start offering more unique perks if they want to put asses in seats. The theater where I saw Barbie had recliner-style seating, and it was absolutely lovely, and I don't mind paying a little extra for that. 

[RAMROD 109,702]

I believe it will goes on for awhile. It is still the results from the pause during pandemic. It caused the rise of streaming services. Especially since many of these movies will eventually available in streaming for no extra fees that people already subscribed for. Many people have a change of habit during this time, and only go to movie theatres when it is really an event, such as the Barbenheimer. Other than that, people will wait for it for however long to be available on Netflix, Max, Disney+, Apple TV+, or Paramount+

Also, those who chose to go to the movies still, at least in Western countries, also have change their attitude towards the whole experience, like if they have to spend money, they'd rather to aftually spend big money, they choose to see the movies in best and biggest screen possible, which are IMAX or Dolby screens, than watching on any smaller cinemas which often times not worth the money. 

Other that that, lots of movies had to be rescheduled and causing a lot of movies clashing week after week or even in the same week. It is a nightmare for movie studios. It will be awhile until these thing is really sorted out.

[StrawberryBlond 14,881]

On 11/5/2023 at 6:35 PM, Morphine Prince said:

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this already but although I do think some of the reasons stated above have some truth to them, I think one of the biggest factors is COVID. Production budgets were increased during the pandemic and made the cost of making these movies skyrocket.

Even if a movie makes a decent amount of money, it can't break even or create a profit due to the high production budget and marketing costs.

These companies are just cutting some losses with these flops at this point. 

Why did production budgets increase? For extra protection measures? I also noticed that some movies got a Covid insurance payout. Disney got $56.8 million for Little Mermaid from the UK government (don't know why them) and Paramount got £57 million in payouts from their Swiss insurer. I don't know how much that makes up for their flopping movies, though.

17 hours ago, Batwings said:

Hollywood needs to get a grip on understanding modern audiences, and movie theaters need to start offering more unique perks if they want to put asses in seats. The theater where I saw Barbie had recliner-style seating, and it was absolutely lovely, and I don't mind paying a little extra for that. 

There's a cinema in my city where every screen has recliner seats, you don't even pay extra, they all come fitted that way. Means there's less seats to afford for the extra leg room but that cinema's never packed anyway, so it works. It means that if anyone needs past, you don't even have to pull your legs in. And there's another one where not only are there recliners but every seat has a mini table on the left side that you can pull out to put your snacks and drink on right in front of you, so you don't need to balance anything on your knees and it's like a school desk but with a much more comfortable seat. I believe that cinema charges more for tickets, though, to make up for it. But it would certainly make a difference if every cinema did that. I don't know if this is only available at American cinemas but is there merch available for the biggest movies? I just know that I was seeing Americans with Barbie popcorn buckets, rhinestone cups and blankets from Cinepark. That's wild to me but I can see that being more profitable avenue.

[Morphine Prince 106,188]

2 hours ago, StrawberryBlond said:

Why did production budgets increase? For extra protection measures? I also noticed that some movies got a Covid insurance payout. Disney got $56.8 million for Little Mermaid from the UK government (don't know why them) and Paramount got £57 million in payouts from their Swiss insurer. I don't know how much that makes up for their flopping movies, though.

Yes. Not sure how much was spent but I religiously check Box Office Mojo and The Numbers because I like looking at how much money fills make and I like seeing budgets and stuff (weird? lol). 

But I'd imagine PPE, distancing on set, limits to how much staff could be in one place at one time = shooting longer shoots. Labor costs go up including, permits, lighting, crew, everything. Combine that with the supply chain crisis increasing the cost of goods significantly and you're looking at a budget that's broadly inflated.

[Ayesha Erotica 1,724]

There's a market monopoly by a few US-American media companies that rule the market with old, 1000x recycled ideas that rely either on action boom action boom boom or childish woof woof and I don't like them either. I can imagine though since a movie lasts 2-3 hours and it is non-stop, that kids these days don't have the attention span to follow an entire movie, they are used to TikToks and they cannot watch TikTok during these 2-3 hours  and so they dont go and pick TikTok.

[StrawberryBlond 14,881]

2 hours ago, LoliLux said:

I can imagine though since a movie lasts 2-3 hours and it is non-stop, that kids these days don't have the attention span to follow an entire movie, they are used to TikToks and they cannot watch TikTok during these 2-3 hours  and so they dont go and pick TikTok.

Kids attention span have been terrible for years. They're laser focused on things like tablets but whenever you see a child watching anything on a tv screen, they're standing up and moving about before too long. I've even seen that at the theatre. I overhead a mother with her daughter who looked to be about 4 who she took to see Elemental earlier that day and she said how she was restless and asked if they could go now but there was still more of the movie to see first. I don't know why any parent would want to take a child that young to a movie for that very reason and at that age, will they even remember what they just saw? My earliest memories start from 4 but even then, it's very limited and mostly school related, I can't remember any cinema experience until the age of about 8, truth be told. My aunt and uncle took their daughters to Disney World when they were 4 and 5, thinking this was the best time to take them as that's the age when the magic's real. All that money on plane tickets to Florida, hotel stay, souvenirs, the full shebang, and all these years later, as full-grown adults, neither of them can remember a thing. Even photos weren't enough to jog their memory. They actually ponder if their parents just made the whole thing up to make for a good story. I perhaps think this is a reason why kids movies aren't as profitable as they once were. Perhaps parents are wising up to how children have low attention spans and early memories like a sieve and it really isn't worth the excessive cost to give them an experience they're unlikely to even recall.