It’s been a long time coming, but it’s looking more and more like Movie theatres are going the way of the dinosaur…in other words, don’t expect to see people lining up for Iron Man 8 in another 20 years. With the exception of dropping by high-profile film festivals like TIFF or Cannes, it’s likely that people will find it harder and harder to come up with reasons to see a movie in the theatre when they can watch the same one (albeit, probably an illegally downloaded version) in the comfort of their own home. And those ever-rising ticket and popcorn prices definitely don’t help. Then again, people said the same thing about movie theatres way back when DVDs became popular…so why should you believe it this time? Let’s look at the evidence:
Summer Box Office Troubles
Even though yearly Box Office totals have remained fairly steady throughout the past few years, film critics have forecasting the demise of summer movie season for a while now. As of August 5th, not one summer movie had (domestically) taken in $300 million at the box office. (To put that into perspective: 2009’s Avatar made over $700 million domestically) Summer used to be a time when people in the movie industry could be confident about churning out at least a couple of huge hits, but it’s no longer a guarantee.
Box Office Stability?
One of the reasons why the total box office earnings have seemed to remain so steady is because ticket prices have slowly gone up and up – don’t worry, I’m not going to bore you with all the math. But when you take cost into account, the number of people who paid to see a movie in theatres (in the U.S.) in 2003 decreased by over 150 million by 2013. Seriously!
Driving Away Past Customers
According to a recent Nielsen survey, people who are 55 years old and up are most likely to think that movie prices are too high. The problem? The 55+ demographic is less likely than the 18-49 demographic to download movies onto their computers or phones. So basically the prices are driving away the people who are (or would have been) most likely to go all the way to a theatre to see a movie.
The Obvious – New Technology
Honestly, I can’t even remember the last time I felt the need to go to a movie theatre – just because there are so many ways to watch movies without having to spend more time and money! The world is becoming busier and busier, so if downloading a movie means I spend half an hour doing something productive instead of riding the bus, then I’m probably going to take that chance.
True – every once in a while something like Frozen will come around and blow every other movie (and everyone’s expectations) out of the water. But recently movies that were expected to do insanely well – like The Fault in Our Stars – make a lot of money on opening weekend but don’t have much staying power. So…
Tell Us…
Do you go to the movie theatre often? Why or why not?
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The post Will the 21st Century Be the Death Of the Movie Theatre? appeared first on Destination Femme.
