Hollywood is Broken

And broke. The Hollywood Reporter by way of Yahoo Entertainment: Summer Box Office Clobbered by Kryptonite: Domestic Revenue Barely Matches Last Year

They mention Kryptonite, but the article is a lot of copium. They are still blaming COVID. They are blaming the failure of "Male-skewing Movies," that they filled with girlbosses and Pedro Pascal, and there is no mention of the strikes. There is no idea why all those "Male-skewing" movies filled with girlbosses, emasculated men, and Pedro Pascal, failed. (See the video for answers.)

All had assumed this year’s summer lineup would have the strength to equal or surpass the $4.09 billion grossed in summer 2023. But it isn’t to be, leaving studio execs and exhibitors in a state of shock as they wrestle with how to operate in a new world order where moviegoing might never return to pre-COVID levels. (One studio that’s still smiling is Warner Bros., which has been a dazzling winning streak.)

I really only include the link above for completeness. I recommend the video below from Gary "Nerdrotic" Buechler.

This is the Nerdrotic Daily video BLOCKBUSTER BLUES – This Summer’s Box Office Is Even Worse Than Last Year. It's a 16 minute excerpt from the Nerdrotic Nooner, which ran a couple of hours.

One of my theories has to do with the length of movies. Movies in the 1970s and '80s were 90 or 120 minutes long. That was short enough that Date Night™ could include dinner at a reasonable restaurant, a movie, with time left afterward for coffee/desert or drinks. With movies lasting 3 hours or more, there is not time for all of that. Is it any wonder people stopped going to the movies?

Sure, a few movies were always events. Gone with the Wind was close to 4 hours with overture, intermission and entr'acte, and exit music. But it was a special case, not every movie. The Way We Were (1973) is just shy of 2 hours. The French Connection is 104 minutes. Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles is 93 minutes. Not every movie is Gone with the Wind or Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.

Hollywood needs to think about who they want to go to the movies, and what they should be charging those people. Otherwise they are going to be competing with streaming, which is everything in their back catalog, everything on YouTube, Rumble, etc. and the fact that the movies in theaters today will be on Premium Video on Demand in a month or 3, and on streaming after that.