6 Box-Office Takeaways From a Record Year of Hits and Flops
It’s that time of year where various entertainment trade papers and journalistic outfits assess the previous 12 months in film. For example, TheWrap with “six essential take-aways”:
HALLOWEEN ISN’T THE ONLY TIME FOR HORROR
Horror films were among the year’s most consistent box office performers, as studios discovered that audiences like to get scared whatever the season. Not so long ago, horror was a genre that was largely confined to Halloween, but “The Conjuring,” “The Purge,” “Mama” and “Insidious : Chapter 2″ all opened at different points of the fall, winter and summer, drawing crowds of moviegoers looking to get frightened.
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THE BIGGER PICTURE
Eight of the top-grossing movies globally were screened in IMAX and domestically, the format on average accounted for 15 percent of opening weekend grosses — up 35 percent from last year.
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CATCH SOME FALLING STARS
Audiences don’t care whose name is above the title. Perhaps the onslaught of masked avengers has made moviegoers less picky about the actors and actresses whose films they’re willing to plunk down $18 to see, but star power took another hit in 2013.
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BIG SPENDING DOESN’T EQUAL BIG BOX OFFICE
All the money in the world couldn’t save “The Lone Ranger.” Or “R.I.P.D.” Or “Pacific Rim.” Or “After Earth.” Or, if the miserable tracking is on point, the upcoming Christmas release, “47 Ronin.”
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MARVEL IS THIS YEAR’S MODEL, AND NEXT
With “Iron Man 3” and “Thor: The Dark World” getting such a significant bounce from “Marvel’s The Avengers” this year, the bottom-line benefits of Disney’s mix-match-and-multiply strategy became crystal clear. Those two movies delivered $1.8 billion at the box office this year, and provided millions more in momentum for the next year’s Marvel movies, “Captain America: Winter Soldier” (April 14) and “Guardians of the Galaxy” (Aug. 1). And then there’s the theme park rides, merchandising and TV, video game and TV and streaming spin-offs based on the comic book heroes.
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TWO ADULTS FOR ‘GRUDGE MATCH,’ PLEASE
That the county’s 76 million baby boomers — who have the most spending power and have made the movies their first entertainment choice for decades — are increasingly critical to Hollywood isn’t a surprise. But the degree to which they drove this year’s box office raised eyebrows.
Financiers could probably minimize risk and maximize profit potential by focusing on two areas exclusively: Horror movies and films targeting the Baby Boomer demo.
Actually screenwriters might benefit from that takeaway as well…
For the rest of TheWrap article, go here.
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