Box Office figures are falling. Why do you think this is and do you think this trend will continue?

I believe that one reason for falling box offices figures is the high prices of visiting he cinema today. A cinema ticket costs roughly 4 times as much as it did 15 years ago, this means that some people may not want to risk spending this money and not liking the film or not having a positive experience. This links into why the box office figures fell in the early 1950s, the global recession, people do not want to be spending lots of money when it needs to be spent on other things. People either don't have the money or do not want to spend it on a cinema ticket. Due to the high prices of cinema tickets going to see a film in the cinema has become more of a special occasion or a social event which means people wont necessarily visit the cinema every weekend.

In recent years cinema has become home of the blockbuster, the huge, high budget franchises are dominating the screen. Less movies of all kinds are being made as it makes more sense to producers to make maybe 2 or 3 huge budget franchise films rather than make a bundle of original idea films as it may not bring in the money needed to make a profit. Franchises have a huge audience and are destined to make over $1 billion at the box office. As more and more franchises are dominating the market original idea films have been completely pushed out, evidence of this is on 'Shortoftheweek.com' were it clearly shows that 7 of the top 10 films in 1981 were original films were there weren't any in the top 10 of 2014. This suggests that Hollywood are treating its audiences as fairly dumb, suggesting we want to see the same generic films over and over again rather than smart intelligent ideas. But this is contradicted considering 2014 was the worst year for box office revenue since 1995 and the box office was dominated by franchises. This was contradicted by the huge year the box office had in 2015, but i believe this was due to the fact many anticipated films were released e.g. Star Wars, Avengers, Fast and Furious & Jurassic World.

One major factor that contributes to the falling box office figures is the introduction of new technologies in the media industry. Over the past 10 years we have seen a huge increase in many interactive, intelligent media products, one of these is video games. Video games over the past 10-15 years have matured a lot and have become seriously intelligent. With video games now packing up to 100 plus hours of gameplay for roughly £40-£60. With the price of cinema tickets and snacks and 3D glasses etc you'll spend roughly half the amount you would for a video games yet you only get at the very most 3 hours of story. It seems like common sense to buy a video game in which you can determine the story with your actions, customise the protagonist and spend countless hours working through the story for double the price you would pay for a 3 hour film. Video games being very intelligent these days it means that can offer a cinematic experience in your home with their complex story lines and visually stunning graphics, this is emphasised by the HD TVs we have today.

Another major factor that links in to the previous point is the introduction of digital distribution (e.g. Netflix, Apple TV, Amazon Prime etc.). This means for a small fee of roughly £6 a month you can stream many films unlimited amount of times in HD. This means that finding a film you like is a lot easier and you have a broader range of films to chose from. It is also a lot more convenient foe you as you chose the time and you don't have to move from home, this means you are destined to have a positive experience as you have full control.

I do believe this trend will continue even though 2015 was a huge year in terms of box office figures it was a freak year due to the films that were released. I believe due to the many factors i have stated above box office figures will fall. Every few years the figures will rise again due to the freak occurrence of many tent pole franchise films being released in the same year like 2015.