Blockbusters all over the place - but how are they doing?
While studios jockey (and sometimes bicker) for position as the box office champs of the weekend or the biggest comedy of the year or whatever, it’s important to maintain some perspective. As this New York Times story shows nothing aside from 1997’s Titanic comes close to any claim as an all-time box office hit when you adjust the grosses for older films for inflation. They might be great now but they’re small potatoes in the history of cinema.
Then you have the fact that this summer, despite some hype-filled headlines and breathless claims to this, that or another title, is not turning out as well as studios hoped. Pirates of Caribbean 3 is not doing as well as Disney would like and seems fated to be the weakest installment of the three. And the other tent-pole movies this summer have dropped off quickly after their opening weekends.
If I were running a movie studio, I’d rather have five films that cost $20 million to make and brought in consistent ticket sales week after week than something that cost $500 million but faded after two weeks. But that’s just me. See I would likely put more focus on making a movie than making a marketing opportunity. I’m crazy like that.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Thanks for the link Chris.
One question: I also would prefer to have five films that cost $20 million and had long legs at the box office. But what if all your rival studios were making those $500 million blockbusters/marketing events? How would you find space for your $20 million movies in today’s marketplace?