[Movies] Summer of Suckage

[Feredir]

Just WOW! Summer is usually a great time for action, or silliness on the silver screen, but this summer just seems to be full of SUCK. Just look at the box office numbers below for the summer 2016 releases. Most of these movies are doing crap for business. Are we jaded about what we now watch? Or are there too many other sources for entertainment now, much of it portable. Or are the studios just regurgitating crap and flinging it at us like angry monkeys in a cage? There are still a few premium releases coming, but I just have the feeling that 2016 will become known as The Summer of Suckage.

[Wilderness]

A very quick glance shows that Civil War, Jungle Book, and Zootopia are #'s 20, 32, and 38 all-time domestic grosses. Civil War #5 all-time opening weekend. Dory is #19 all-time opening weekend. That doesn't seem too bad.

What's a good total for the top 25 movies in a summer? What's a bad one? Need context for those numbers, especially since there's quite a bit of summer still left and as you said a few other big names coming.

[eschatological]

I think the expectation is that movies continually break higher than #20 domestic gross, as more and more people watch movies every year.

[Waynhim]

Only one I'm remotly interested in is the new Jason Bourne one. Doubt it'll make me visit the cinemas though.

[Tempguy]

I think there is nothing wrong here. Good movies are getting success, bad movies are floundering.

Isn't this what we have been saying for a while? Hollywood is churning out mostly garbage and people need to stop supporting Michael Bay style trash?

[Feredir]

I would believe anything north of $50 million for the opening week would be a good sign of a successful movie. Obviously other factors come into play, like cost of the movie, and competing releases. But in general since most movies generally have a downturn in box office after the opening week 50M appears to be a decent goal. That being said, its been a month and we only have 3 summer movies above that mark.

Movies that have a shot at box office success:

Independance Day: Resurgence
BFG
The Secret Life of Pets
Ghostbusters (I personally doubt it)
Star Trek Beyond
Suicide Squad

[Damajin]

I'm an extremely jaded movie goer, there's literally nothing until the next Star Wars that'll make me go out to the movies. I want to see the next Bourne film but will wait for that to run elsewhere, don't really care about the superhero franchises and there's no other semi interesting movies coming out that I'm aware of.

Movies are in a shitty place, where people are going to them so they can have them checked off on their watched list, not because the movies themselves are full of action and drama that literally compels people to come out and see them.

[Wilderness]

I think the expectation is that movies continually break higher than #20 domestic gross, as more and more people watch movies every year.

Yeah, maybe. But its not like all movies every year do as well as hoped or expected. Without any context it doesn't really show us anything. Maybe its a horrible year. Maybe its slightly down. I mean, just showing this years numbers and declaring it to be horrible is useless for any kind of discussion. Its also still in the middle of the summer in this context, so any judgement would be premature anyway.

[melodramocracy]

If anything, it's a summer of hilariously unreasonable expectations as far as revenue growth for the industry goes.

Personally, of that top 20, I've seen 2 in the theater, thought 1 of those was forgettable, and the rest either don't interest me at all or I'll just wait and stream it at home when it's available. Suicide Squad is the only other upcoming flick I'd probably be tempted to see in a theater, and I really don't have the highest hopes for that one.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Are we jaded about what we now watch? Or are there too many other sources for entertainment now, much of it portable. Or are the studios just regurgitating crap and flinging it at us like angry monkeys in a cage?

All three at once.

If you've been consistently watching modern films for at least ten years, by now you've seen every trope and cliche in the book used, invoked, subverted, inverted, and beaten to death. This makes writing and filming truly original content extremely difficult, not to mention somehow getting the executives funding your movie convinced to not change it out of the expectation that it needs or cannot have something you have omitted or included, thereby nullifying it's originality. Furthermore, the vast majority of modern films are either sequels or reboots of previously established IPs, and since the Big Six nowadays rush to pour their money into the bucket of established IPs and are very hesitant to even take a risk with new ones, getting original content out there is extremely difficult. In turn, audiences have seen these old tropes, cliches, and established IPs so many times they know what to expect, and can just wait for it to come out three months later on Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime.

