May 2nd, 2006

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Movies
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It’s the Movie, Stupid

Via the Moxie blog, this is the most interesting article I’ve read about movie economics in a long time. It’s written by Lynda Obst, a veteran Hollywood producer, and echoes the media balkanization message we’ve been hearing for the past few years:

So we can’t put a bad blockbuster over anymore, as in the golden era of 2002, when The Scorpion King could open at $36 million, or Blade II at $33 million. And we have to kill our singular addiction to teenage boys. We need to diversify the meaning of “our audience.” We have a few audiences. Baby-boomers have a movie habit and an IV hooked up to pop culture (look at Inside Man or The Interpreter).

She certainly sounds authoritative, even though her numbers are anecdotal. This comes on the heels of this well-linked article about how theatres hope to lure audiences back to the movies.

Comments: 3 Responses so far

Patty - UBC
May 2nd, 2006
10:27 am

Interesting articles. One note, that while movie sales overall are down…. the ticket sales for the Vancouver Film Festival actually went up last year. Perhaps the movie buffs just want some more interesting well-made movies instead of another bad remake of movies/tv series of which there are waaaaay too many.

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-j.
May 2nd, 2006
12:29 pm

To use economic terms, I think movies have reached the end of their price elasticity. There was always an assumption that people would pay any price to see movies. Now, movies are so expensive (and there are many substitute goods), that consumers are far more discriminating with their moviegoing dollar. If they don’t think they will like the movie, they won’t go; it’s no longer just “a way to kill 2 hours”.

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Patty - UBC
May 2nd, 2006
1:03 pm

“j” what you say is true, the movie goers are becoming more discriminatory I personally choose to see movies in the theatre such as foreign films or speciality ones that I’m less likely to see on tv or on the dvd market.

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