Movie theaters: Is there upside beyond film franchises?
I.P. and sequels are dominating the box office this year, much like previous go-arounds in the theatrical cycle. How concerned should we be?
***I will have my THE GREEN KNIGHT review up later today since I’m not seeing it until the evening.***
I love movie theaters. The experience of sitting in a packed room, watching on a gigantic screen, with sounds booming from all around, is an amazing experience. You are engulfed in the film, front and center, and actually feel part of it, whether AVENGERS: ENDGAME is on the screen or PIG.
I am a bit concerned, though. The pandemic showcased how much people just want to sit home and watch on their televisions, and for a while, I was fine with it. Some people still want to do that, but to me, I’m losing the experience of watching a fresh release with excitement and intrigue in the aforementioned viewing way I described. Watching with any food I want to eat at home — more reasonable than an expensive bucket of popcorn, a drink, and candy — is satisfying, granted, but it’s not the same. The atmosphere isn’t there.
For an increasing amount of people, however, and over the past decade-plus, the movie theater experience has been less quintessential and more of a rarity for seeing the latest Marvel Studios movie or the 70th FAST AND FURIOUS film. Box office numbers have been sinking during that time, let alone how virtually nothing was made for a good year during the pandemic. Sure, some years, per Box Office Mojo, have positive net gains, but billion-dollar Disney movies, FAST AND FURIOUS and other major franchises have carried the flag. It’s all about the major, well-known I.P. Not the poorly made SNAKE EYES film, which might not break its budget in terms of box office production, that was just released.
Look at where the domestic box office stands for 2021, with plenty of major films having been released the past four months. From FAST 9 at the top to DEMON SLAYER: MUGEN TRAIN at No. 15, I.P. and sequels rule the day. IN THE HEIGHTS at No. 16 is technically not I.P. or a sequel, but it’s still based on a play. That makes WRATH OF MAN at No. 17 the highest-grossing original film of 2021 so far. Not ideal. This isn’t going to swing in the other direction.
The movie theater is basically for the marquee movies. It’s rare anymore to find an original film that comes out of nowhere to explode at the box office. 2019 had US and ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD make a dent, but the domestic top 10 is all I.P. or sequels. In fact, of 2019’s top 20, US and ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD are the only two original films in the group. The appeal of them was not new, either, with Jordan Peele and Quentin Tarantino, respectively, being household directorial names, but I don’t consider that a negative in this conversation; just look at the stir over Peele’s next film that won’t release until 2022:
I have not lost hope, though. Not at all, because the slate for the rest of 2021 is full of original concepts like THE GREEN KNIGHT, STILLWATER, LAST NIGHT IN SOHO, THE FRENCH DISPATCH, HOUSE OF GUCCI, THE LAST DUEL, THE CARD COUNTER, FREE GUY, MALIGNANT and so much more. Are any of these billion-dollar movies? No, but if a few of them can crack over $100 million worldwide, it’s an optimistic result, even if it means the theaters are hanging on by just another thread.
I’m going to see each of them at my local AMC. I want to see these, especially THE GREEN KNIGHT on Friday night, on big screens and feel immersed in the power of the film, and … I’m actually a little confident in people seeing them, too, or most of them, with Matt Damon’s star power helping (STILLWATER, THE LAST DUEL), Ben Affleck’s pull (THE LAST DUEL), Ryan Reynolds carrying his appeal from the DEADPOOL franchise (FREE GUY), and MALIGNANT being a horror film from James Wan who’s pretty successful in this genre. I have some concerns about the rest. Even one of my favorite film studios, A24, putting out THE GREEN KNIGHT causes some concern despite the overwhelmingly positive reviews. Are people going to be interested enough in a gloomy, steadily-paced story?
So, I’m trying to stay positive because the output is loaded for theatrical releases. Will people actually see them? Who knows. After all those who went to Disney+ for BLACK WIDOW, I’m not sure what it’s going to take. The results of the next five months will show just where we are in the theatrical timeline, and we’ll have to reassess when the time comes.