While Disney buying the film and television arms of Fox speaks volumes about the growing clout of the mouse house, there’s also another story to be told. There are likely a multitude of reasons that Fox is streamlining to focus on sports and news, but it’s pretty clear that the volatile movie business is something they no longer are willing to bank their future on. Certainly, there are still billions of dollars to be made at the box office — 2016 was a whopper with a total of $11.38 billion earned. However, the more telling number might be in the amount of tickets sold.
Once all the data for 2017 is calculated, cinemas will have sold 1.26 billion movie tickets, which sounds like plenty, but is actually the lowest figure the industry has seen since 1995. In case you’re wondering, that was the year “Braveheart” won Best Picture and “Toy Story” was the highest-grossing movie worldwide. But times have changed dramatically, and there is far more reason for audiences to stay home.
Netflix is growing every day, and with a commitment to spend $8 billion in content this year alone, they are aiming more than ever to keep people glued to the couch. Meanwhile, the moviegoing experience hasn’t changed, and the mainstream chains don’t seem all that interested in drawing people through their doors. Overpriced concessions, lousy projection quality, noisy patrons, endless pre-shows — why spend $15 or more on a lacklustre night out, when you can stay home and watch the latest prestige movie or TV show on the streaming channel of your choice? But Hollywood is also to blame for serving up a string of flat out terrible movies — blame Rotten Tomatoes all you want, but audiences are savvier than ever, and can smell rotting product from a mile away.
So, is the sky falling? Not really. Cinemas are going to be around for a while yet, but major change is coming. Studios are already looking at premium VOD options for new movies, coupled with a drastic reduction of release windows. In layman’s terms, you’re no longer going to have wait months or even over a year to fire up the latest blockbuster at home. Some studios want you to be do that within a few weeks. Hell, Paramount decided to sell the international rights to the upcoming “Annihilation” to Netflix, where it will skip theaters, and go right to streaming.
Are you still going to the movies as often as you did before? Why or why not? Hit up the comments section and let us know. [The LA Times]