Tuesday, January 03, 2006

1.4 billion tix and still not enough

According to E! Online, here's the top 10 movies for 2005:

1. Star Wars: Episode III--Revenge of the Sith, $380.3 million
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, $277.1 million
3. War of the Worlds, $234.3 million
4. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, $225.7 million
5. Wedding Crashers, $209.2 million
6. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, $206.5 million
7. Batman Begins, $205.3 million
8. Madagascar, $193.1 million
9. Mr. & Mrs. Smith, $186.3 million
10. Hitch, $177.6 million

What that list tells me is that folks are only willing to leave the comfort of their dens, with surround sound and ever-bigger TVs (not to mention pay-per-view movies for rent, so they don't even have to leave the couch to rent a flick) for the ad-infested, eardrum-splitting, bank-breaking cinemas when they can get something that only a theatre can provide: i.e., either spectacles; or an audience to laugh with.

Meanwhile, today the LA Times provided some historical perspective on all the whining from Hollywood about how the 1.4 billion ticket box office for 2005 proves that movies are in trouble. Turns out that in numbers of butts-in-seats, it's better than many years and not as good as others. Notably, in the late seventies and early eighties the movie industry was a lot worse off than it is now.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

But there were some memorable movies in the 70s and even in the 80s (brat pack movies still get play). Even the movies that I enjoy are forgotten soon.