With Scream officially passing $50 million at the box office and Spiderman No Way Home still swinging past mega blockbusters, it seems theaters are rising back from the grave, even with the ongoing Omicron variant.

Unfortunately, not every movie is sharing the same financial success. We have seen big box office bombs the last few months with films such as Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel, which is reported to lose a staggering $100 million. We also saw Steven Spielberg’s remake of West Side Story which had a box office return of $60 million against a budget of $100 million.

Many people are speculating the cause of poor box office performance. Ridley Scott said that he blames millennials and their cell phones with the failure of The Last Duel.

Adult-oriented films have not been succeeding that well for the last few months, with movies such as Green Knight, Last Night in Soho, and Nightmare Alley also failing to make their ends meet. Director Guillermo Del Toro has stated that it has been the most difficult time to make adult films. It’s been very clear that the only properties that are succeeding right now are reboots, sequels, or anything involved in a franchise (Marvel).

Movie genres like period pieces and musicals have never been appealing to younger audiences, and according to sources around 25% of moviegoers are around the ages of 18-25.

Throughout the pandemic, people have been more selective about going outside to do any activity, including going to a theater. And due to the cost of going to a movie theater, It would make more sense to choose to watch a movie that you are familiar with than watch something you possibly may not enjoy all while risking your health.
“Spiderman has also been my most recent theater experience, I went to it because I heard it was good,” senior Amelia Abels said.

With COVID-19 taking an emotional and physical toll on so many people’s lives around the world, people are often going to want to see upbeat and feel-good movies in order to walk out of the theater in a positive mood.

Another reason why The Last Duel might have failed was a depiction of a brutal scene featuring sexual assault that made many people uncomfortable across social media. Licorice Pizza, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson depicts an inappropriate relationship between a 25 year old woman and a 15 year old teenager. Not only that but there’s a scene in the film that includes dialogue making heavy derogatory remarks towards Asian people.

Films are allowed to show problematic subjects, but for the casual audience it often puts a sour taste in their mouths, and thanks to the vocal film communities on Reddit, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and Letterboxd, people are aware of these moments in the movies beforehand. These communities also keep close track of the actors in these movies to learn if they have been involved in any controversies.

Ansel Elgort, one of the main stars in West Side Story has had numerous allegations of underage dating, sexual assault and abuse. Armie Hammer, who will be in Death on a Nile has had screenshots of his conversations leaked by his ex-girlfriend revealing a disturbing side of him. Because of this, his screen time and appearance in trailers has been cut tremendously and there’s reports on how the movie is going to have an underwhelming box office opening.

While people attempt to separate the art from the artist, many people find it difficult to support someone who has committed terrible things. Another big complaint people bring up is the lack of marketing. People mention that they have seen ads for films like Scream, Dune, and Spiderman No Way Home almost every single day before their release, but not for other movies. Marketing is one of the most expensive components in a film’s budget, and if a film is barely advertised on a YouTube ad, social media platform or billboard, people are not going to know about this film.

“I went to see Spiderman No Way Home. I chose it because it was trendy, and I heard good things about it,” senior Luke Bates said.

The release date of a film plays an incredibly vital role in a film’s success. No matter how famous a director or actor is, they will always be beaten by an intellectual property like Spiderman or Batman because of their global fame. The King’s Man and Nightmare Alley unfortunately released their films around the date of No Way Home’s release, underestimating the sheer pull of the name Spiderman on an audience. With theaters still trying to recover losses from empty seats between 2019-2021, they are more willing to pull films out of theaters if they aren’t successful right away.

Many theaters have taken out faltering films in order to show No Way Home in every single theater because it will pull in more money.

Streaming services for the last couple of years have been pulling people out of theaters and allowing them to watch new releases straight from the comfort of their homes. Sites like Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, Peacock and many more have released new movies on their platforms alongside theater releases. Why go to a theater where food and tickets are expensive? Where there’s a chance of an annoying crowd and the inability to pause the movie for a bathroom snack break?

Since this isn’t the 1980s anymore, anybody can get a large 4k TV with surround sound installed for less than $300 dollars, similarly matching an experience to a theater. Yes, there have been must-see theater experiences like Dune and Spiderman, but many people often decide to wait for the lesser known movies to come out online.

These problems are causing fear among film fans and future filmmakers. Film fans, who love going to a theater, might have to venture out farther to find a theater playing their favorite movie. And there is real concern that there might be fewer movies of their favorite genre being produced because they are seen as unprofitable.

Future filmmakers are also starting to fear the question, what is the point of working on a movie for several years for the project to go directly to a streaming service only to be buried by mountains of other media. Looking at other famous directors, they are worrying about not getting money for projects or moving their future projects to streaming services out of need. Mike Leigh, who won Cannes Best Director Award in 1993 for his film Naked, has recently said he is struggling to get the green light for a project.

Other legendary directors like Martin Scorsese and David Fincher have moved to Netflix because major production studios are refusing to finance their films. It is a fact that the theater attendance has been decreasing steadily over the past couple of years, but one thing stays true and that the film industry as a whole is still an extremely profitable business. With COVID-19 still affecting millions of people, there may be hope in the future for a chance of recovery.