Summer Sweat: Hollywood Braces for Possible Worst Box Office in Decade (450 million in losses)

Breitbart News ^ | 14 may 2017 ast | by JOHN BINDER

[drewh]

Hollywood may experience one of the worst slumps at the box office in the last decade this summer as Americans grow tired of the seemingly endless number of sequels and big-budget tentpoles churned out by the film industry.

Multiple reports by the the Hollywood Reporter show box office revenues are on track to decline by five percent this summer season when compared with last year, and could drop by as much as ten percent.

In real dollars, that could calculate out to a net loss of $450 million for Hollywood’s film industry, with summer earnings for movies expected at about $4 billion, which would make box office performance during this year’s summer season the worst in at least ten years.

The second weekend of summer hints at trouble to come, as Warner Bros/Village Roadshow’s pricey tentpole King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is set to debut to around $25 million in its opening weekend, a disastrous projection when compared with its reported $175 million budget, before marketing costs.

the real test will come later this summer, when Paramount trots out Transformers: The Last Knight and Disney releases Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, both of which represent the fifth entries in their respective, decade-long franchises.

There appear to be at least a couple of bright spots this summer, Christopher Nolan’s World War II drama Dunkirk are expected to perform well for Universal and Warner Bros., respectively.

But some executives are already blaming the upcoming season’s over-saturation with sequels for the projected decline in box office.

“Some of the tent poles are just not as strong this year,” 20th Century Fox domestic distribution chief Chris Aronson told the Times. “Pirates of the Caribbean? It’s the fifth one. Transformers? It’s the fifth one.”

[RayChuang88]

The problem is that Hollywood has run into a major rut produced too attempts at a summer blockbuster movie, with varying levels of success.

[drewh]

how many times are they gonna re-do king arthur and figure out it aint gonna be a hit

[RayChuang88]

Probably not. Beauty and the Beast just passed the $1.25 billion mark. That's billion with a 'B'. It will pay for all these flops. Surely, some Trump voters contributed to this.

Mind you, this movie was based on one of the most-beloved Disney animated movies of all time, hence the reason why it became it huge hit in the live-action version.

[RayChuang88]

Unless you do a very different take on the genre (like John Borman's Excalibur version), the whole King Arthur concept is too old-fashioned for movie audiences.

[Gay State Conservative]

By most Americans' standards, that's a kingly financial picture.

Very true.But given what that lightweight (and thousands of other lightweights in showbiz) was accustomed to it just might drive him to suicide.

[Oatka]

Why go to theaters? There are much better tv series on and you can binge watch, pause for snacks etc.

Indeed. Check out House of Cards for binge watching.

Three discs for 12 hours of fascinating Richard III tactics in modern day UK. The cast is flawless.

[Pravious]

I can think of nothing better than for Hollywood to go permanently out of business.

[stars & stripes forever]

I, for one, rarely go to the movies. Why would any Christian want to pay to hear the Name of JESUS and ALMIGHTY GOD blasphemed?

[CincyRichieRich]

D-delicious

[perez24]

Looked like Kurt Russell on a really pretty-looking planet. I don’t know about about GofG so this didn’t surprise/disappoint me.

[Vendome]

How could they lose money?

Just saw Guardians of the Galaxy II and it was Hee-Larry-US!!!

[Oshkalaboomboom]

I saw Lion. It had some good moments but was mostly boring and dull, especially the second half. Nicole Kidman deserved an academy award nomination about as much as I did.

[drewh]

Disneys already working on a live action Lion King, so I guess this is the future...

[RayChuang88]

They just started pre-production on a "live action" version of The Lion King. It'll still be heavily CGI (for lots of obvious reasons).

They should have done a live-action version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame first, though....

[Rastus]

This one sounds particularly lame. According to the reviews, Arthur starts out in a street gang, hanging with what he calls his “crew.” Surprised he doesn’t call them his homies.

[Falconspeed]

“decline by five percent this summer season...” Probably 15% in real life. What 30 year old has six kids going to movies once a month? My grandmother had six kids by age 30 and movies were really popular with the aunts, uncles and cousins. Today, Hollywood is anti-family and anti-movie ticket buyers. Thus, Hollywood is going extinct and the future Academy Awards will go to Amazon, Youtube and Netflix.

[Tanniker Smith]

I have a neighborhood sevenplex with cheapo matinees and working A/C, so I’ll see a few movies this summer. I’ll see whatever, but I’ll be at the supe hero flicks. Probably neither Transformers nor Pirates.

[mylife]

Thanks.
Watching it now.

[bray]

Thought they didn’t want White Americans to go to their movies anyway?

[Windflier]

Bring him down to the median income level, and he’ll off himself within weeks.