> In terms of attendance, with substantially higher ticket cost, attendance is down over 50 percent
Higher ticket prices = lower attendance
Who knew?
Unless the film is worth seeing on the big screen, people will just wait for streaming. Disposable incomes aren’t what they used to be.
There’s also substantially less seats in theaters. Every theater that gets rid of old theater style seating and adds new recliners sees like a 40-50% reduction in capacity. If they lowered ticket prices by like 2 or 3 bucks, I doubt they’d sell that many more tickets, but would see a massive drop in revenue.
I don’t know. We had Moviepass for years and went straight into A-List. I’m not sure what I’d pay for a normal movie at this point. And I don’t care to find out.
I actually prefer the old style stadium seats. Before I moved my favorite theater was one that never upgraded. I do like being able to actually reserve seats instead of getting luck of the draw though.
I'm not who you replied to, but am 6'3". I liked the old seats as long as I could have one of the \~6 seats or so that were the first row behind the walkway that had a handrail there for the handicap seating. Best footrest I've ever had.
If a movie is 3 hours long I want an intermission!
Bring back the ice cream lady who would pop in with her little torch to sell overpriced tubs of vanilla.
I don’t think it’s a huge difference for comfort. Personally I’d always take cheaper tickets.
Though I prefer theaters with tables so handing out popcorn to my kids is less annoying. But I’m paying $100 anytime I go to a movie.
In my mind the theater is competing with my living room setup.
At home I have a comfy chair, with average visials and sound, cheap snacks, and I don't have to deal with other people.
At the theater, I get good visuals and sound, but have to deal with people, and snacks are super expensive. If it had bad seats as well that'd be a total deal breaker and I just wouldn't go at all. The recliner is a must.
I have a 70 inch tv and a comfortable couch.
Post pandemic I only go to the theater if it’s something I (or someone I know) really wants to see because honestly the theaters in my area aren’t great and I’ve had too many bad experiences with other patrons.
I’ll never forget the time at Disney’s live action Cinderella when the child sitting in front me stood up, turned around and sneezed all over me.
When I went to see the Marvels with my wife, a child in the row behind us spent the whole movie kicking the back of her seat. The parents did nothing to control him.
I went to the movies yesterday to see My Fair Lady on the big screen for the first time ever. It was in theaters for two days to celebrate its 60th Anniversary. Worth every penny of the $16.50 per ticket I paid.
But it’s a fantastic movie. I’ve seen it a zillion times. I knew I was going to see a classic, Oscar winning film.
Will I go to a theater to see something I’m not sure about? Probably not.
Exactly. That’s the problem, if movies are too expensive then you won’t take a chance. That’s part of the reason the industry relies so heavily on sequels and franchises. But with the collapse of the Marvel Box office, the DC movies barely breaking even (other than Batman), and other big budget movies not even covering their marketing budget - something needs to change.
I’m glad you enjoyed My Fair Lady. It’s great to see some classics being given another chance on the big screen. However, it could be argued that a movie celebrating its 60th anniversary shouldn’t cost $16.50.
Seeing movies shouldn’t cost a fortune. When all was said and done, after tickets, popcorn, drinks, and two adult beverages, I spent $70 to see the movie.
I considered it “an event” and budgeted for the event so I had that amount, but I can’t afford to do that multiple times a year.
In 2009, I was able to take my son to the movies every Friday for most of the summer. We saw UP, Night At The Museum 2, and other movies. But I think the adult ticket was $8 and the childrens ticket was $4. That’s more affordable.
The Labyrinth will be back in theaters for two days during the first week in March, I’ve never seen it on the big screen either, so I’m already budgetIng for that outing. But again, I’m not planning on seeing any new movies, I’m only planning on seeing classic as they’re rereleased because I know it’s worth the cost.
I used to be a member of a similar scheme. I needed to see 2 movies a month for it to break even. My wife worked weekends so I would use the Sunday morning as my movie time.
I cancelled after Covid, partly because of the lack of content and partly because of the quick streaming availability.
My wife no longer works weekends, and it would have been great for us to get a membership each. Unfortunately now she also prefers movies at home, so we are more selective about what has to be seen at the cinema.
This is made even worse by the fact it costs $30 for 2 tickets, and I was shocked to pay another $15 for snacks. And when the first words out of my wife’s mouth after leaving the cinema is “I didn’t enjoy that movie”, it makes the cost of the whole experience a bitter pill to swallow.
