I was watching a video on YouTube that discussed the cratering of movie attendance after 2020 and how even after COVID was no longer a thing, how movie attendance has never recovered to pre-2020 numbers.\u00a0 But the truth is that even before COVID the movies were steadily losing ground since around the year 2000.\u00a0 So really COVID just hastened a trend that was already under way.<\/p>\n
Well, that clarifies things somewhat but I think there are things to consider about this whole trend.\u00a0 It\u2019s not just a situation where a change in technology is disrupting an old business model.\u00a0 Without a doubt that is happening.\u00a0 But there is another phenomenon at work simultaneously.\u00a0 And that factor is ideology.\u00a0 For at least the last ten years there has been a concerted effort on the part of the movie making industry to restrict films to what they consider \u201cacceptable\u201d themes and characters.<\/p>\n
And I think the drop in ticket sales reflects this change.\u00a0 A solid thirty five percent of the country consists of people who aren\u2019t motivated to see these types of movies, at all.\u00a0 And this accounts for the drop in attendance and box office.<\/p>\n
I guess the question that must be answered is, can the industry survive without this segment of the population?\u00a0 The jury is still out but I think the answer is no.\u00a0 Theaters have already become a low margin industry and without the enthusiastic patronage of key demographics financial viability won\u2019t exist for much longer.\u00a0 Then, what are the possibilities going forward?<\/p>\n
One possibility is for some newer players in the movie making industry to modernize their operations to lower costs to the point where profits can be made with niche projects that can depend on a reliable demographic to support them.\u00a0 This could work for the superhero films if the movies cater to the expectations of boys and young men to be entertained with an adventure story that appeals to their instincts.\u00a0 By the same token a film that caters to the expectations of an LGBTQ audience or a young female audience or a baby boomer audience could also make money if its budget doesn\u2019t swamp out its box office.\u00a0 And so that could be the future.<\/p>\n
I guess it\u2019s possible that Hollywood could become so frightened by what has happened to their profits that they decide to do an about face and start making the kind of movies they made twenty years ago; ones that appealed to the bulk of Americans without trying to divide them by race and sex.\u00a0 But somehow, I seriously doubt they\u2019d succeed.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think they still have the wherewithal to recognize what goes into a movie like that.\u00a0 Even if they tried to recreate that kind of movie making their instincts would betray them and the same woke tropes and characters would appear.\u00a0 So the first scenario with new players seems more likely.<\/p>\n
But I do not think any of this will happen quickly.\u00a0 The entertainment industry is currently in turmoil.\u00a0 Video games are currently the most popular form of entertainment for the younger generation.\u00a0 Super hero movies in the last two or three years have bombed at the box office pretty consistently.\u00a0 It will be a little while before the new money from Silicon Valley has had a chance to completely usurp the crown from the old Hollywood studios.\u00a0 It\u2019s definitely already happening but it\u2019s not there yet.\u00a0 When it does, I think we will start to see some very interesting changes.\u00a0 It will never look like what we had.\u00a0 Because we are not what we used to be.\u00a0 But if it provides products for all of the larger audience types it might be good enough for my movie viewing pleasure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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