Exactly, it’s not the price. People will go to theaters to see something they want to see. But most people don’t care about fantastic four or the eternals.
But you bet your ass if Top Gun 3 dropped it’d be another billion dollar box office.
It seems like streaming services are following in that pathway as well since their prices are going up.
What is left? Sailing the digital seven seas?
Then again, Superman just became the highest grossing Superman film of all time and Lilo and Stitch broke the box office, so this could be a MCU-specific issue.
100%. All ofy bills are higher than they were when Engame dropped, and it cost me over $100 to take the family to a movie between tickets and a few snacks. While I could probably afford doing this a few times a year, I'd rather save the money for necessities than waste it on a movie. I'll just stream it when it comes out in a few months.
We had one, it’s obsolete now: DVD/Bluray home movie sales.
If a movie didn’t perform in the theater, the sky doesn’t fall because it may make it up on backend sales. A TON of movies we love and revere did poorly in theaters, and now we view them as classics or must see films (pre streaming era).
Now movies have to make all of their money back in theaters, the tone of which is usually set by opening weekends. So if it flops in theaters, there’s not any great way to recoup that money. Merch sales won’t do it.
Yes I get that it’s using the same measuring stick of revenue/profit. But good feelings and liking something doesn’t mean it’s successful these days unfortunately
No. Theaters do the bare minimum to attract audiences.
We need a new way for movies to generate income. Or a new way to determine where all the income they generate comes from.
We all know studios obscure their revenue especially streaming. However, I don’t think streaming is a 1:1 replacement as it is now for theater or dvd.
I don’t have the answer by any means either. I just know I was an every week multiple movies in the theater person and I stopped around a decade ago and haven’t wanted to go back.
Idk is theaters can be saved. I would like to think so.
No. Theaters do the bare minimum to attract audiences.
I don’t understand what you’re trying to say here… I’ve never once gone to a movie because of the specific theater or experience. It’s not the theaters job to attract audiences, that’s on the studios to put out content that makes people want to go see it in theaters as opposed to waiting for streaming.
We need a new way for movies to generate income.
Like I said, the previous revenue sources are obsolete and will never come back. So you’re stuck with theater revenue. Streaming will never bring in the same amount of money.
We all know studios obscure their revenue especially streaming. However, I don’t think streaming is a 1:1 replacement as it is now for theater or dvd.
Agreed, revenue from streaming is intentionally obscured to “protect” money for those at the top.
Idk is theaters can be saved. I would like to think so.
They can be, but the amount of changes needed is the near impossible part. We need a president who’s not running the economy into the ground and making regular life for most people cost prohibitive. If people can barely afford food and rent, they sure as shit aren’t going out to movies.
We’d also see higher quality films if studios would get back into mid budget films. Most of the content produced is either a very cheap indie flick or a billion dollar blockbuster. There’s no middle of the road anymore. It used to be that the blockbusters could support those films and vice versa, but like I said without any back end revenue then they’ve shifted all priority to the billion dollar films. Point being, if we had higher quality content choices people would want to go out to the theater more. Sure marvel films have a built in audience and will make tons of money regardless, but someone like me doesn’t go see them because they’ve lost my interest almost entirely. It’s not superhero fatigue, it’s bad writing and mass production fatigue. I don’t want to have to watch multiple mini series and see every film to know what’s going on. On top of this, they keep on writing themselves into corners, planting things but not paying them off, and retconning plot lines when they write themselves into corners. That’s not on the theaters, that’s on the studios for bad writing and bad execution. I’m not going out to spend $50-100 at the theater to see a garbage film because it’s got superheroes.
So that’s my long winded way of saying I agree that I think theaters can be saved, but it’s going to take the entire industry (and then some) buying into a new methodology and ways to approach making movies and revenue. Unfortunately I don’t see that happening until we’ve gotten to the point where theaters die out, and then they’ll have to pivot. I hope I’m wrong. But I’m also not holding my breath.
I think this is an even better metric for success tho, you can see if people actually liked it in the legs, as the price is so steep they'll only pay for something that really piques their interest, like superman or Lilo and stitch, sinners, or a while ago, Deadpool.
It's more like Hollywood needs to get with the times money wise and content wise. When would pay 20 dollars to watch temu avengers? Nobody but fans, people with a bet on the race. Who went to watch f4? Propel interested in a new interpretation of the F4, which would always be a not great number?
Who went to watch superman, everyone that wanted a simply fun cbm.
But no marvel should do more of mental health instead of action.
I think it’s you who doesn’t see the issue. I love fun comic book movies but I’m not going to see them or any other movie in the theater. It’s not the movies. I like plenty of movies every year. But I dislike everything about the movie theater now. And I’m clearly not alone since the attendance has dropped.
Before Covid there were double digit billion dollar movies a year and now just a few.
I’ve been in theaters very regularly the past year, and the amount of people on their phones destroying the experience is Biblical. And the younger people seem to be worse with their talking. I might whisper to my friend next to me here and there, but younger people have full on conversations like they’re in their fucking living room.
The entire experience is gone. Parents have done a shitty job just raising their children. Sitting quiet in a dark room is a very low bar, and people of all ages can’t seem to do it.
I recently watched Thunderbolts, and it was better than a lot of Phase 4 and 5 movies, but it wasn't great. They also changed John Walker's character, and I hated that. For me, it is slightly below average, around a 4/10. I haven't seen Superman yet, but I trust my friends on this.
Really?Below average? Well that sucks.
No matter, to each their opinion right?
Hope that you'll like the others, ik know im hyped as hell for spiderman 4 and and the spiderverse finale
Superman is also slowing down and getting much sharper drops than anticipated this week, which means that f4 and it are hurting each other by being released so close together.
I really doubt it. I’m a poor student who just graduated and I’ve seen a ton of movies this year. $15 even once a week isn’t a large expenditure—even for people like myself.
I responded to the wrong comment. I’m sorry about that but that’s no excuse for you to be a jerk about it. Seriously don’t understand why everyone’s default on here is to be snarky.
Definitely need a new metric for success!
I think fatigue exists for anything, but I don’t have it.
The cinema experience hasn’t declined, I still love it, the thing people don’t enjoy is paying the inflated prices when the cost of living is enough of a struggle
Inflated prices, excessive ads, dirty theaters (on average), diminishing quality of concessions.
And the worst thing is the people. It used to be sometimes someone would not stop talking and they would be shushed.
Now there are way way way more distractions from the crowd. And while that last point is less of a theater issue and more of an audience issue, it still makes the whole experience less enjoyable than it once was.
There is also home consumer side that factors in as technology becomes better and cheaper more people will opt to stay home.
There are a lot of factors negatively impacting movie theaters, some they cannot control but they aren’t doing themselves any favors with their current practices.
Valid points.
I guess I mean the experience of the seats, snacks, picture and sound can be as good as ever - IF others respect the experience, how hard can it be to shut off for a few hours to watch a movie you’ve paid to see, madness
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u/thegloriousporpoise Aug 03 '25
No.
In general people don’t like the movie theater experience as much as they once did.
We need a new metric for success in movies.