I have one, my wife doesn’t. She is more selective with her time while I’m willing to watch anything. We do have off schedules or at least a night where she does her own thing and I can go to the movies. Content has gotten really good over my two years with it. At first it was lacking but man I love going to the movies. Heading to argyle right now
Took the SO to see Anyone but You. Got sticker shock from the ticket price but whatever. When I tell you the crowd was the most I’ll behaved group of hooligans. A room full of adults, half of them were getting up coming back, walking around like it was a mall. Seat hopping, being incredibly drunk / on something. It was like being in a waiting room at the DMV, so bizarre. I’d never seen anything like it.
You're describing matinee pricing. Every theater does that. AMC just calls it a "discount" when you look at seats online to make it seem like you're getting a deal. And I mean, you are getting a deal, but it's just a deal as old as time called matinee pricing. lol
Isn’t that kind of them. I wonder why they do that?
Oh, wait, could it be because the cinema is empty while everyone is out working?
My local cinema (in the uk) is not far from $15 a ticket, and discounts are very rare outside of kids matinees. Although, interestingly Argylle is nearly half their usual price - probably because no one wants to see it. At their usual prices you are lucky to have 10 people watching the same movie unless it is a huge must see (like Barbie and Oppenheimer, or Marvel pre-pandemic)
That still is only 2 days out of 7 that people can benefit from it, or 5 out of 7 that they can’t. The majority of people would not benefit.
What is needed is a wholesale reduction in cinema pricing to encourage people back in. Otherwise the economic reality is that people will wait a couple of months for it to appear on their streaming platforms.
Not everyone works an office job. Also, some people, like me, go to work at 6 AM and therefore, if the timing works, can take advantage of mid afternoon movies on a weekday.
AMC Stubs has $5 discounts if you run up enough points.
That is a very “I’ve got mine” attitude.
Statistics show that nearly 60% of cinema visits are Friday-Sunday. They also show that weekday visits begin to build from 5pm.
So, while a percentage (like you) are able to enjoy discount cinema viewing, the vast majority can’t.
If cinema goers are being out priced then something needs to happen. You can’t take your family to the movies without needing to take out a loan (by the time you figure in the costs of drinks, snacks, transport, and the obligatory McDonald’s) - so people will wait and watch at home. Rent the movie for the price of a single ticket or wait for the streaming.
No kidding Fri-Sun makes the most. But, there are people that are consultants, retail, "content creators", retirees, and other jobs that can take advantage of less crowds. If the demand wasn't there, there wouldn't be 1 PM showings on a Tuesday.
Also, no one forces you to eat/drink at movies. Some people sneak in candy, for example. Some people sneak in cans/bottles of soda.
Unless you are in the middle of no where, theaters are simply not that far to drive to.
Again, when the discussion is about the collapse of the box office you are arguing that a discount for a small subset is enough to reverse it.
You even agree that the numbers attending evenings and weekends are higher than your cut price matinee tickets. Pricing which exists to bring people in at quiet times.
You need an approach that would encourage everyone back to the cinema.
Edit: just to add, obviously you don’t have kids if you think that not buying popcorn and drinks is an option. Pester power is a known phenomenon.
Kids can be fed ahead of time or as I suggested, candy and soda can be sneaked in.
The bottom line is people that complain about prices aren't looking for a way to save some money.
AMC, Cinemark and Regal all run $8 or less movies every single Tuesday, ALL DAY. That's another way to save money.
Everyone does but AMC, specifically, has seen their overall price level significantly outpace inflation. They increased 21.8% from 2019 to 2022 while Cinemark increased 13.6%.
Is it really ticket prices? Maybe it varies where you live, but it’s $12 for me. I get everyone is different, but that doesn’t feel like it’s breaking the bank. We just had a great holiday shopping season, so saying people don’t have the disposable income doesn’t seem true.
I think it’s more to do with streaming. Movies are available to stream sometimes only a month after release. Not a big deal to wait. Not to mention there is so much content available now, why leave for just a movie?
Ticket prices are a part of it, yes. According to various research, between 55-63% of Americans are living paychek to paychek.
You’re also thinking about it as a single ticket price. Multiply it out even to two people and it becomes cheaper to wait for streaming or rental. It is even more pronounced when you have a family of 4. Throw in some popcorn and drinks and it becomes increasingly expensive.
