“It’s really hard out there for an original movie,” he said, urging everyone who liked the Universal Pictures release to “scream it from the rooftops” and on social media.
“Drop” opened this weekend to an estimated $7.5 million domestically, one of two new movies based on fresh ideas that fizzled at the box office. The other was Disney’s “The Amateur,” a spy thriller adapted from a little-known 1981 book, which opened to an estimated $15 million.
After years of gripes from average moviegoers and Hollywood insiders alike about the seemingly nonstop barrage of sequels, spin offs and adaptations of comic books and toys, the film industry placed more bets on original ideas.
The results have been ugly.
Nearly every movie released by a major studio in the past year based on an original script or a little-known book has been a box-office disappointment. Before this weekend’s flops were Warner Bros. Discovery’s “Mickey 17” and “The Alto Knights,” Paramount’s “Novocaine,” Apple’s “Fly Me to the Moon,” Amazon’s “Red One,” and the independently financed “Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1” and “Megalopolis.”
Bluntly, who has the money to go see a movie these days? Tickets can run north of $20, with popcorn and a soda adding another $15. So, two people seeing a movie is $70 ... for two hours of entertainment. That's fine if it's Penn & Teller ($92 tickets in 2006) and you get to interact with them in the lobby afterward (Teller is actually a delightful guy to talk to), but not for a random movie.
I'm not a fan of reboots, prequels and sequels, but I'm absolutely not shelling out that sort of money unless a friend or acquaintance says something is must-see. The last movie I saw in a theatre was Dune 2 ... and I only went because one of the guys on the local Discord had a membership allowing all of us to see it for $10.
People aren't looking for less entertainment, just affordable shit. I grew up seeing random movies in second run at dollar theatres in the '80s, which was admittedly far more expensive after concessions, but still easily doable for under $8.
Quality is of little import when people can't afford to go in the first place.
Shoot, where I grew up in the early 2000's there was a theater showing second runs that gave you a popcorn and a large drink with the ticket for $5. That was when a standard ticket would be $12 - $15, so it was a great deal if you didn't mind the wait or wanted to see something again (And you didn't mind half the lights being burnt out and the carpet looking like it had been rescued from the dump at least twice before finding itself undefoot).
They went out of business of course, but only when streaming started putting pressure on all the movie theatres. Most of the big name theatres in the area didn't make it either.
Also most of the movies now are terrible, I'll just wait and watch from home when I've had people online filter out the junk for me.
As a side note, my last film in theatres was also Dune 2, which I only saw because friends I hadn't seen in a while were going. I did not see the first one, but I have read the books, so it was fine.
I mean, that was my take. It was fine.
That's a low bar for entertainment, though.