Things are bad at the theaters right now. Real bad. Anyone who has been there over the past few years (pretty much since the pandemic in 2020,) has noticed that things are not what they used to be. Crowds are no longer filling the buildings. People aren’t going as much, and for the first time, this summer, theaters are really starting to feel the hit.
In every way the box office numbers are down. And not just from last year. These past few weekends, (in the middle of May,) the numbers have been the lowest that they have been in about twenty years. Now considering that movies are costing more than ever to make, and ticket prices plus concession stand prices are surging, theaters are finding themselves in a pretty problematic situation.
May is supposed to be the kickstart to summer month. It’s the month that starts off the biggest blockbuster season of the year. Only this year, there has been no Marvel movie in May (the first time that has happened in over a decade, not counting years where they released their movie at the end of April instead of May.) And the movies that have been released this past month have not done well.
What should have been the two biggest movies this May, The Fall Guy and Furiosa, were both bombs. And that’s surprising considering that these movies both have star-studded casts, talented directors, and have both received good word of mouth. The movies are supposedly pretty good, critic approved, and yet people aren’t going to see them.
So let’s take some time now to examine why exactly people aren’t going to the theaters. And what can be done to get things back on track, hopefully sooner rather than later.
One of the big problems is that these movies are costing way too much money to make. Which means they have to bring in a tin of money at the box office just to break even. Some of the movies are costing multiple hundreds of millions to produce, before they ever even hit the screen. That trend needs to stop. It’s not one of things preventing audiences from going to see it, but it is definitely hurting the movies in terms of making their money back.
And it is because these movies are so ridiculously expensive to make, that the prices for tickets need to be so expensive, in order for the studios to try to make a profit. Only, the huge prices of tickets (and concessions,) is a major reason why people aren’t going to theaters anymore. When it costs about twenty dollars per person to see a movie, plus another fifteen for concessions, at a certain point it’s not worth it. It’s just so much easier to rent the movie on demand and watch it from home. Especially since those prices are for just one person. Imagine taking a family to the cinema, and how much that would cost. Then consider that from home it would cost the same price for the whole family to watch it as it would cost for one person to go see it by themselves in theaters.
So the prices are terrible. But who sets them? Is it the movie studios or the theaters themselves? Apparently theaters set the prices. But they don’t get to keep very much of the money they bring in. The percent changes each weekend, (meaning there’s a percent they get for the first weekend a movie is in release, and then a different percent for the second weekend, and so forth.) But the studio that puts out the movies always gets a much higher percent than the theater. That’s why they say theaters make most of their money on concessions. Because with concessions, (popcorn, sodas, candy,) they keep one hundred percent of the profit.
So the big issue is that both tickets and concessions are too expensive. And we’ll get to what can be done about that in just a moment. But first let’s tackle what some of the other factors are. The first is people on phones. Not literally talking on their phone during a movie (that would be ridiculous,) but texting or looking at things on their phones. It happens all the time. And the truth is, it’s not really that big of a deal. Yes, there is now a little bit of light in your field of view, and yes, it might be slightly annoying, but so what? In the grand scheme of things, you get used to it, and if you’re invested in the movie, you shouldn’t really be thinking about that little light coming from someone in a row in front of you.
And then there’s the other factor… video on demand dates. The date that the movie becomes available to just buy and watch at home. There used to be a window of about three months between the time a movie left cinemas and the time it came to video stores where you could rent it. Now it’s three weeks. Which is like the blink of an eye.
So what can be done about all of this? What changes need to be made?
First off, stop releasing movies to streaming so fast. The studios do it because they want yo cash in on audience attitudes while the audiences are still hungry for the movie. But there’s a catch 22…studios are releasing so quickly to streaming because movies are not doing well in theaters, but one of main reasons movies aren’t doing well in theaters because audiences know the movie will be released to streaming so soon that they can just wait a few weeks to see it at home .
The other thing that needs to be done is ticket prices and concession stand prices need to be reduced. They just have to be. And yes, theaters will take a hit at first, as they are not bringing in as much from those things, but what might also happen is people start buying more of those things, and maybe even more people start going to see movies in theaters. It’s an experiment, reducing prices, to see if it brings more people in. And it’s certainly worth trying, to see what happens.
Nobody wants theaters to close. Unfortunately, the only way to save them at this point might be to take drastic action. Make a change. Maybe a few changes. Something needs to be done, and this is the time to start trying things. Before it’s too late.