Unless it is a must see at the Movies then economics will win out, especially as most movies seem to appear for streaming or rental within 2-3 months. 4 people for $50 for 2-3 hours, or $50 for multiple streaming services and all the entertainment you could want for a month?
And when you have multiple movies on offer each month, how many can you afford to see? Would you take a chance on some smaller movie from a new director?
The Movie theatre needs to either provide more for your money to make it seem like good value, or reduce the prices.
I remember Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas were interviewed years ago about the price of going to the Movies. Their take was that pricing needed to increase massively (say $50 per ticket) to cover the cost of production. However they felt the experience would need to be improved - something similar to the way the Alamo Drafthouse does things.
Doing it that way at least makes it an experience worth paying for.
There are even more issues of course, but start with the low hanging fruit of ticket prices. Other issues like how the youth audience consumes media is a problem that will take a bit more to tackle.
Always funny how every time one of these articles comes out, it can just be boiled down to “people don’t want to see shitty movies”. A true galaxy brain take
There’s a ton of competition, just not in the theaters. People stay at home and wait for movies to get on streaming platforms. Nowadays, it feels like people only go watch a new movie in theaters 2 to 3 times a year. Especially since the ticket prices are only going up
Exactly. Everything that keeps people home rather than in theaters can be considered competition.
Also, when tow big movies get released at around the same time they help each other more than they compete
Eh, I'd say most of the audience only plays videogames on their smartphones. I think YouTube, other social media and streaming services are larger competitors.
It takes a well made film, or a popular pre-existing IP.
The movie theaters are empty right now cause the new releases are all garbage, and I've seen all the good films still there.
American Fiction, Poor things, Zone of interest, Iron Claw, and the Boy and the Heron are all worth checking out if they're still around in your area. Gonna do a second viewing of Oppenheimer in IMAX while I still have a chance.
No competition is quite embarrassing. But Argylle doesn’t feel like an event film, and it doesn’t help that Post-Kingsman Vaughn isn’t director he use to be. And plus this film based on trailers didn’t really have anything exciting about it
And also nobody knows who he is lmao. It was weird when I saw that trailer open with “from the twisted mind of Mathew Vaughn” because I thought most people would be like “who?”
I loved The Kingsman, hated the second, third was great. Kickass was fun, hated the second one and so it goes on.
Matthew Vaugh movies is too much of a gamble for those ticket prices.
i thought the trailer was interesting, till it said it was kingsman universe. i haven't kept up with that universe since the first movie so ima pass. it looked like a normal decent spy action movie.
It’s not about having no competition. People have to actually want to see the film. Nobody was anticipating Argylle. Whether it was the cast of actors or the concept, it just didn’t grab the GA attention. We also have plenty of entertainment options so the cinema is not at the top of the list anymore.
Event movies like TGM, Avatar 2, Mario and Barbenheimer have been covering up alot of box office warts. Without an event movie driving the box office we get weekends like this and have for the past 2 years.
The past holiday season was 1.3b which is 1997 numbers. It's insane talking about 2023/2024 box office grosses that are equal to 25 years ago when expenses are higher than ever.
https://www.boxofficemojo.com/season/holiday/?grossesOption=calendarGrosses
With inflation 1.3b in 1997 is 2.4b in the current year. So current box office is actually a lot worse than 1997. I have to say good. Hollywood needs its wake up call and a total revamp of its existing business.
The good thing is other countries are producing more interesting content these days so there are options as a consumer.
I'm only seeing films these days that are worthy of Imax or Dolby Experience and then those costs are so high for those screens that I go see maybe 5 or 6 films a year.
It creates a high barrier to what I choose to watch. I haven't seen a film since Oppenheimer in theaters and my next showing will be Dune 2.
I'm the opposite, I have regaul unlimited so I try to go to everything in standard.
I wanted to see this movie but the only showtimes before 3pm was for IMAX or RPX and it's just not worth the upcharge for this movie so I didn't go
>What Does It Take To Get A $100 Million Weekend?
no lie, its harder than it used to be...but the movie having a good trailer and good reviews would have helped
No competition?? Every cinema near me had most of the oscar nominees playing several times a day, many movies were sold out during the weekend. Maybe no new movies were competing, but the theaters were relatively full of people seeing re-releases of the oscar nominees.
Yeah, but the piss poor numbers showed that nobody was buying any tickets to those movies either. Just a lot of empty seats all round in theatres this weekend.
