“Summer Movie Attendance Likely Lowest in Two Decades”

Per THR:

According to preliminary estimates, 533.5 million tickets were sold this season, down 4 percent from last summer and the worst turnout since 1993. The previous 19-year low came in summer 2010, when there were 534.4 tickets sold.

Total summer revenue also slipped. Initial estimates show the domestic box office generating $4.278 billion in sales, down roughly 3 percent from last summer’s record $4.4 billion.

The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, Ice Age: Continental Drift, Ted, Magic Mike, all hits.

Battleship, Rock of Ages, Dark Shadows, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, The Dictator, Total Recall, all misses.

And then this:

The first weekend after Labor Day is historically light in terms of moviegoing revenues, but this year was worse than usual and the first time since the same weekend in 2008 that no film grossed $10 million or more.

That weekend, revenues reached $68 million; this weekend, they are expected to top out between $65 million and $67 million (final figures won’t be available until Monday). If so, that would mark the worst weekend since immediately after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when revenues topped out at $66.5 million the weekend immediatley following the attacks and $59.7 million over the Sept. 21–23 weekend.

So let’s see, what are our options: (A) The movie business is dying, (B) There were a bunch of mediocre movies, © Audiences are getting tired of sequels and retreads, (D) The whole Mayan calendar end of the world thing is not looking so weird now.

What’s your opinion why summer B.O. and this last weekend is off on the domestic front?

For more of the THR article, go here.

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