SSC Film Studies

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

Box office figures were in constant decline before the sudden boom in 2015. The reason for the decline I think is due to the new technologies available to audiences and that there are too many alternatives, for people to want to spend so much money on going to the cinema like people could do once before. For example an adult ticket in the cinema in 1999 was only £3 and now in 2016 is around £11 in the mainstream cinemas. Even though there are other cinemas available the more expensive cinemas do offer a better cinematic experience.

In 2014 the box office revenue was at its lowest since 1995. Roughly 1.26 Billion consumers purchased cinema tickets. This was a 6% drop in tickets sold from 2013 where 1.34 Billion were sold. In 2014, despite it containing many films that were expected to be hits, Hollywood had many high profile failures, for example The Hobbit: BotFA and THG: Mocking jay (part one).

Another reason for the fall in box office figures is due to the rise in new technologies. People are now able to choose at will what film they want to watch whenever they want, with apps such as Netflix, BBC iPlayer, and Amazon prime becoming more and more common. As you can see from the graph on the left, the amount of people using Netflix is growing at an exponential rate since 2012, and I think will continue to do so as in demand entertainment is becoming the normality for our generation. The reason these technologies are diminishing the amount of people going to the cinema is because they a lot cheaper than going to see them in the pictures, and people are willing to wait a few months for the films to come online rather than seeing them immediately if they are not guaranteed to like it. 

Another thing is that home entertainment systems are becoming more and more advanced as time goes on. In 2009 the only way to see Avatar as the 3D epic that it was intended to be was in the cinema and even then only selected screenings would be in 3D. Now however people can buy huge 3D televisions, surround sound systems and 3D blu -ray and have a cinematic experience in their own home. PlayStation is one of the leaders in this new technology with the console having a built in Blu Ray system.

Over the past decade gaming has become one of the worlds most popular past times with large companies like Xbox and PlayStation as well as PC games offering a wide diversity of alternative entertainment. People now are choosing to engage in this more complex and active form of narrative rather than passively watching them in the cinema. Games like Fallout 4 for example are able to provide Up to 75 hours + of playtime and are much more engaging than films as you are able to literally become the character. However gaming does in a way rely on films as games such as Battlefront and Mad Max are in the same universe as the films they were based on. This means that the audience they bring in are probably those who have seen the films and understand what is happening in this extended universe.  

2015 as a year was a huge boost in box office stats and in its top ten there are nine franchises. This is probably the reason that this year