Tag: Politics

Box Office Down Again in 2017

landscape-1488452253-pirates-of-the-caribbean-poster
As 2017 draws to a close, the entertainment industry is discovering it has to deal with the reality that this year turns out to be the worst ever for the Hollywood brand.

The sex scandals surrounding movie mogul Harvey Weinstein and other major Hollywood players certainly did not help matters. Neither did the vitriolic politics that routinely spewed from left-wing celebrities’ mouths and wound up alienating folks from coast to coast.

This year the movie box office, once the primary gauge of the entertainment business, suffered yet another decline. Despite the fact that over the last twenty years or so gross box-office revenues saw an increase, for the last decade and a half actual ticket sales have consistently taken a dive.

The final 2017 tally for the North American box office appears as if it will be in the range of 2 to 4 percent less than the previous year, somewhere slightly above $11.1 billion.

It is only the third year that the domestic box office has ever made it over the $11 billion level; however, the number of tickets sold turns out to be the lowest amount since 1995.

Basically, a smaller audience is paying a higher price to see movies at the multiplex, and although the price increase is somewhat tied to inflation, it is a combination of factors that is responsible for a shrinking theater-going audience.

Big studios have been relying on existing franchises, and the creation of new ones, to fill the seats. However, the annual revenue performance was down, in part because of some underperforming sequels and remakes.

Additionally, some of the old film franchises are beginning to fade, as seen in the following examples:

— “Alien: Covenant,” Ridley Scott’s installment in the “Alien” series, came in far below expectations.

–“Transformers: The Last Knight” produced the lowest revenue of the franchise so far.

— The attempt to create a DC version of Marvel’s “Avengers” with “Justice League” essentially fizzled.

— Universal released “The Mummy” in order to launch a new “Dark Universe” franchise, but it was dead on arrival.

— “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword,” “Valerian,” and “The Dark Tower” were all produced and released with the hopes that they would each result in a stream of sequel progenies, but the hopes failed to materialize.

The sequels that fared well created new variations on the super-hero theme. “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” yet another in a series of reboots in the franchise, used a high school setting to insert universal teen angst into the storyline. Similarly, “Thor: Ragnarok” surprised fans of the god of thunder, involving him in a comedic romp.

The horror and comedy genres still have the power to pack the traditional movie setting, thanks to a reliance on the shared audience experience. Unfortunately, the current comedy formula of potty humor laced with profanity produced a series of bombs in “Baywatch,” “The House,” and “ChiPs.”

On the other hand, it is a safe bet that Hollywood will release more films in the horror genre. “It” was a blockbuster, and the box office successes of “Split,” “Get Out,” and “Annabelle: Creation” produced large profit margins due to relatively inexpensive production costs.

Just prior to the start of the summer season, studio heads were taking heart in the early releases that did do well, including “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Fate of The Furious.” In June, the singular DC success “Wonder Woman” ended up scoring well enough at the box office to create a valuable new franchise.

Still, by summer’s end it was clear that the movie business would have to overcome a season splattered with non-performing releases. The summer of 2017 produced the lowest box-office totals in a quarter of a century, placing studio executives under a deep dark cloud.

It was clear that executives were in a box-office hole as a result of the disappointing performances of installments that were previously proven franchises, including “The Mummy,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales,” and “Transformers: The Last Knight.”

There was, however, a pleasant summer surprise that arrived in the form of “Dunkirk,” a World War II epic and one of the best films of the year. Director Christopher Nolan demonstrated how one can create a film experience that is exquisitely dependent on theater attendance. He used IMAX cameras in the filming of the movie and promoted the need for filmgoers to view the movie on wide screens as opposed to streaming it on a device.

Hollywood insiders were waiting for the anticipated galactic revenue flow from “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” to rescue the year, but here, too, the numbers did not hit the high mark.

No doubt Hollywood’s image has taken a beating in fly-over country and beyond, due to the sexual harassment and assault allegations, outrageous celebrity political posturing, late-night’s unfunny agenda-ridden routines, and the like.

Perhaps the movie business, like the NFL, is simply reaping what it sows.

George Clooney and Jennifer Lawrence Alienate Potential Moviegoers

imgonline-com-ua-twotone-35heluaid71l

Two of Hollywood’s top celebrities just offended tens of millions of would-be moviegoers with their ill-timed politically charged remarks and over-the-top rants about our current president.

In so doing, the duo may have placed their box-office potential in some serious jeopardy.

George Clooney is on record as being a certified Trump antagonist. In April 2016 he lobbed pejoratives at then-Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump when he referred to the promise to build a wall at the U.S. southern border as a policy that does not represent “U.S. values.”

The actor seemed to echo anchors at CNN and MSNBC as he mindlessly attacked the president’s immigration policies.

Clooney additionally used a string of vulgarities to vilify former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon. While speaking at the Toronto International Film Festival to a fawning press, the star characterized Bannon as a “failed f***ing screenwriter.”

Interestingly, Clooney employed the exact same language about Bannon in February of this year while attending the César Film Awards ceremony in Paris.

Apparently preoccupied with Bannon’s film career (16 films produced) Clooney was again unable to control his profane language. He arrogantly claimed that if Bannon had “somehow managed miraculously to get that thing [his screenplay] produced, he’d still be in Hollywood, still making movies and licking my a** to get me to do one of his stupid-a** screenplays.”

Similarly, while attempting to sell his new movie to The Daily Beast, Clooney became unhinged about Bannon.

“Steve Bannon is a pu**y,” Clooney coarsely remarked.

He went on to call Bannon a “little wannabe writer who would do anything in the world to have had a script made in Hollywood.”

Clooney did admit that he had read one of Bannon’s scripts and proceeded to label it “just f***kin’ terrible.”

The supposed pro-refugee actor recently made the decision to move his family to the U.S. over security concerns in the U.K., concerns that are likely related, at least in part, to some serious refugee issues overseas.

Meanwhile, despite the fact that Texas is struggling to recover from Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma wreaks havoc in Florida and the Caribbean, actress Jennifer Lawrence let loose with a number of insensitive remarks that landed her on a roster of Hollywood celebs who have made some of the biggest blunders in PR history.

While out promoting her latest film, Lawrence suggested that the devastating hurricanes in Texas and Florida were “Mother Nature’s rage and wrath” at the American electorate for voting President Trump into office and failing to embrace the theory of man-made global warming.

While speaking to the U.K.’s Channel 4, the actress responded to an interviewer’s question with the following comments:

“You know, you’re watching these hurricanes now, and it’s really hard, especially while promoting this movie, not to feel Mother Nature’s rage and wrath.”

“It’s also scary to know that climate change is due to human activity, and we continue to ignore it, and the only voice that we really have is through voting.”

Lawrence evidently believes that the “rage and wrath” she describes has occurred because of the election of Trump, which she called “really startling.”

The actress told Entertainment Weekly in 2015 that if Trump were to win the White House it would be “the end of the world.” She has purportedly been feeling very distressed ever since that fateful November evening.

When Lawrence experiences distress she reportedly calms herself with a “Kardashian tent,” which is a tent that she has said contains “pictures of the Kardashians and Keeping Up with the Kardashians playing on a loop…”

The actress also supposedly stocks her tent with gobs of gumballs, calling it her “happy place.”

After the public gets wind of their remarks and the box-office results for their respective movies come rolling in, both stars may need to seek the shelter of a “happy place,” complete with gumballs, Kardashian pics, and a pair of matching binkies.