The Movie Industry's Changing! And it's All Your Fault!
It’s no secret that ticket prices have made a drastic change over the last few decades. I’m sure if you talked to your grandmother, she’d tell you that her man spent an unholy ten cents on their movie tickets to go see "Gone with the Wind", and spent another two cents on a large popcorn and soda. Nowadays, you’re spending as much as $15 per ticket with another $10 for food and refreshments! And after a few words from movie titans like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas at the USC School of Cinematic Arts in mid-June, things can only get more pricy… All because of you! But is it necessarily a bad thing? Keep reading, ya bunch of free-loaders!
During E3, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Don Matrick (President of the Internet Entertainment Business at Microsoft) sat down at USC to talk about the future of film, and how technology is killing it. In a nutshell, movies nowadays take a lot of money to make— John Carter, for example, cost Disney an incredible $250 million to make. Now, if a movie of this expensive caliber doesn’t make around the billion-dollar mark in its entire theatrical run, it’s essentially dubbed a failure. For context, John Carter made a measly-compared $73 million, resulting in a laughably humiliating $177 million loss. If movies don’t make money, they can’t be a success. So where did all the people go, and why aren’t they watching the delicious movies that Hollywood made for them? Here in the 21st Century, beautiful things like Netflix, videogames, video on demand, renting oniTunes, etc. are all luxuries and options that can sound much more attractive to the average Joe than going to the movies. Think about it: Who in their right mind would want to spend $25 a person (tickets plus refreshments) to sit in a shabby theater next to a bunch of obnoxious, smelly, gross individuals on their Friday night, while they can easily sit at home comfortably and inexpensively do the same thing through Netflix or video on demand? Why go out when streaming is a thing that we can do? Who needs the aggravation, am I right? Well it’s this kind of stuff that’s choking the industry, folks. Stephen Spielberg thinks there’s going to be a massive implosion, where these big-budget blockbusters will crash into the ground, thrusting the industry into a place it’s never been before. That Will Smith movie for example, After Earth, cost a whopping $130 million, and has only made $54 million so far. That may not seem so bad, but compared to a much smaller film like The Purge, which cost a mere $3 million, made an embarrassingly high $52 million! The fact that both of these movies were terrible by critics’ standards is irrellevent. The money matters—big budget movies are starting to fail, where movies as cheap as The Purge are making all the money in the world. There’s a reason why we’ve gotten four of those Paranormal Activity movies with a fifth one on the way. People don’t wanna go out anymore, and companies like Microsoft know it. The entire first Xbox One press conference focused on alternative entertainment capabilities outside of videogames. Mr. Star Wars himself, George Lucas, believes that streaming and such can and will lead to a world where going to the movies is a pristine experience, where ticket prices will be dramatically raised, but you get all the perks that come with it. For example, let’s take World War Z, the first movie in some locations to sell each ticket for a monstrous $50 a pop. At first glance, it sounds insanely stupid, but let’s take a look at the perks that come with it, shall we? • An advanced screening that lets you see the film two days before everybody else • A free downloadable stream of the movie when it becomes available (via iTunes, Amazon, etc) • A pair of custom 3D glasses • A movie poster • A small popcorn While this certainly won’t be a model for everything the movie industry could become, let’s take a step back and think about this rationally. First off, who in their right mind is going to pay $50 for a ticket to see a movie, perks or not? I guess you can cut out families with a half-dozen children, obnoxious school kids who have nothing better to do on a Friday night, and the adult version of the former. Then when you think about who would pay for it, you’re thinking of people who are legitimate fans of the movies in question, reliable people with jobs to pay this kind of money, and people who are just movie fanatics in general. Now that we have the kind of crowd this money attracts, what happens to the bad people? You know, the texters, the talkers, the babies, the man-babies, and all your other favorite special guests? With all the newfound fortune being raked in by ticket prices, theaters can hire better security to toss all those guys away from your movie-going experience. You’re paying good money, so why shouldn’t you be able to relax with the new cushioned stadium seating theaters everywhere just bought? What about the bigger screens and better sound systems that your money just paid for? What about all that fine cuisine your theater just purchased with the flow of cash money? Call me crazy, but this sounds like a world I can get behind. Then you also have to take into account the kinds of movies will be made in general. Would you or anybody you know, pay $50 a person to watch Adam Sandler’s Jack and Jill 2? What about a film based on your favorite board games like Candyland or Sorry? Who wouldn’t want to see Paranormal Activity 12 for $50 per ticket, am I right? RIGHT?! Bottom line, nobody rational is going to pay for any of those destined atrocities if ticket prices will dramatically be raised. Studios will have to think twice about the kind of content they push. Money speaks, and if this is our future, it’ll tell these kinds of movies to burn in the fieriest pits of Mordor. Besides, watching movies via Netflix, video on demand, iTunes, etc. won’t be going away, so even if you wouldn’t spend $50 on going out with those perks, you’ll still have the option to watch them in the comfort of your own home. We can have our delicious, expensive cake and eat the cheap, convenient slices too! So where do you stand, righteous readers? Is the movie industry truly headed towards this future? Would you be willing to pay all that money for all those perks? Do you prefer streaming over going out? Let’s talk about it in that pretty little comment section! Until next time, I’ll be wishing that "Jack and Jill 2" never becomes a reality! Laters! |
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