Reel Talk: "Rotten" Box Office

Despite a couple bright spots, this summer was a bust for Hollywood in the domestic market. Ticket sales are down about 15% from this same time last year, and as you'd expect executives are looking for answers. And apparently their answer was the movie review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. Now I've already written about why this is stupid when DC fans were claiming to shut down or sue Rotten Tomatoes for killing Suicide Squad, even though the critically panned film made tons of money. My point then and now is that a film doesn't have to be good to make money and that word of mouth kills movies faster than anything in the internet age. So what's really to blame? How can Hollywood recover? I've got a couple of ideas.

Spread Your Blockbusters Out

I had to think really hard to remember any movies that came out in August this year. I think The Hitman's Bodyguard at some point? Maybe the new Anabelle thing? Didn't they make a Bruce Lee movie nobody saw? Whatever. The point is studios seem to be so afraid of August as a dead month or trying to compete with super fights that they completely that they stack up blockbusters on top of each and cannibalize their business. You know what movie would've been perfect for an August release? War for the Planet of Apes. Instead it got sandwiched between a Christopher Nolan movie and Spider-Man where it had no chance of getting the sci-fi crowd or the older crowd. The point is if put all your biggest movies in June and July don't be surprised when August is full of awful weekends. Hell the first Guardians of the Galaxy was released in August and made almost a billion dollars.

Stop Jumping On Trends & Get Off Old Ones

Here's a list of blockbusters and why they were didn't work or made less money than expected.

• The Mummy: tried to make a shared universe when no one was ever going to care about that
• Transformers: The Last Knight: we've seen this movie four times already and they're only getting worse
• Cars 3: We didn't even want Cars 2
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales: Do you remember when Johnny Depp seemed charming? It feels so long ago doesn't it? Also if your franchise is a measure for culturally out of touch costume...it's time to hang it up
• King Arthur: Legend of the Sword: Is your name Game of Thrones? No? Lord of the Rings? No? Then why on earth are you green-lighting big budget fantasy?
• Despicable Me 3: Despicable 2 worked because it meant kids got to see more Minions. Then you made a Minions movie....and now you think the kids will want to see the one with the humans? Also their parents hate you.
• Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets: Bright colorful fun loving sci-fi? That sounds awesome! Wait what's Guardians of the Galaxy? Do they have actual characters in their movie? Ah shit
• The Emoji Movie: You know what you did.
• The Dark Tower: Shared universe? Oh god.
• The Nut Job 2: I tried so hard to forget this existed...and now I'm furious

Starting to see the trends? Sequels nobody asked for. Movies clearly made for foreign markets (i.e. Pirates and Transformers). Ideas that sound terrible in the current market. And trying to copy Marvel.

None of these failures should've been surprising to movie executives, even before bad reviews started to come in. 

Learn The Right Things From the Successes: Diversify Your Movies and Movie Makers

When you look at the breakout hits of the summer, and there's not a ton, a lot of them have one thing in common. They stand out. Wonder Woman was the first female big budget superhero movie. Girls Trip was a female centric comedy starring black women. Baby Driver was a unique action film from a gifted and unconventional filmmaker. Dunkirk was a WWII larger than life story release...in the summer. Guardians of the Galaxy was the first highly anticipated sequel to a new franchise behind the Marvel machine and Spider-man: Homecoming was a light-hearted teen-centric romp. 

This is why we need more diverse films and film-makers. Because audiences are tired. They're tired of attempts to make shared universes. They're tired of same generic white guys in the same generic blockbusters. So much so that making a female superhero movie feels revolutionary (not a knock on the film by the by but rather the industry).

So lead the charge. Greenlight films from people of color and women. Maybe run your movie pitch past a random movie blogger to see if it sounds like a good idea. Try new intellectual property or create your own. 

As always the answer to the box office riddle isn't more of the same: it's something different. Like say...a horror movie based on a popular book and miniseries. I bet It could clean up....