Attendance Hit a 15-Year Low in November

[:eek:]

by Brandon Gray

December 5, 2010


It's half-way through the holiday movie season, and business has been dull. The November box office came in at $897 million, which was off ten percent from November 2009's record $995 million haul. That represented the steepest year-to-year drop on record.
What's worse, November 2010 was the weakest November in 15 years in terms of estimated attendance, winding up at approximately 106 million. It edged out November 2007 for the dishonor.
Much of the disparity between November 2010 and 2009 came from 2010's programming lacking an event picture in the middle of the month. 2009 had 2012 lined up mid-month, versus the more limited Unstoppable and low-rent Skyline this year. Furthermore, there were no surprise hits in November 2010 to match The Blind Side in 2009. November 2010's brightest spot in terms of flouting past comparisons was Tangled, but that came near the end of the month and wasn't enough to right the course.
November was the fourth month in a row of 2010 that was down in attendance compared to 2009. As a whole, 2010's gross was still running ahead of 2009 through Nov. 30, $9.68 billion to $9.53 billion, but 2010's the least-attended year since 1997 thus far.
As expected, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 was by far the top-grossing picture of November 2010 with $223.7 million. Megamind was second with $131 million, followed by Due Date ($85.8 million), Tangled ($72.2 million) and Unstoppable ($61.7 million).

 

[LastSunrise1981]

Well, the problem with the summer and this holiday season is that with the exception of a few movies there were no huge hits. I mean Inception, Karate Kid, and Eclipse did monster numbers for the Summer. But the fall didn't have any films that jumped out at people except Harry Potter.

With Tron, Little Fockers, and Yogi Bear comes out this year I think it'll make the holiday season a little better. I feel people are underestimating Tron and the visual aspect of it.

I'm sure things will pick up next year though.

 

[BLACK-SPIDEY]

Well, the problem with the summer and this holiday season is that with the exception of a few movies there were no huge hits. I mean Inception, Karate Kid, and Eclipse did monster numbers for the Summer. But the fall didn't have any films that jumped out at people except Harry Potter.

With Tron, Little Fockers, and Yogi Bear comes out this year I think it'll make the holiday season a little better. I feel people are underestimating Tron and the visual aspect of it.

I'm sure things will pick up next year though.

You can say that again...

Transformers 3
HP7 Part 2
Pirates of the Caribbean 4
Mission Impossible 4
Cars 2 (even if its bad it´ll make money, its Disney)
Winnie The Pooh (Again, Disney)
Thor
Captain America
Green Lantern
Battle:Los Angeles
Fast Five
Scream 4

Thats all I can remember but im pretty sure theres more than that....

 

[LastSunrise1981]

You can say that again...

Transformers 3
HP7 Part 2
Pirates of the Caribbean 4
Mission Impossible 4
Cars 2 (even if its bad it´ll make money, its Disney)
Winnie The Pooh (Again, Disney)
Thor
Captain America
Green Lantern
Battle:Los Angeles
Fast Five
Scream 4

Thats all I can remember but im pretty sure theres more than that....

Kung Fu Panda 2 comes out as well. Other than that I think you pretty much have them all.

 

[Catman]

Attendance is down because the economy. Let's be honest. There's plenty of movies I haven't seen yet because I can't afford it at the moment. 127 Hours, for example, is playing in my city but I have other financial things to worry about at the moment.

 

[Justkidding]

Another factor behind attendance being down is how much better cams, and getting ahold of dvd screeners has gotten on the internet. For example my friends were passing along a website that had movies up the day they were released in theater with a cam of it so good it looked like was it almost dvd quality. Not to mention, two weeks after Expendables was out a dvd copy of the film was already #1 on torrent sites.

 

[LastSunrise1981]

Attendance is down because the economy. Let's be honest. There's plenty of movies I haven't seen yet because I can't afford it at the moment. 127 Hours, for example, is playing in my city but I have other financial things to worry about at the moment.

In some ways that's true, but in other ways it also is because the films that have been released haven't been that good either. Harsh economic times calls for people going to the theatre to escape.

People are getting the money from somewhere or else the attendance would be lower. I believe a lot of it has to do with the lack of great films. Films like Eclipse, Toy Story 3, Inception, Karate Kid, Megamind, Harry Potter, and Iron Man 2 are proof that a harsh economy didn't stop people from coming.

 

[marvelman2006]

Im curiuos to see last novembers numbers because the ecnomy was worse last year to me anyway. If you think about it harry potter was really the only november movie to come out that was "big". next years movie line up reminds me of 2005 summer based on all the big titles coming out. I would be shocked if next year there isnt some type of box office numbers record for the year total.

 

[GhostPoet]

The last movie I went out to see was the A-Team...nothing else has grabbed me enough to go out. There have been movies I WANTED to see...but not enough to go out and see them. Tron will be the exception.

Plus money is tight...I have a choice...buy a Kinect or go out to more movies. I got the Kinect.

 

[Motown Marvel]

im sure there are a lot of factors that can be cited for low attendance....but at the end of the day, i think hollywood just isnt making good movies.

 

[terry78]

im sure there are a lot of factors that can be cited for low attendance....but at the end of the day, i think hollywood just isnt making good movies.

When the economy was good, they had even more ability to make poor movies that still raked it in though.

 

[bullets]

I saw Potter twice in November . I was tempted to see Unstoppable , Tangled , and 127 Hours (if only it played in my area ) . I've slowed down going to the theater for financial reasons but I'm not regretting it.

 

[Deaths Head II]

I think the economy just made people less willing to go to the theater unless they think the movie is worth it. So it's a mix of bad movies and the economy. If there is a big movie coming out, it will probably do well but people are probably less likely to go to the theater every week and catch whatever happens to be out at the time.

 

[Bunker]

im sure there are a lot of factors that can be cited for low attendance....but at the end of the day, i think hollywood just isnt making good movies.

There are plenty of good movies out right now. They're just not wide releases.

 

[danoyse]

I used to go after work all the time, but movie tickets in NY are so ridiculously expensive that I don't go as often anymore. Now I usually only see a movie in the city if it's a limited release that's not playing in NJ.

I wanted to see the new Narnia movie tomorrow night, but they only have 3D shows starting when I can go...and I ain't paying $19 to see that in 3D.

 

[spider-neil]

the reason is poor movies. this has been the worst year for movies I can remember in ages.

 

[Catman]

Harsh economic times calls for people going to the theatre to escape.

Not when prices are going up. Regal, AMC, and Cinemark raised prices back in March. That's the straw that broke the camel's back. Theaters got greedy after the HUGE successes of Avatar and Alice and it has now bitten them in the butt.

 

[Ghostvirus]

Its ok everybody. Because they can just blame it on Pirating as they alway do. Not on lack of quality, or anything logical.

The absolute worst thing that happened with downloading is that studios use that as tactic to justify flops & churning out crap. When time & time again it has been proven that if you make a good movie people will show up.

 

[Ghostvirus]

Also the harsh economic times equal more tickets sold doesn't really fly since back then you could buy one ticket & stay the whole day. So people probably got tickets to get inside out of the cold, rain, etc...

 

[marvelman2006]

Not when prices are going up. Regal, AMC, and Cinemark raised prices back in March. That's the straw that broke the camel's back. Theaters got greedy after the HUGE successes of Avatar and Alice and it has now bitten them in the butt.

couldnt agree more, also this has been coming for a long time though. I blame 3d as well for bringing us to this point. It sucks too because there is a bunch of movies I want to see next year but probably wont be able to see all them because of money being so tight.