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It wasn’t supposed to be like this.
Heading into the new year, box office analysts were bullish that 2019 would beat, or at least match, the record-breaking success of last season. Followups to “Avengers,” “Secret Life of Pets” and “Godzilla” combined with reboots of storied franchises such as “Men in Black” and “Shaft” would elevate ticket sales to new heights, theater owners and studio executives predicted. Alas, it was not to be.
Sure, everyone showed up to “Avengers: Endgame” to bid goodbye to Iron Man, but many of those other sequels sputtered out. They were derivative, shoddily constructed, and poorly reviewed. Midway through summer, things are looking decidedly bleak. Ticket sales are pacing 7% behind last year’s popcorn season, according to Comscore, putting the year as a whole nearly 10% below the same frame in 2018.
“When you put all your eggs in the sequel basket this is what happens,” said Jeff Bock, an analyst with Exhibitor Relations. ” Most of these movies feel like they came off of an assembly line. They’re not diving any deeper into the story. They’re not upping the ante. They’re not moving the needle as far as moviegoers are concerned.”
Much of the blame has been pinned on franchise fatigue, the age-old diagnosis that stems from audiences growing tired of movies with endless Roman numerals tacked on the end. But that’s not entirely the case. People will still show up for franchise fare. “Toy Story 4” has cracked the $500 million mark, “John Wick 3” is the highest-grossing entry in the action series, and “Spider-Man: Far From Home” is poised to dominate the July 4th box office. Moreover, sequels, reboots and spinoffs soared at the box office last summer as revenues for “Avengers: Infinity War,” “Incredibles 2” and “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” set the stage for a new benchmark in North America. People don’t hate sequels. They avoid bad movies.
“I think everyone is trying to figure out what is the new normal for the summer box office,” said Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst at Comscore. “Maybe right now you need a really strong marketing hook or a tagline. If it feels like, ‘I’ve seen it before’ — that’s not good.”
This summer, “Godzilla: King of the Monsters,” “Dark Phoenix” and “Men in Black: International” all suffered series lows in large part because they weren’t very good. Being part of a well-known franchise wasn’t enough to save these turkeys, particularly when there are buzzy television shows such as “Game of Thrones,” “Big Little Lies,” and “Stranger Things” beckoning viewers to stay home. Indeed, analysts suggest that ever-growing options for entertainment have made audiences more discerning when it comes to shelling out for a movie ticket.
“There’s so much content available at everyone’s fingertips,” said Kyle Davies, Paramount’s president of domestic distribution. “There is healthy competition for everyone’s entertainment dollars, but people love the theatrical experience. You just have to give a compelling reason to go. It’s causing everyone to raise their game.”
The indie market has also slid steeply, with some indie players reporting that ticket sales in the specialty space are down more than 30% through the first six months of the year. Movies like the Mindy Kaling comedy “Late Night” or “Wild Rose” may have been hits at film festivals, but they failed to convert that buzz into butts in seats when they opened to the general public. That could turn around with the debut this week of “Midsommar,” a twisty horror pic that should do for the image of Swedish villages what the “Wicker Man” did for the reputation of Scottish islands.
“What the studios have been trying to do is go against conventional wisdom and release smaller films in May against big blockbusters,” said Dergarabedian. “This summer it’s like we reverted back and we’re in the ’90s again where counter-programming in the summer is just getting run over.”
Only Disney has reaped big profits while its rivals falter. The studio has fielded the four biggest movies of the year so far and controls nearly 40% of the Stateside market share. It has made nearly seven times as much as Sony or Paramount, almost triple what Universal has racked up, and more than double what Warner Bros., its next closest rival, has generated. Now that Disney controls Fox, and with it the keys to hit series such as “Avatar” and “Deadpool,” it looms even larger over the movie business. However, Fox’s film studio hasn’t proved to be as profitable as some had hoped. The studio’s first major summer release, “Dark Phoenix,” was an unmitigated disaster, one that leaves the X-Men in series need of a reboot.
“It has to start with quality storytelling, That’s our focus,” said Cathleen Taff, Disney’s president of global distribution. “If we deliver movies people are going to enjoy, they are going to come back. You can’t fool them.”
As the box office has nosedived, stock prices for theater chains such as AMC and Cineworld have surrendered to a gravitational riptide. Investors are worried that the movie business is being undone by the revolution in streaming content, one that is leaving it vulnerable and unlikely to recover its former glory. Movie executives have a different view, noting that people are always falsely predicting that the theater business is about to die off.