Why the Box Office Continues to Suck

Let's look to the past to see why Hollywood movies continue to flounder in theaters

Earlier this week I watched Prince’s 1986 vanity project Under the Cherry Moon for the first time ever (you should really watch it before it leaves Criterion Channel on Friday) and it got me thinking of the current discussions about how shitty the American box office is. What does a Prince-led box office bomb have to do with why Furiosa didn’t make millions of dollars, you ask?

It made me think about how a studio like Warner Bros. gave him $12 million dollars, script unseen, to make whatever he wanted and were surprised the movie didn’t return on investment. Was it really surprising at the time? And, thus, should we really be surprised that the current box office didn’t just immediately spring back to 2019 levels?

It feels like we’ve always been talking about the lack of turnout for movies, even before the pandemic. According to The Numbers, between 2009-2017 the box office had been pretty steady at over $10 billion a year and that’s in spite of ever increasing movie budgets and promotion. And at that time the fear was the rise of streaming destroying people’s desire to see movies.

For me, as a classic film fan, the doomsday about the death of the movie theater has always been present. According to Foster Hirsch’s fantastic book Hollywood in the Fifties, the fear of television caused studios to implement the roadshow film — wherein a movie was three hours long and it was presented as more of a night at the legit theater — as well as gimmicks like 3D and the travelogue to entice people into buying an experience they couldn’t get at home. Before that, during the Great Depression, theaters worried about everyone’s lack of superficial funds and would entice audiences in with giveaways like free dishes. We’ve been here before, gang, and America weathered things.