Special effects is hardly a selling point of a movie anymore; audiences have seen the big booms, motion capped characters and CGI sequences so many times they can now spot them instantly. Plus, they don't have the same impact as before. People want quality stories, which are in short supply.

Lastly, the movie industry has to come to terms with the fact that consumers no longer view movies and television as their sole source of entertainment; other genres of entertainment such as social media, anime, and video games has sharply risen in popularity in the years and compete with movies and TV for the consumer's time and money, and they offer new experiences that haven't been tapped before.

[Stormcall]

Movies are in a shitty place, where people are going to them so they can have them checked off on their watched list, not because the movies themselves are full of action and drama that literally compels people to come out and see them.

Movies only get on most people's "watched list" BECAUSE the movie's action and/or drama compels them to come out and see them(well, or because they think it will anyway, obviously not all of them succeed). I don't know one person who goes to the movies just so they can say they saw something.

[Waynhim]

What will become an increasing issue as cinema looses more and more terrain to other media, is that we'll see movies trying to please everyone. In my eyes the only productions that manages to pull stuff like that off is PIXAR/Dreamworks, where parents can stomach watching with their kids.

Niche films are dead, and deeper, more mature storytelling with more character deveolpment, have moved on to TV-series. I agree with one of the above poster, that down the line the consumer will end up being interactive in the story through story driven games.

[Damajin]

Movies only get on most people's "watched list" BECAUSE the movie's action and/or drama compels them to come out and see them(well, or because they think it will anyway, obviously not all of them succeed). I don't know one person who goes to the movies just so they can say they saw something.

People talk about it here all the time, and I've heard the same thing said at work. Variations of the same statement: "I'm going to see X movie just so I can say I saw it, I'm probably not gonna enjoy it but it's X movie franchise so I have to see it" type of deal. There's lots of people who go to movies just because that's what they do on the weekends. I hear and read this all the time, it's essentially mindless consumption because if they're not doing it wtf else are these people gonna do with their lives?

It's the same with people watching tv shows and saying "ah I gotta get through X season now, I'm gonna hate it but I have to just get it over with" and that to me is crazy talk. There are definitely many people who watch both shows and films just so they're part of the big club of people who've watched it and can check it off their list.

[Khadgar]

People talk about it here all the time, and I've heard the same thing said at work. Variations of the same statement: "I'm going to see X movie just so I can say I saw it, I'm probably not gonna enjoy it but it's X movie franchise so I have to see it" type of deal. There's lots of people who go to movies just because that's what they do on the weekends. I hear and read this all the time, it's essentially mindless consumption because if they're not doing it wtf else are these people gonna do with their lives?

It's the same with people watching tv shows and saying "ah I gotta get through X season now, I'm gonna hate it but I have to just get it over with" and that to me is crazy talk. There are definitely many people who watch both shows and films just so they're part of the big club of people who've watched it and can check it off their list.

this reminds me of World of Warcraft career starting in Vanilla until I finally threw in the towel for good shortly after WoD.

"I'm going to raid BWL after it's on farm status and kill Nefarian x100 more times until Neltharion's Tear drops and I can't miss a raid so I'll have the most DKP to win it when it does"

[Stormcall]

People talk about it here all the time, and I've heard the same thing said at work. Variations of the same statement: "I'm going to see X movie just so I can say I saw it, I'm probably not gonna enjoy it but it's X movie franchise so I have to see it" type of deal. There's lots of people who go to movies just because that's what they do on the weekends. I hear and read this all the time, it's essentially mindless consumption because if they're not doing it wtf else are these people gonna do with their lives?

It's the same with people watching tv shows and saying "ah I gotta get through X season now, I'm gonna hate it but I have to just get it over with" and that to me is crazy talk. There are definitely many people who watch both shows and films just so they're part of the big club of people who've watched it and can check it off their list.

And yet, I never hear anyone say that. Just cause a couple people at your work do it, doesn't mean it's actually how most people are.. Nobody at my work says anything like that. Closest I hear are things like "I've heard X is really good so I'm gonna check it out", "my girlfriend/boyfriend/wife/husband/best friend/whatever wants to watch X so I'm going to see it with them even though I'm not that interested in it myself", and in the case of sequels, "the last one wasn't that good but I'm heard the new one is better so I'm gonna give it a shot".