Celeb News: US Cinema Attendance Crumbles in 2010

Celestial

Quote:

by Brandon Gray

2010 closed as the second highest-grossing year of all time, but it still couldn't shake an air of disappointment. Not only did 2010 end with a whimper, estimated attendance was the lowest in 15 years.

The box office tally for 2010 was $10.57 billion, or around $30 million shy of 2009. That translated to an estimated attendance of 1.27 billion, which was off eight percent from 2010. 1995 was the last year to have sub-1.3 billion attendance. Since the modern attendance peak in 2002 (1.58 billion), attendance has been trending downward, but 2010 marked the second severe drop-off, following 2005.

In December, 2010 lost its slight gross edge over 2009. At $882 million, December 2010 was not only relatively low-grossing but also the least-attended December since 1993. With half-hearted attempts to recreate past December successes (Yogi Bear aping Chipmunks, Gulliver's Travels copying Night at the Museum, Little Fockers chasing Meet the Fockers), it was another month of missed opportunities. The only months in 2010 to decisively out-gross their 2009 counterparts were January, March, April and July, while normally big months May, November and December were particularly weak.

Hollywood often failed to offer an appealing slate of movies, and there were fewer movies made available than before. In 2010, 141 movies reached nationwide release (600 locations or more), down from 158 in 2009 and the smallest number since 2001.

The top-grossing movie of 2010 was a holdover from 2009: Avatar, which made $476.9 million of its $760.5 million lifetime total in 2010. The last time the top movie was from the previous year was in 1998, when Titanic dominated. One difference is that 1998 was a bigger year than 1997.

Toy Story 3 was the second-biggest movie in 2010, drawing $415 million. Alice in Wonderland ($334.2 million), Iron Man 2 ($312.4 million) and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse ($300.5 million) rounded out the Top Five. Those top movies accounted for $1.84 billion or 17.4 percent of the 2010 pie, whereas the Top Five in 2009 made $1.57 billion with a 14.8 percent share. 2010's Top Ten, which included titans like Inception ($292.6 million), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 ($280.2 million) and Despicable Me ($251.1 million), tallied $3.12 billion, versus the $2.69 billion of 2009's Top Ten. 2010's list only began to run out of steam compared to 2009 at No. 11. That meant 2010 was a top-heavy year, further reflected in the fact that 25 movies made $100 million or more, compared to 32 in 2009.

The industry again relied on sequels, but sequels only go so far. Both 2010 and 2009 had about the same amount of sequels, and sequel business was steady: $2.62 billion in 2010 versus $2.67 billion in 2009. Each year had five sequels in the Top Ten, and each year had sequels accounting for around 25 percent of the overall box office. However, though movies like How to Train Your Dragon and Clash of the Titans will get sequels, the industry mostly failed at creating new franchises (nonstarters included Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, The Sorcerer's Apprentice and Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief), and 2011 will further rely on former glories.

Two areas saw growth in 2010, and both were intertwined. Animation business was up 16 percent over 2009 to $1.49 billion, while movies presented in the 3D illusion surged to $3.27 billion (an estimated $2.1 billion of which from 3D alone). All of the major animated titles of 2010 were shown in 3D, and the industry shoved 3D down people's throats in the wake of Avatar's success, adding enough screens to the point in December when several movies had simultaneous nationwide 3D runs.

All those 3D movies contributed to the gross, but they boiled down to more money from fewer people. The 3D premiums alone (the differences between 3D and regular ticket prices) accounted for an estimated $600 million of the total box office.

http://boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3038&p=.htm

Nicole

Maybe that will teach them not to make 7 comic book movies with the word "Green" in the title.

Serves them right.

brIt-()nstar

There's a reason why US=/=World...

Celestial

Quote:

Originally posted by Haus_of_Nicole

Maybe that will teach them not to make 7 comic book movies with the word "Green" in the title.

Serves them right.

