Number of movie tickets hit two decade low

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January 1st, 2015 at 2:36:25 AM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569
1,269,900,000 movie tickets sold in 2014 is roughly the same as the mid 1990's. The record number of tickets sold to movies was in the 2001-2004 time frame.

2002 1,575.7 Spider-Man
2003 1,532.3 Return of the King
2004 1,510.5 Shrek 2
2001 1,487.3 Harry Potter / Sorcerer's Stone
1998 1,480.7 Saving Private Ryan
1999 1,465.2 The Phantom Menace
2000 1,420.8 The Grinch
2009 1,412.7 Avatar
2006 1,406.0 Dead Man's Chest
2007 1,404.6 Spider-Man 3
1997 1,387.7 Titanic
2005 1,379.2 Revenge of the Sith
2012 1,361.5 The Avengers
2013 1,343.6 Catching Fire
2008 1,341.3 The Dark Knight
2010 1,339.1 Toy Story 3
1996 1,338.6 Independence Day
1994 1,291.7 Forrest Gump
2011 1,283.0 Harry Potter / Deathly Hallows (P2)
2014 1,269.9 Guardians of the Galaxy
1989 1,262.8 Batman
1995 1,262.6 Toy Story
1993 1,244.0 Jurassic Park


As always, almost 23% of tickets were sold to the top 10 movies
1 Guardians of the Galaxy
2 The LEGO Movie
3 Captain America: The Winter Soldier
4 Transformers: Age of Extinction
5 Maleficent
6 X-Men: Days of Future Past
7 Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
8 The Amazing Spider-Man 2
9 Godzilla (2014)
10 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)
January 1st, 2015 at 5:03:57 AM permalink
Fleastiff
Member since: Oct 27, 2012
Threads: 62
Posts: 7831
If those were the top ten movies..... there is no hope. Let those soda swilling popcorn chewing noisy brats run loose in the streets and lets just get it over with. Spread rumors of Godzilla just killed spider man and mutant turtles are swallowing all people inside movie theaters. When the ungrateful brats are dead the movie industry will be dead too. It might as well be if those are its top ten products.
There is no hope.
January 1st, 2015 at 5:20:00 AM permalink
AZDuffman
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 135
Posts: 18136
The model is dead. Still a place for a date night, older folks will pay $2 at the second run. A few blockbusters will always come out. But if 25% of the take will be for 10 flicks, why on earth do you need 15 screens under one roof? It would make more sense to return to the days where you had one huge screen and let people really soak it in. However, that model won't work, either for various reasons.
The President is a fink.
January 1st, 2015 at 5:42:42 AM permalink
Evenbob
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 146
Posts: 25010
Wow, I have not seen one of the top
10 movies, and have no desire to.
Last time I was in a theater was Kings
Speech. Every one of those is kid
oriented, I guess that's where the
money is now.
If you take a risk, you may lose. If you never take a risk, you will always lose.
January 1st, 2015 at 5:44:53 AM permalink
AZDuffman
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 135
Posts: 18136
Quote: Evenbob
Wow, I have not seen one of the top
10 movies, and have no desire to.
Last time I was in a theater was Kings
Speech. Every one of those is kid
oriented, I guess that's where the
money is now.


The money has always been in the family oriented genre. Ask a parent of a kid under 14 how hard it is to find a PG movie that will not bore the parents to death and the kids will like.
The President is a fink.
January 1st, 2015 at 8:42:10 PM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569
Quote: AZDuffman
The model is dead.


Well the model has shifted. Adults in Northern America have not been the principal target in a while, but they grow ever more marginal with each year. Even Britain who was always the primary foreign market has slid way down the scale behind Chiina and Russia.

$245,439,076 USA and Canada
$301,000,000 China
$45,200,121 Russia - CIS
$495,765,302 Rest of World


But the business model does seem broken for films like The Monuments Men with a $70 million production budget. Released in 3000 theaters it is averaging 400 people per theater the 2nd day, but that drops to 66 viewers per theater by the 4th day. It earns $61 million in three weeks, and they leave it in theaters for another eleven weeks to make a token additional $17 million. Finally after 14-15 weeks it is released to DVD sales and pay per view with the expense of a new advertising campaign. The advertising campaign probably costs more than the $17 million the film earned in the last 11 weeks where viewers are down below 10 per day.

But theater companies will boycott a film if they don't have a 14 week waiting period.
January 1st, 2015 at 9:28:58 PM permalink
Evenbob
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 146
Posts: 25010
MM made $150mil, doesn't a movie need
to triple the cost of making it to see a
profit? That's the 5th turkey with Clooney
as writer, director, producer and actor.

