The box office is at this AMAZING boom! I was reading Variety and learned something amazing! Check out this article:
Domestic ticket sales are up a healthy 8% over 2008, with the box office only days away from eclipsing 2008′s record-breaking haul of $9.64 billion in ticket sales.
Through Sunday, B.O. revs were $9.48 billion, only $175 million short of the record (figures calculated using Jan. 2 as the start date). Last year for the same period, domestic ticket sales were $8.78 billion.
Admissions also are running ahead of 2008 levels by more than 3%.
There’s no doubt that domestic ticket sales will jump the $10 billion mark, a key milestone for the film biz, between holdovers and the 2009 releases still waiting to bow, including Warner Bros.’ “Invictus,” 20th Century Fox’s “Avatar,” Warners’ “Sherlock Holmes” and Fox’s “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel.”
Historically, box office grosses reported by studios are not adjusted for inflation.
What’s fueling the boom? A diverse list of films have resonated with moviegoers who eager to get out of the house, yet find more affordable entertainment options.
The summer brought record revenues, but it was an unusually strong spring, and now fall, that are boosting the bottom line.
October and November saw revenues of $1.68 billion, up more than 11% over the $1.51 billion earned in October and November 2008.
This year, five movies released in those months having already grossed north of $100 million, with Summit Entertainment’s vampire romancer “New Moon” in the lead ($230.7 million through Sunday.)
The other titles are Sony’s “2012″ ($138.5 million), Universal’s “Couples Retreat” ($106.7 million), “Disney’s A Christmas Carol” ($104.9 million) and Warner Bros.’ “The Blind Side” ($102.2 million).
Paramount’s “Paranormal Activity” also holds a spot on the list, since it didn’t open nationwide until October. Pic’s domestic cume through Sunday was $107 million, putting it at No. 3 on the list of the top grossers of October and November.
Last year, only three titles had grossed more than $100 million through the end of November: DreamWorks Animation/Paramount’s “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa” ($159.1 million), Sony’s “Quantum of Solace” ($141.4 million) and Summit’s “Twilight” ($119.7 million).
Strong fall box office, as well as the success of spring titles, could encourage distributors to spread out their releases, instead of loading down the summer months and winter holidays.
In recent years, the fall has generally been the specialty market’s territory. But this year, commercial titles are dominating and generating the headlines.
From Variety.com; click here.
So what does this mean? Well, let’s take a look.
We still have a long way to go.
Twilight is still going strong. It’s #2 on Box Office numbers, #1 on Domestic Box Office. Similar with Disney’s A Christmas Carol, but with Christmas Carol, we’ve yet to see the Holiday crowds. As we get closer to the holidays, more people will be open to seeing a Christmas film.
We also still have films that haven’t been released, but we can’t joke ourselves, they’ll be huge. Two films I thought about while pondering this were Alvin & The Chipmunks 2 and The Princess and The Frog. Chipmunks has cute fuzzy characters that are animated. Right there you have the recipe for success in the industry today. Looking at The Princess and The Frog this is a must-see for a lot of people. The name assigned to the title (Disney) drags in half the world. Every kid will want to see it, Disney geeks will want to see it, Film enthusiasts will want to see it, and Animation geeks will want to see it. Not to mention, its being released just before the holiday season, a deadly time for Indies, a glorious time for Majors.
How will this effect the future?
One line of this article really hit me: In recent years, the fall has generally been the specialty market’s territory. But this year, commercial titles are dominating and generating the headlines. Variety focused on Major Distributors here, but it seems they ignored someone else: The independents.
This boom will draw more distributors to fall and spring releases, and if their are more major films, that means the Independent film-makers are going to have a harder time.
I read the article, and I was excited, then I thought about this.
My brother is fresh out of trade school is looking for a job– every employee wants experience. There are next to no jobs for a noob. This spring/fall film boom is the same: everyone will want to see the movie with brand recognition. You’ll either have to get lucky, like Paranormal Activity-Type-of-Lucky, or have an established brand- in short, this is great news for Disney, 20th Century, Sony, etc. But what about everybody else?
This might lead more indies away from theatrical releases towards DVD, television, and internet release, because the film industry may be closing up. And so I’m glad for this but:
I hope it doesn’t happen again.
Perhaps next year will lead to just not as much income, let the major brands keep going for Summer.
Taking a peak on the other side, if Disney releases a new animated movie in Summer it will make a boatload. If Disney releases a new animated movie in Fall it will make a boatload.
What’s the difference? Dick Cook drives a yacht, and he won’t settle for a tugboatload, or a speedboatload, he wants a yachtload. I am going to stop now before I take the analogy too far.
Let’s look in perspective
As the above article stated, a large deal of this B.O. income came from a few select films that broke 1 Million Dollars. Let’s take Twilight: New Moon out of the picture, now instead of being at about 9 million, it’d be about 7. That is a big difference (Well, to me, but Dick Cook may have a different definition of “big”). So, NOBODY should be getting to cocky, except for Stephanie Meyers.
A Closing Note–
How to make a film successful so you can compete with the Majors next year!
- Include cuddly animated creatures. (Chipmunks)
- Include an attractive heroine in tight clothes: make her run a lot. (Transformers)
- Any ripped men should be half-naked and fuzzy. (Twilight 2)
- Throw Satan. the apocalypse, and a couple with an odd situation in their for good measure (Paranormal Activity, 2012, and Couple’s Retreat OR The Proposal- you pick!)
HAH! Disney’s got nothing on us now!!!!
Well, I’ve gotta go write a screenplay featuring 4 certain concepts, so until next time: Keep Rolling Those Frames of Film!
Nice tagline, eh?