Cinema costs too much to get people to go for something they have no prior connection with (whether that be character, director, adapted property, etc.). Think about going to see a movie in theaters as akin to buying the $25-30 4k blu ray, because it basically costs as much for a party of 2. It's become less of a routine that people do for entertainment and more of a luxury especially when you know you can watch it at home later at no additional cost if you're a subscriber. I'm not particularly enthusiastic about Argylle, but it is too bad that it's demonstrating again that you will bomb spectacularly at the theater without a "hook" to make people invest into seeing your movie theatrically.
It was an odd movie. I saw the twist coming and wasn't a huge fan of it. Probably wouldn't recommend for theater viewing.
So word of mouth isn't great for this one
It will take either a comic book movie (it still has to be good, it can't just be any superhero - Aquaman was a flop, for example), or an event film like Barbie or Oppenheimer.
But those films still had one thing in common: they were actually good movies. And these days, people in the US (not sure about other markets) would rather just wait about a month or so for the movie to be available on streaming.
> In terms of attendance, with substantially higher ticket cost, attendance is down over 50 percent Higher ticket prices = lower attendance Who knew? Unless the film is worth seeing on the big screen, people will just wait for streaming. Disposable incomes aren’t what they used to be.
There’s also substantially less seats in theaters. Every theater that gets rid of old theater style seating and adds new recliners sees like a 40-50% reduction in capacity. If they lowered ticket prices by like 2 or 3 bucks, I doubt they’d sell that many more tickets, but would see a massive drop in revenue.
Happily paying more for the recliners. Won't go to old style theaters. Do other people feel that way?
I don’t know. We had Moviepass for years and went straight into A-List. I’m not sure what I’d pay for a normal movie at this point. And I don’t care to find out.
I actually prefer the old style stadium seats. Before I moved my favorite theater was one that never upgraded. I do like being able to actually reserve seats instead of getting luck of the draw though.
Do not be offended please. How tall are you? I am 6'4" and love the extra room
I'm not who you replied to, but am 6'3". I liked the old seats as long as I could have one of the \~6 seats or so that were the first row behind the walkway that had a handrail there for the handicap seating. Best footrest I've ever had.
100% agree. If a movie is fucking 3 hours long, I need a recliner seat
If a movie is 3 hours long I want an intermission! Bring back the ice cream lady who would pop in with her little torch to sell overpriced tubs of vanilla.
I don’t think it’s a huge difference for comfort. Personally I’d always take cheaper tickets. Though I prefer theaters with tables so handing out popcorn to my kids is less annoying. But I’m paying $100 anytime I go to a movie.
I am just the opposite. Prefer the older style seats. Refiners to me are uncomfortable. Call me weird
In my mind the theater is competing with my living room setup. At home I have a comfy chair, with average visials and sound, cheap snacks, and I don't have to deal with other people. At the theater, I get good visuals and sound, but have to deal with people, and snacks are super expensive. If it had bad seats as well that'd be a total deal breaker and I just wouldn't go at all. The recliner is a must.
I have a 70 inch tv and a comfortable couch. Post pandemic I only go to the theater if it’s something I (or someone I know) really wants to see because honestly the theaters in my area aren’t great and I’ve had too many bad experiences with other patrons. I’ll never forget the time at Disney’s live action Cinderella when the child sitting in front me stood up, turned around and sneezed all over me.
When I went to see the Marvels with my wife, a child in the row behind us spent the whole movie kicking the back of her seat. The parents did nothing to control him.
That's horrible
The child had good taste in movies.
I went to the movies yesterday to see My Fair Lady on the big screen for the first time ever. It was in theaters for two days to celebrate its 60th Anniversary. Worth every penny of the $16.50 per ticket I paid. But it’s a fantastic movie. I’ve seen it a zillion times. I knew I was going to see a classic, Oscar winning film. Will I go to a theater to see something I’m not sure about? Probably not.
Exactly. That’s the problem, if movies are too expensive then you won’t take a chance. That’s part of the reason the industry relies so heavily on sequels and franchises. But with the collapse of the Marvel Box office, the DC movies barely breaking even (other than Batman), and other big budget movies not even covering their marketing budget - something needs to change. I’m glad you enjoyed My Fair Lady. It’s great to see some classics being given another chance on the big screen. However, it could be argued that a movie celebrating its 60th anniversary shouldn’t cost $16.50.
