www.breitbart.com/news/2005/12/13/051213173239.bo5ciosh.html
Plunging movie ticke t sales, after a string of uninspiring remakes and movie sequels coupled with an explosion of the DVD and video game markets, are keeping audien ces at home and have sent Hollywood into a deep existential crisis.
Ticket sale revenues dropped five percent in the first 11 months of 2005 while the number of Americans going to the cinema fell by 62 percent co mpared with the same period in 2004, according to box office trackers Ex hibitor Relations Co Inc. The result is Tinseltown's most disappointing box office performance in 1 5 years as audiences, dazzled by their entertainment choices and disappo inted by the mediocre films on offer, turned away from the cinema in dro ves. Even the late November and December releases of blockbusters "Harry Potte r and the Goblet of Fire," "King Kong", "Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" and "Memoirs of a Geisha" are unlikely to t urn around the downward trend. "It's not just a slump in box office, but also in sales of DVDs," Kyser t old AFP. "This is mainly because of unattractive movies that don't appea l to young male audiences, the cost of movie tickets, parking, the shrin king window a movie's theatrical and DVD releases. In addition, Hollywood faces a major external threat: runaway production costs, the growing trend of movie producers to shoot in places such as C anada, Australia and New Zealand to cash in on much lower staff and prod uction charges. LA's future is at stake," Kyser said, demonstrating the depth of despair in the nine-billion-doll ar a year industry. Industry movers are battling to isolate the true causes of the slump, cro ssing their fingers that the big-budget money-spinners up Hollywood's sl eeve will help ease the pain. "I t hink is it because all this happening at the same time, it is a combinat ion of facts." But he was optimistic for the future of the industry, saying that when Ho llywood does dish up a good film, audiences still go rushing to see it. "'Harry Potter' is showing that people still want to go to the movies but still they need a good reason to go," Dergarabedian told AFP. The fourth film of JK Rowling's cult novels opened on November 18 and has so far raked in 244 million dollars, making it second most successful f ilm of 2005, behind "Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith". "When a good movie strikes, people go to the theatres," said Dergarabedia n The last in the "Star Wars" series raked in a whopping 380 million dollar s in North American box office, "War of the Worlds," starring Tom Cruise took 234 million, the comedy "Wedding Crashers" notched up 208 million in ticket receipts and Tim Burton's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" took 206 million. Ron Howard's 88-million-dollar biopic "Cinderella Man," starring Oscar wi nners Russell Crowe and Renee Zellweger, took only 61 million dollars, w hile Ridley Scott's crusade epic "Kingdom of Heaven," which cost 130 mil lion dollars to make, reaped only 47 million at the all-important domest ic the box office. Other fizzlers that did not recoup their budgets included the much-touted sci-fi flop "The Island," which hauled in only 35 million dollars, whil e Jamie Foxx's military drama "Stealth" bombed with a US and Canadian ha ul of 31 million dollars. "Movie goers are very picky and they want the price of the ticket to be w orthwhile, the studios had to offer more," said Gitesh Pandya of movie i ndustry tracker Box Office Guru. "There should be more creativity and new ideas, not just sequels and rema ke. Let's hope Hollywood listens to the audiences," he added.
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