Heading Towards Box Office Decline?

This month has had the ups and downs of movies doing well in theaters or struggling. Not a shocker. But it could be a sign that the new decade may begin with not many checking out specific movies.

Some of the biggest failures were films such as Richard Jewell and Cats. I saw Jewell failing because of the subject matter and not knowing what exactly was the truth. I don't think politics played a role. Cats is one of those ideas that bringing a musical play to the big screen would be good. Universal has had some hits with musicals in recent memory and more than likely thought they had a good spot to do strong. They are going to lose millions on it.

Sequels like Star Wars and Jumanji are still films people will fawn over and anticipate the next big release. So far, Star Wars has done okay, but how much people are still on the bandwagon for it, that's what I'm looking at. Last year I talked about oversaturation and fatigue. I think we're seeing it even though it's only been out for less than two weeks. Not to the level of Solo, but still. The amount of success Jumanji has had these last two years, it's a surprise to revive a modest success the 1995 original had. Maybe ditching a storyline helps? As long as it doesn't get too sequel happy.

Then you have films like Uncut Gems and Little Women. Uncut Gems helps a little bit with Adam Sandler and a few other people like Kevin Garnett being in it. A crime thriller, something you don't see too often. While it debuted a strong opening weekend, whether it has legs is another question for A24, which is still a very small company despite growing and getting into television. Little Women is more of a smaller budget adaptation of a book that hasn't seen a film adaptation in a very long time. With critical acclaim at the moment, it enjoyed a good five day debut. These are the kind of films we need as we rely too much on tent pole releases

Smaller releases around this time are getting wide releases soon. Just Mercy and 1917 are just a few example. VHYes is something I am genuinely curious about and hopefully it goes wide after its release in mid January. We need that healthy mix of small films and the big ones as 2020 begins. Something like a Bad Boys or a Birds of Prey. You have to hope Hollywood knows what kind of dark future it could have for a year or so as people continue to go towards the streaming route and watching more and more movies at home.