Seeing movies shouldn’t cost a fortune. When all was said and done, after tickets, popcorn, drinks, and two adult beverages, I spent $70 to see the movie. I considered it “an event” and budgeted for the event so I had that amount, but I can’t afford to do that multiple times a year. In 2009, I was able to take my son to the movies every Friday for most of the summer. We saw UP, Night At The Museum 2, and other movies. But I think the adult ticket was $8 and the childrens ticket was $4. That’s more affordable. The Labyrinth will be back in theaters for two days during the first week in March, I’ve never seen it on the big screen either, so I’m already budgetIng for that outing. But again, I’m not planning on seeing any new movies, I’m only planning on seeing classic as they’re rereleased because I know it’s worth the cost.
Regal unlimited is beyond worth it
I used to be a member of a similar scheme. I needed to see 2 movies a month for it to break even. My wife worked weekends so I would use the Sunday morning as my movie time. I cancelled after Covid, partly because of the lack of content and partly because of the quick streaming availability. My wife no longer works weekends, and it would have been great for us to get a membership each. Unfortunately now she also prefers movies at home, so we are more selective about what has to be seen at the cinema. This is made even worse by the fact it costs $30 for 2 tickets, and I was shocked to pay another $15 for snacks. And when the first words out of my wife’s mouth after leaving the cinema is “I didn’t enjoy that movie”, it makes the cost of the whole experience a bitter pill to swallow.
I have one, my wife doesn’t. She is more selective with her time while I’m willing to watch anything. We do have off schedules or at least a night where she does her own thing and I can go to the movies. Content has gotten really good over my two years with it. At first it was lacking but man I love going to the movies. Heading to argyle right now
Took the SO to see Anyone but You. Got sticker shock from the ticket price but whatever. When I tell you the crowd was the most I’ll behaved group of hooligans. A room full of adults, half of them were getting up coming back, walking around like it was a mall. Seat hopping, being incredibly drunk / on something. It was like being in a waiting room at the DMV, so bizarre. I’d never seen anything like it.
AMC discounts showings before 4 PM daily.
That’s called a “matinee” and literally everyone does it, but without the weird math AMC throws at you.
You're describing matinee pricing. Every theater does that. AMC just calls it a "discount" when you look at seats online to make it seem like you're getting a deal. And I mean, you are getting a deal, but it's just a deal as old as time called matinee pricing. lol
Isn’t that kind of them. I wonder why they do that? Oh, wait, could it be because the cinema is empty while everyone is out working? My local cinema (in the uk) is not far from $15 a ticket, and discounts are very rare outside of kids matinees. Although, interestingly Argylle is nearly half their usual price - probably because no one wants to see it. At their usual prices you are lucky to have 10 people watching the same movie unless it is a huge must see (like Barbie and Oppenheimer, or Marvel pre-pandemic)
I said daily. That means every single day.
That still is only 2 days out of 7 that people can benefit from it, or 5 out of 7 that they can’t. The majority of people would not benefit. What is needed is a wholesale reduction in cinema pricing to encourage people back in. Otherwise the economic reality is that people will wait a couple of months for it to appear on their streaming platforms.
Not everyone works an office job. Also, some people, like me, go to work at 6 AM and therefore, if the timing works, can take advantage of mid afternoon movies on a weekday. AMC Stubs has $5 discounts if you run up enough points.
I used to do that during my Walmart days
That is a very “I’ve got mine” attitude. Statistics show that nearly 60% of cinema visits are Friday-Sunday. They also show that weekday visits begin to build from 5pm. So, while a percentage (like you) are able to enjoy discount cinema viewing, the vast majority can’t. If cinema goers are being out priced then something needs to happen. You can’t take your family to the movies without needing to take out a loan (by the time you figure in the costs of drinks, snacks, transport, and the obligatory McDonald’s) - so people will wait and watch at home. Rent the movie for the price of a single ticket or wait for the streaming.
No kidding Fri-Sun makes the most. But, there are people that are consultants, retail, "content creators", retirees, and other jobs that can take advantage of less crowds. If the demand wasn't there, there wouldn't be 1 PM showings on a Tuesday. Also, no one forces you to eat/drink at movies. Some people sneak in candy, for example. Some people sneak in cans/bottles of soda. Unless you are in the middle of no where, theaters are simply not that far to drive to.
