Another sad turn of event for Hollywood: The market doesn't seem to be expanding anymore. In the past, even bad movies could do okay business at the BO thanks to the constant onslaught of P&A brainwashing from the studios and a little breathing room in the market. It doesn't seem the case anymore. Blame it on the growing cost of movie tickets, on the 3D surchage, but moviegoers seem more discerning in their choices. When a movie does really well, it leaves cadavers in its wake (or, as Archie would put it, and in an attempt to be more diplomatic
) takes away millions from the BO battlefield.
The Hunger Games helped kill
Wrath of the Titans (a better movie which did half of the business of its critically lauded predecessor), and
The Avengers helped kill
Dark Shadows and
Battleship. While both movies are bad (I have seen them, and I can attest), they would have done substantially better business without
The Avengers grossing $500 mil +.
Now comes Paramount's
G.I. Joe, which has led me to change the title of this thread.
G.I. Joe was moved last Thursday from June to March 2013. The studio used a 3D conversion attempt as an excuse, but no one is duped. The movie is bad, and seeing that two really expensive movies have already flopped this year (prompting Disney to a $200 mil writeoff), Paramount freaked out and moved their dud to greener pastures (even after spending millions of $ on advertising.) Toys were also pulled from shelves. The way they had it set up,
G.I. Joe was coming out a few days after
Brave (no effect there), but also a few days before the new
Spider-Man. If the former ends up being good, it would probably do to
G.I. Joe what
Hunger Games and
The Avengers did to others.
This is definitely a new turn of events that has a lot of people in Hollywood scratch their heads. Personally, I think it all comes down to the absurd ticket prices and 3D surcharge. Are bad movies really worth seeing that much? It's finally sinking in.
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