Hollywood’s Biggest Problem: Famous Actors, Empty Theaters

Hollywood's drama problem stars without audience. According to the New York Times, Hollywood just went 0 for 25. Over the last three months, every drama and comedy released in North American theaters has swapped by traditional standards, even star driven projects with Julia Roberts, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert Pattinson, Margot Robbie and Dwayne Johnson, they've all flopped. Historically, a modest hit for these genres meant at least $50 million in ticket sales. Today, many of these movies are limping to a few million dollars and then disappearing. Analyst Kevin Goetz says that to succeed in theaters today, dramas and comedies must have event status, something truly elevated and special. It's not just a phase, it's an evolution you can't reverse. Meanwhile, horror, anime and franchise films like Badlands Science still draws some crowds even as October box office sank to its lowest non pandemic level on record. Variety's Owen Glaberman put it bluntly. It has seriously begun to look like the bottom is falling out for adult dramas and comedies in theater. Okay, so what's the real message here? If you are a movie star, if you want to be a movie star in serious drama, serious comedy, and have yourself seen on the big screen, guess what? You're too late. That industry is shutting down. Nobody's going to see big movies anymore. The best you can really hope for is getting on the little screen, or at least the medium screen on TVs. And some of those screens are pretty big. Let's dig a little deeper here. So it's one thing to say, oh, I didn't like this movie or this star is past their prime, but there's a lot of big stars I just named for you. And all of the movies have essentially tanked. There are a number of issues going on there. Part of it is the skyrocketing cost to make movies, even with AI the distribution and marketing costs are astronomical. And there's a couple of other things that have been talked about. Some. But I want to go into more detail. Part of the issue is it's. I find it very unpleasant to go to a movie theater these days. The number one reason is people on their cell phones. I don't want to go, nice dark room, big screen. It's the climactic moment of the entire movie. And the guy next to me has to check his Facebook status at that particular moment. So screen lights up. It's wildly distracting. I'm looking at him, he's looking at me like, what are you looking at, buddy? It's an awkward, awkward situation. So that's part of the issue. Another part of the issue is so many Americans of all ages don't have the attention span for forget a two or three hour movie or the Godfather or something like that. An 89 minute movie is too much for a lot of people because we're so used to looking at a TikTok video or a YouTube short or, or a Facebook reel or an Instagram reel. Getting a chuckle for 30 seconds and moving on. Another issue I think driving this is that TVs have gotten so much better than really just a few years ago. I'm old enough to remember when it was exciting for my family to have TV about I want to say 18 inches maybe it was 14 inches black and white and that's what we watched on tv, you know, three channels. So yeah, it was a big deal to go to a movie theater. A giant, and this is back when you didn't have multiplexes and one building carved up into 89 screens. You had one giant screen and maybe a theater that held a thousand people. That was the typical movie going experience for me and a lot of people. Well that needless to say that's gone. The screens at movie theaters have gotten smaller at the very same time the screens at home are now bigger. You can now get a 98 inch TV screen for from Costco and other place for less than $2,000. I mean that's practically insane. That's not much smaller than what you see in some multiplayer. So if you've got a great screen and a good sound system and a comfy chair, watching a movie in your own home is so much more enjoyable, more relaxing. Plus you don't have to drive somewhere, fight for parking, get a parking ticket, battle with weather, pay $89 for a small popcorn which feed a village. You don't have to deal with any of that stuff. Which is why. And you can say, well tj, you're just old. It's why I rarely go to the movies anymore. Now there are some exceptions. Something like a. The big Barbie movie really dominated pop culture to such an extreme a while back that yeah, that was a big success. But as I mentioned to you, all these movies that came out in the last last three months, 25 major dramas, big budgets, 25 major comedies, big budgets, not one of them was a hit. Now could some of them go on to make money through other distribution? Yeah, but if you, if you are making a movie and you're spending, you know, $50 million making it and 50 million on distribution, you're not going to make that all backedly just hoping, okay, nobody Watched it in the theaters. I'm hoping Netflix gives me a lot by then. It's too late. Typically you need to do really well that first weekend, that first week, that first month for it really to recoup all of its now. I think the smart stars have realized this a while back and they have migrated to streaming services. Adam Sandler had a very good movie career. He's now the king of Netflix. Doesn't seem to bother him that his movies are seen primarily on Netflix because they're paying him tens and tens and tens of millions of dollars and $100 million deals. We're seeing this with other stars as well. Seth Rogen seems to be on every cable. Not cable, every. Every streaming show I watch these days. And I like his show, the Studio and others. You know, he's a guy who's done very well on the big screen and you now see him everywhere on streaming. Jennifer Aniston, I see her in the morning show. She's also in something called Murder Mystery with Adam Sandler, which is a huge Netflix project. Martin Scorsese streamed the Irishman. That was not his first choice. If you'd asked him 10 years ago, do you want to not be on the big screen and just be seen streaming? I think he would have scoffed at that. But these days he realizes that it's a new world we live in. Tell me what you think. I'd love to hear from you if you are watching this live or on demand. Post comments Let me know. How often do you go to the movies now versus in the past, and certainly in the United States, there was a culture before everyone had a TV where everyone went to the movies at least once a week, and kids would go to the movies and see one movie after another after another. Double features, triple features. Haven't heard anyone talk about that in a long time. I can't even imagine sitting in a theater for a double feature anymore. Part of it is we're all used to getting up and eating anything we want. So many of us are multitasking while watching video streams. We want to have a big screen in front of us, an iPad where we're checking out whether the star is wearing a cell phone, where we're texting our friends about the show we like or doing other things. It's fortunately, I would say, not gotten to the point where people are so comfortable going to the movie theater where they're bringing all these devices, an iPad and a phone and a laptop, and simultaneously sending out messages on two or three or four screens at once. When that happens, that'll definitely be my last day attending the movies. Let me know the last movie you saw in a movie theater and was it worth it? Was it special enough? Now, forgive me, this. This sounds like I'm bragging. It's not even humble bragging. It's just bragging. I have recently moved and I have built a home theater. So the sound system is powerful. It's not that expensive to get seats that recline just like you have in a movie theater. And really large hundred inch TVs are not that expensive anymore. Great sound system costs have gone way down. So I'm very, very comfortable watching movies from home and frankly don't see a reason to go out to theaters. Now. You may be younger, you may be dating and you're looking for something to do on a date. It may still be a good reason for doing that. What are your reasons for going to see a movie? Because the days are long gone of that being the only way to consume a movie. You could consume a movie on your cell phone, on your iPad, on your TV, on your computer. What is your own criteria for deciding? I can't wait for this to be on Netflix or on HBO or on Apple Plus. I want to go to the theater.