The United States Box Office hits the lowest point in twenty years
The US box office for 2014 was down five percent from 2013, which is the biggest year-to-year decline in nearly a decade. But, the problem is bigger than just a 5 % decline as more and more people are not going to the movies.
[North American box office] is expected to finish at $10.4 billion by Dec. 31, compared to a record $10.9 billion in 2013. It also won’t match the $10.8 billion earned in 2012, but it has already bested 2011’s $10.17 billion. The first time that revenue hit $10 billion in North America was in 2009, when it clocked in at $10.6 billion. Nine years ago, in 2005, revenue topped out at $8.8 billion, a 5.8 percent decline over the previous year. [HollywoodReporter]
Movie tickets continue to increase to make up for the fact that fewer people are actually going to the movies.
According to preliminary estimates, roughly 1.26 billion consumers purchased cinema tickets between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31. That’s the lowest number since 1.21 billion in 1995 and not that far ahead of 1994 (1.24 billion). The last time admissions fell below the 1.3 billion mark was in 2011, when only 1.28 billion people when to the movies. [HollywoodReporter]
You would argue that the best way to save the movie industry would be by making better movies. However, that may not be possible. Transformers 4, made less than $250 million in North America, but the movie did exceptionally well overseas raking in $842 million, including $300 million in China alone. So while it may be easy to point the blame at movie studios for making crappy movies, the biggest issue is that International box offices are the reason why Americans don’t go to the movies.
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