Hollywood has enjoyed a respectable year at the box office. The industry is 8% ahead of last year’s record ticket-sales revenue. Variety calls it a “boom,” and much ink has been spilled over the theory that in hard financial times, people escape to the movies. But recent data offers only lukewarm support, since actual attendance is up just 3% from 2008, which just so happened to be the industry’s worst year for paying customers since 1997. (Last year’s record revenue is attributed purely to higher ticket prices.) Throw in higher production and marketing costs and a cratering DVD market–rentals may be up, but sales are down double-digit percentages from last year–and the overall financial picture isn’t as rosy. Some studios are predicting record profits, perhaps due to solid international box office, but Hollywood mail-clerks and junior assistants shouldn’t be surprised if the champagne at this year’s holiday’s party is still served in paper cups.
Have your movie-going habits changed in the past year or so, due to financial factors? Are you going to the theater more or less? Are you renting more home videos instead, as figures indicate? And what about DVD purchases? Sound off in the comments below and let us know how overall box-office trends are playing out in your household.
Image Credit: Robert Zuckerman
I don’t go to the movies anymore unless I know it’s going to be worth my time. There have been too many instances in the past where I’ve walked out of the theater wishing I could have my money and 2 hours back. The problem isn’t ticket prices, it’s the quality of the movies. and yes I do rent more dvd’s because of it and I’m usually glad I waited and didn’t see the movie in the theater.
Gina, you said it beautifully. I love going to the movies, but it’s tough to rationalize the money for tickets and the babysitter. And it gets crazier if we take the kids! Even with matinee prices and one slushy per kid, we’re looking at $40-50 for a family of four. Gotta be HP or Spiderman for that. Much easier to wait for cable or rent/buy DVD and watch on our big screen TV and surround sound system. We already invested in the equipment and it makes it that much harder to go out.
I couldn’t agree more, Gina. I’m working harder for less money, and I’m not gonna waste it on cruddy movies. That’s what Netflix is for!
I am definitely going to theater less often because I think the quality of films has gone down and the ticket prices are too high. I am also purchasing fewer DVDs seeing as that I have already purchased what I like to build my collection and I don’t plan on replacing the standard-def discs with Blu-Ray.
I went to see New Moon and was happy to spend my $15 on two midday movie tickets, but then I bought a medium soda and a box of Sour Patch Kids and the dude told me $16 bucks. Going to the movies is fine, if I bring my big purse.
Nothing for me has changed, I have always known what movies I’d be seeing in theater and what I would rent. Financial factors never really went into my decision making on that point, I leave it up to the movie trailers and whatever I’m a fan of. I’ll never goto the theatre for certain kinds of movies, just because I don’t deem them theater worthy.
I lived in NYC from last September to July – I went to a lot more movies, simply because I was unemployed and could go to the $6 showings before noon.
The effect of the strike seems to be hitting right now, as I look over the movie listings and struggle to find anything worth seeing.
That said, until the start reporting these numbers in some normalized way (number of tickets sold, or controlled for inflation) any talk of record profit is kinda meaningless.
Video games just report the number of units sold, not how much they made. Is that so hard?
I see lots of movies and don’t spend much. The secret: don’t buy snacks. Saves you a fortune!
I went to the movies nearly 30 times this summer, as a college student working at just over minimum wage at a grocery store. the key is to choose good times [week nights, or matinee], and bring a large purse. I buy the soda and candy at the grocery store for like ten dollars less. sometimes you gotta splurge on a popcorn, though.
My decreased attendance at the movies has little to do with the economy (my job’s safe) and more to do with the lower quality of the movies themselves, as well as the craptasticness of the moviegoing experience. The cumulative effect of overpriced-and-poor-quality snacks, plus the texters and the talkers in the audience, plus the glut of commercials that begins even before the lights go down means I wait for the DVD release more and more often.
And truthfully, most of the items in my Netflix queue are full runs of TV series — right now I’m on Season 1 of “The Man from UNCLE” and loving it.
I think I’ve definitely gone to the movies more this year than last. I’ve also all but stopped buying DVD’s and wait for the previously viewed ones to come on sale because regular prices are just too expensive now.