Do you think it's going to be a continuing trend for years to come? Piracy was definitely a factor in the decline in attendance, but I think the main reason attendance was down last year was because of the lack of stand-out releases, especially during the holiday period. Tron and other movies that some people expected to pull huge numbers were relative flops.

I don't think this is a big problem, people are still more willing to spend their money on a cinema ticket than they are on music.

Grim

It's a lot easier to spend a dollar to rent a movie from RedBox than it is to pay $10.50 a person just to see a movie. None of the movies I actually saw in theaters this year were good anyway. The public knows by now that trying to make a movie look good by the trailer isn't gonna cut it. I mean cmon...we're down to making a movie off of a boardgame (yes, I'm shading my fave)...it's pathetic. The only movies I'm actually interested in nowadays are the superhero movies...anything else is a spur of the moment thing.

And for the record I'm going off the title of this thread bc I'm not in the mood to read all that.

Nicole

Quote:

Originally posted by Celestial

Do you think it's going to be a continuing trend for years to come? Piracy was definitely a factor in the decline in attendance, but I think the main reason attendance was down last year was because of the lack of stand-out releases, especially during the holiday period. Tron and other movies that some people expected to pull huge numbers were relative flops.

I don't think this is a big problem, people are still more willing to spend their money on a cinema ticket than they are on music.

I don't think it's going to be a huge issue. Piracy will continue having an effect, but it's easier to control with film. Plus, the experience of going to the movies is fun, so it's not the same as with music.

This was just an off year with a lot of the "big" movies underperforming

but it has led to quality movies like True Grit, The Fighter, The King's Speech and Black Swan overperforming. So in the end I'm happy with the results.

Celestial

Quote:

Originally posted by Haus_of_Nicole

I don't think it's going to be a huge issue. Piracy will continue having an effect, but it's easier to control with film. Plus, the experience of going to the movies is fun, so it's not the same as with music.

This was just an off year with a lot of the "big" movies underperforming

but it has led to quality movies like True Grit, The Fighter, The King's Speech and Black Swan overperforming. So in the end I'm happy with the results.

That's a good point. I'm pleased that the movies that got the most critical acclaim managed to stand out during the holiday period. It will probably lead to a greater amount on interest in the Academy Awards this year, they always tend to fair better when the public are more familiar with the nominees.

I hope Hollywood learns from their mistakes this year. There's been numerous big-budget films that have flopped, they need to realise that throwing $150+ million at a film is not going to guarantee it will be a success. It's become too excessive. That's why it's nice to see films like Black Swan smashing. On a $13 million budget they make it seem so effortless.

Navin

Quote:

Originally posted by Haus_of_Nicole

I don't think it's going to be a huge issue. Piracy will continue having an effect, but it's easier to control with film. Plus, the experience of going to the movies is fun, so it's not the same as with music.

This was just an off year with a lot of the "big" movies underperforming

but it has led to quality movies like True Grit, The Fighter, The King's Speech and Black Swan overperforming. So in the end I'm happy with the results.

Dont worry one big Movie still delivered...

Harry Potter and the Deathly Halllows Part 1
Entering the Top 10 of All time by the end of its run. Second highest grossing movie in the series.
Total WW tally as of now : 926,933,113

PopBoi

This is just going to make it harder for me track down a cam of Burlesque. NO ONE has uploaded one yet

NEUTRON

Quote:

Originally posted by PopBoi

This is just going to make it harder for me track down a cam of Burlesque. NO ONE has uploaded one yet

DEAD

Swaggie

Quote:

Originally posted by Haus_of_Nicole

Maybe that will teach them not to make 7 comic book movies with the word "Green" in the title.

Serves them right.

Wait a minute now.
I'm positive that the Green Hornet and Lantern will ****/

Raguabros

LMFAO the two Green movies look hideous.

Hollywood sucks right now, its releases are either VERY VERY GOOD or VERY VERY BAD, it's like, it has been taken to the extremes. And there are plenty more VVB right now.