If the latest Hollywood projections are to be believed, this summer’s box office gross will be the worst in over a decade.
A Los Angeles Times article published on 5th May drew attention to the fact that a 5% to 10% drop in box office revenue this year would amount to a decrease of roughly $450 million. This would leave the total box office take at a currently estimated amount around $4 billion.
The industry insiders blame ‘franchise fatigue’ for the loss, adding that streaming shows have taken the word-of-mouth excitement from the summer releases. There is also fear that this summer’s big movie sequels, such as Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge, will fare worse than their predecessors. This comes after X-Men Apocalypse and Independence Day: Resurgence both under-performed badly last year. This trend suggests that long running franchises are no longer interesting audiences, which in turn has resulted in a decline in box office take.
However, numbers also suggest that the total box office gross for 2017 thus far has actually increased on this time last year, despite the poor summer projections. This is down to movies such as Beauty and the Beast and The Fate of the Furious raking in huge domestic sums in both March and April. This combined with Hollywood’s expectations for this summer have lead many to believe in the growing insignificance of the summer release window, which has traditionally been the movie businesses most profitable season.
President of domestic distribution for Warner Bros, Jeff Goldstein, said in a recent interview “It is a 12-month calendar, and because there’s so many tent poles, everybody spreads them out.”
Regardless of the reason for this projected poor summer, Hollywood will surely be rethinking its strategy for next year, should the predicted numbers come to fruition.
Check out the Pirates of the Carribean trailer below:
