According to the Hollywood Reporter, the entertainment industry is scratching its collective head over why such a drop off in domestic box office revenues have occurred. Not as many people are going out to the movies than they used to. A number of reasons exist for this phenomenon.
People will not go to see bad movies
A number of sure fire hits, including R-rated comedies such as “Baywatch” and special effects laden epics such as “The Mummy” that starred Tom Cruise became box office bombs. The short explanation for why people stayed away in droves is that these and other films were bad and unentertaining.
To be sure, a few gems showed up during the summer of 2017, such as “Wonder Woman.” However, star power and special effects will not attract people to the movies if the product is not that entertaining.
People have much more entertainment options
Going to the movies used to be a fun experience, the essential element of a date or a good family outing. However, high ticket prices and overpriced concession offerings have caused audiences to seek alternatives. People can stay home and watch a DVD, Netflix live stream, or even pay for view cable on a Big Screen TV with a modern sound system for far less money than they would spend at the movies. The food is better as well. Also, traditional dating patterns, especially among millennials, have somewhat changed from going out to staying in.
Sometimes the sex comes first, and dinner and a show come after, contrary to how that sort of thing has traditionally been done.
Has Hollywood become too political for its own good?
One theory that has been posited for the drop off in box office has been that audiences have come to be turned off by Hollywood’s left wing politics.
Traditionally, people have been able to separate the politics of an actor or director from the product they show on the big screen. Tom Hanks may be a good friend of the Clintons and Steven Spielberg a supporter of a variety of left wing causes, but both men make entertaining movies, especially when they work together.
Some of the tolerance may have started to change.
Audiences stayed away from the all-female “Ghostbusters” when the producers began to trash people for not being appropriately appreciative of the first trailer. People are not going to see a movie made by people who hate them. The fact that the reboot of the 1980s era smash hit was not very entertaining and that its cast was not as funny as that or the original one had much to do with why it bombed.
