As last year’s dismal box office became apparent, we were assured and reassured by the so-called experts that this year’s box office would set everything right. Well…
“As of Sunday, movies have generated $1.34 billion in the U.S. and Canada this year, down 7% from the same period in 2024, according to Comscore,” reports the far-left L.A. Times. “March has been particularly weak. The month is expected to end down 50% year over year. Remember, last year‘s first quarter was down significantly from pre-COVID-19 levels, so business is bad. Really bad.”
Anyone with basic math skills already knew that. What’s interesting about this L.A. Times article is that it dares to suggest that maybe-possibly-perhaps the quality of the product (i.e. movies) could be the problem.
Imagine that!
The Times spoke to John Fithian, who was once in charge of the National Association of Theatre Owners. Today, he runs a consulting firm and is interested in producing mid-budget movies.
Fithian points out that streaming should not be the death of movies because in the past “as movie lovers found ways to watch movies on television, via DVDs, via streaming, it made them more movie lovers.”
Correct.
As far as the entertainment industry’s ongoing excuse that the COVID pandemic killed movies and moviegoing, he brings the science: “Other COVID-impacted out-of-home experiences [Broadway, concerts, sports] have rebounded and grown post-pandemic, and the movie theater industry hasn’t.”
So why have these other public events rebounded but not the movies? Fithian speaks the truth: The “problem is that the number and quality of movies being supplied in theatrical distribution has declined significantly, and that is not purely a pandemic effect.”
He adds that the “decline in the quality and quantity of movies was already occurring before the pandemic.”
Finally. Finally! FINALLY!
Note that he his not saying there are fewer movies being released after the pandemic, which simply isn’t true. He’s saying that “the number and quality of movies […] has declined significantly.”
Then the L.A. Times asks a real beauty: “I think people intuitively believe that the quality of movies has decreased over time, but do we have evidence?”
This is like asking, “What evidence do we have that the reason the dogs won’t eat the dog food is because the dog food tastes terrible?”
Look at the box office!
I tell ya. These people are something else.
Fithian answers the question diplomatically: “It’s hard to have good data on quality. But if it’s a diet of Marvel movie after Marvel movie, even as good as they are, the moviegoing consumer is going to say, ‘You know, there really just isn’t what I want to see in cinemas anymore.’ Where is the mid-budget romantic comedy? Where is the mid-budget drama?”
As I have written a hundred times, plenty of movies have proven people still want to go to the movies: Top Gun: Maverick, Barbie, Inside Out 2, Oppenheimer, Wicked, Deadpool & Wolverine, Dune, Avatar… If people had changed their moviegoing habits, nothing would be a success.
There is a very simple way to point this out…
You open a movie theater with six screens. On three screens you play Top Gun: Maverick, Oppenheimer, and Barbie. In those theaters, the seats are full and the line for the next show is out the door. On the remaining three screens you have Snow White, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, and The Exorcist: Believer. In those theaters, you could lob a hand grenade without hurting anyone and the only thing waiting in line for the next show is a tumbleweed.
So, what’s the issue here? Have people stopped going to the movies or have people stopped going to unappealing movies?
If people no longer went to the movies, no movie would succeed. Period.
Sorry, Woke Hollywood. The problem is your terrible, divisive, preachy, smug, anti-human nature, everyone’s gay, sexless, child-grooming dog food, not us dogs.
John Nolte’s first and last novel, Borrowed Time, is winning five-star raves from everyday readers. You can read an excerpt here and an in-depth review here. Also available in hardcover and on Kindle and Audiobook.
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