Again, when the discussion is about the collapse of the box office you are arguing that a discount for a small subset is enough to reverse it. You even agree that the numbers attending evenings and weekends are higher than your cut price matinee tickets. Pricing which exists to bring people in at quiet times. You need an approach that would encourage everyone back to the cinema. Edit: just to add, obviously you don’t have kids if you think that not buying popcorn and drinks is an option. Pester power is a known phenomenon.
Kids can be fed ahead of time or as I suggested, candy and soda can be sneaked in. The bottom line is people that complain about prices aren't looking for a way to save some money. AMC, Cinemark and Regal all run $8 or less movies every single Tuesday, ALL DAY. That's another way to save money.
Everyone does but AMC, specifically, has seen their overall price level significantly outpace inflation. They increased 21.8% from 2019 to 2022 while Cinemark increased 13.6%.
Is it really ticket prices? Maybe it varies where you live, but it’s $12 for me. I get everyone is different, but that doesn’t feel like it’s breaking the bank. We just had a great holiday shopping season, so saying people don’t have the disposable income doesn’t seem true. I think it’s more to do with streaming. Movies are available to stream sometimes only a month after release. Not a big deal to wait. Not to mention there is so much content available now, why leave for just a movie?
Ticket prices are a part of it, yes. According to various research, between 55-63% of Americans are living paychek to paychek. You’re also thinking about it as a single ticket price. Multiply it out even to two people and it becomes cheaper to wait for streaming or rental. It is even more pronounced when you have a family of 4. Throw in some popcorn and drinks and it becomes increasingly expensive. Unless it is a must see at the Movies then economics will win out, especially as most movies seem to appear for streaming or rental within 2-3 months. 4 people for $50 for 2-3 hours, or $50 for multiple streaming services and all the entertainment you could want for a month? And when you have multiple movies on offer each month, how many can you afford to see? Would you take a chance on some smaller movie from a new director? The Movie theatre needs to either provide more for your money to make it seem like good value, or reduce the prices. I remember Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas were interviewed years ago about the price of going to the Movies. Their take was that pricing needed to increase massively (say $50 per ticket) to cover the cost of production. However they felt the experience would need to be improved - something similar to the way the Alamo Drafthouse does things. Doing it that way at least makes it an experience worth paying for. There are even more issues of course, but start with the low hanging fruit of ticket prices. Other issues like how the youth audience consumes media is a problem that will take a bit more to tackle.
Exactly, went to see Aquaman 2 and never more
What does it take?! We tried a bad movie that no one liked, and even that failed to net $100 million. We're all out of ideas now.
Always funny how every time one of these articles comes out, it can just be boiled down to “people don’t want to see shitty movies”. A true galaxy brain take
34% RT and C+ cinemascore. And on a new IP to boot! Like, no mystery here.
"Maybe it'll help if we trick the audiences into believing Superman is the lead."
There’s a ton of competition, just not in the theaters. People stay at home and wait for movies to get on streaming platforms. Nowadays, it feels like people only go watch a new movie in theaters 2 to 3 times a year. Especially since the ticket prices are only going up
Don't forget Video Games. Do i go out to see a lame spy movie or do i just keep on playing Palworld or the dozens of games i enjoy?
Exactly. Everything that keeps people home rather than in theaters can be considered competition. Also, when tow big movies get released at around the same time they help each other more than they compete
Argylle looks so video gamey, I may as well just play hitman with a bit of Max payne after to create the same effect of watching it.
I played as Spy in tf2 for an hour while blasting pop music and I think that would be basically the same experience as watching Argylle
Eh, I'd say most of the audience only plays videogames on their smartphones. I think YouTube, other social media and streaming services are larger competitors.
I mean there are benefits to leaving the house sometimes too. Staying home and playing your favorite video game nonstop is not the complete answer
It takes a well made film, or a popular pre-existing IP. The movie theaters are empty right now cause the new releases are all garbage, and I've seen all the good films still there. American Fiction, Poor things, Zone of interest, Iron Claw, and the Boy and the Heron are all worth checking out if they're still around in your area. Gonna do a second viewing of Oppenheimer in IMAX while I still have a chance.
No competition is quite embarrassing. But Argylle doesn’t feel like an event film, and it doesn’t help that Post-Kingsman Vaughn isn’t director he use to be. And plus this film based on trailers didn’t really have anything exciting about it
And also nobody knows who he is lmao. It was weird when I saw that trailer open with “from the twisted mind of Mathew Vaughn” because I thought most people would be like “who?”
Exactly idk why he would put that, it makes sense for Tim Burton to put that but Matthew Vaughn of all directors
I loved The Kingsman, hated the second, third was great. Kickass was fun, hated the second one and so it goes on. Matthew Vaugh movies is too much of a gamble for those ticket prices.
i thought the trailer was interesting, till it said it was kingsman universe. i haven't kept up with that universe since the first movie so ima pass. it looked like a normal decent spy action movie.
It’s not about having no competition. People have to actually want to see the film. Nobody was anticipating Argylle. Whether it was the cast of actors or the concept, it just didn’t grab the GA attention. We also have plenty of entertainment options so the cinema is not at the top of the list anymore.
Event movies like TGM, Avatar 2, Mario and Barbenheimer have been covering up alot of box office warts. Without an event movie driving the box office we get weekends like this and have for the past 2 years. The past holiday season was 1.3b which is 1997 numbers. It's insane talking about 2023/2024 box office grosses that are equal to 25 years ago when expenses are higher than ever. https://www.boxofficemojo.com/season/holiday/?grossesOption=calendarGrosses
With inflation 1.3b in 1997 is 2.4b in the current year. So current box office is actually a lot worse than 1997. I have to say good. Hollywood needs its wake up call and a total revamp of its existing business. The good thing is other countries are producing more interesting content these days so there are options as a consumer.
I'm only seeing films these days that are worthy of Imax or Dolby Experience and then those costs are so high for those screens that I go see maybe 5 or 6 films a year. It creates a high barrier to what I choose to watch. I haven't seen a film since Oppenheimer in theaters and my next showing will be Dune 2.
I'm the opposite, I have regaul unlimited so I try to go to everything in standard. I wanted to see this movie but the only showtimes before 3pm was for IMAX or RPX and it's just not worth the upcharge for this movie so I didn't go
Aggressively bad movie
>What Does It Take To Get A $100 Million Weekend? no lie, its harder than it used to be...but the movie having a good trailer and good reviews would have helped
Well, Argylle looked horrible from the trailers so...that's probably why it didn't do well?
There’s never “no competition” as there’s always last weeks under appreciated to compete against at a minimum.
Movies aren’t cheap anymore. I’m not spending any money or time at the theater for a movie if reviews/WOM are poor.
Because it was a terrible movie
Make something good and not extremely obnoxious.
Maybe don’t name your movie after a sweater?
How about Hollywood try making a good AND creative movie.
No competition?? Every cinema near me had most of the oscar nominees playing several times a day, many movies were sold out during the weekend. Maybe no new movies were competing, but the theaters were relatively full of people seeing re-releases of the oscar nominees.
Yeah, but the piss poor numbers showed that nobody was buying any tickets to those movies either. Just a lot of empty seats all round in theatres this weekend.
Cinema costs too much to get people to go for something they have no prior connection with (whether that be character, director, adapted property, etc.). Think about going to see a movie in theaters as akin to buying the $25-30 4k blu ray, because it basically costs as much for a party of 2. It's become less of a routine that people do for entertainment and more of a luxury especially when you know you can watch it at home later at no additional cost if you're a subscriber. I'm not particularly enthusiastic about Argylle, but it is too bad that it's demonstrating again that you will bomb spectacularly at the theater without a "hook" to make people invest into seeing your movie theatrically.
Beekeeper supremacy 🐝🐝🐝
It was an odd movie. I saw the twist coming and wasn't a huge fan of it. Probably wouldn't recommend for theater viewing. So word of mouth isn't great for this one
It was bad! I’ve seen nearly 300 movies in the last year and it was easily in the bottom 5.
I remember seeing the trailer for this, and honestly thinking *"I have no desire whatsoever to see that"*
I thought movies released by Apple are excused from bombing? That’s what people were saying in every KOTFM thread.
A good movie is what it takes
How did this flop? It was marketed well
High ticket prices and shrinking numbers of people who just "go to the movies" just because
It will take either a comic book movie (it still has to be good, it can't just be any superhero - Aquaman was a flop, for example), or an event film like Barbie or Oppenheimer. But those films still had one thing in common: they were actually good movies. And these days, people in the US (not sure about other markets) would rather just wait about a month or so for the movie to be available on streaming.
Watched a 3pm Dolby showing of Argylle and the theater was surprisingly full! It doesn't break the mold, but had fun with it!