When I saw fat old John Goodman in
a uniform and running in the previews,
I knew it was right up there with Men
Who Stare at Goats.
If you take a risk, you may lose. If you never take a risk, you will always lose.
January 1st, 2015 at 10:46:11 PM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569
Quote: Evenbob
MM made $150mil, doesn't a movie need to triple the cost of making it to see a profit? That's the 5th turkey with Clooney as writer, director, producer and actor.


GC's five directorial efforts have come out one every three years. GNGL had $7 million production budget, and Idea had a $12.5m production budget so those films were financially successful. The other three not so much.

1 The Monuments Men Sony $155.0 million
2 The Ides of March Sony $76.0
3 Good Night, and Good Luck. WIP $54.6
4 Leatherheads Uni. $41.3
5 Confessions of a Dangerous Mind Mira. $33.0

There is a good reason that GC was eager to defend Sony against the billionaire who called to split the studio off from the main company. He knew they were taking a big chance in giving him $70m to make Monuments Men. Financially, I wouldn't call it a turkey, but it is not profitable.
========================
I chose MM as an example only because it has almost no appeal to people 18 or under. It was the only movie in the top 50 that I could say that about.

But the studio gets very little out of that long tail after the first few weeks. For the relatively little money that they make in the theater, they probably have to spend to re-advertise the movie to sell it again on DVD.
Days - Average tickets/day
21 - 312,205
80 - 35,140

The movie only made less than $20 million in DVD and Blue Ray sales, so it is unlikely that selling DVD's only three weeks after the theater release would have made it profitable.

But the point is that the studio cannot afford to release a $70 million film entirely to pay per view and DVD and download sales. They need the theaters. But the theaters won't show a film unless they have 100 days so people won't just wait out the theater period. Actually the theater owners could probably care less about Monuments Men, but they don't want any film to start a precedent. Today it is MM, and tomorrow it could be Frozen.
January 2nd, 2015 at 2:41:22 PM permalink
Ayecarumba
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 89
Posts: 1744
Is there a significant difference between number of tickets sold versus the number of full pays? I haven't paid full price for a movie in a theatre in several years. I buy discount tickets at Costco, or use promotional tickets given away on DVD's. I am also on a distribution list where I occassionally get invited to preview screenings.

Perhaps the reason these films move so many tickets is that kids tickets are so much cheaper than the adults, it is an attractive way to kill a few hours while Mom goes shopping.
January 2nd, 2015 at 5:30:00 PM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569
The roughest measure of movies for grown ups is the R rating. The last R rated film to be the highest grossing of the year was Saving Private Ryan in 1998. Prior to that was Terminator 2: Judgment Day in 1991 and Rain Man in 1988.

For a movie like R rated Saving Private Ryan with a production budget in the top dozen for the year, to also be the top grossing movie of the year with little or no appeal to the under 18 crowd, may not happen again.

Quote: Ayecarumba
Is there a significant difference between number of tickets sold versus the number of full pays?


The average price per ticket reported by the industry is far below that of a full priced adult ticket. So I think the answer is no. The Average price went up a lot between 2006 and 2010 but has the price increases have slowed.


Year Attendance Average Top Film
2014 1,274.8 $8.12 Guardians of the Galaxy
2013 1,343.6 $8.13 Catching Fire
2012 1,361.5 $7.96 The Avengers
2011 1,283.0 $7.93 Harry Potter / Deathly Hallows (P2)
2010 1,339.1 $7.89 Toy Story 3
2009 1,412.7 $7.50 Avatar
2008 1,341.3 $7.18 The Dark Knight
2007 1,404.6 $6.88 Spider-Man 3
2006 1,406.0 $6.55 Dead Man's Chest
2005 1,379.2 $6.41 Revenge of the Sith
2004 1,510.5 $6.21 Shrek 2
2003 1,532.3 $6.03 Return of the King
2002 1,575.7 $5.81 Spider-Man
2001 1,487.3 $5.66 Harry Potter / Sorcerer's Stone
2000 1,420.8 $5.39 The Grinch



The average price used for industry standard for 2012 is $7.96 , but Carmike (4th largest circuit in country) reported for 2012 average ticket price of $6.85 plus average concession sales of $3.91 per person. Without concession sales they would be out of business. They also report that concessions are priced 8X their raw cost.

Using the local Carmike prices as a guide, the average price of $6.85 is only ten cents higher than the price for a Child without 3D surcharge.

Senior (60-older):$5.75
Super Bargain (4-5:30pm):$5.75
Senior 60 (Friday-Saturday):$6.25
Child:$6.75
Child (Fri-Sat Ages 3-11):$7.25
Matinee, Adult:$7.25
Matinee (Fri-Sat):$7.50
Military (Sunday-Thursday):$7.75
Military (Fri-Sat):$8.25
Evening, Adult:$9.75
Adult (Fri-Sat):$10.00

Additional 3D Surcharge:$4.00
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