Box office - Liam Tomkins

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

Box office figures have been falling. In 2014 roughly 1.26 billion consumers bought cinema tickets, this is the lowest figure since 1995 and was a 6% decrease from 2013, where 1.34 billion tickets were sold. The fall in box office figures is due to several different factors. 

The first factor being the declining appeal for stars in films. People become less and less interested in star roles in films every year, there are now only a handful of stars with the potential of making a film sell just because they play a role. Now people are more interested in the characters rather than the people who play them. This could be due to the increase in popularity of videogames, exposing more people to the fact that a good character is much more important than a celebrity. The two main roles in Star Wars - The Force Awakens were played by two relatively unknown actors, Daisy Ridley (Rey) and John Boyega (Finn). This shows that studios have realised that characters are more important than stars and have started to make a lot of films very character-driven. However, this makes a film harder to sell because there isn't a guaranteed audience of the star who will go and see a film just because their favorite actor or actress plays a role. This means that less people will be willing to take a risk and pay to see a film without any star roles because they do not know if they will enjoy the film. 

Another factor responsible for the fall in box office figures is new technology. Technology has become a lot more accessible to people over the last decade because it can be made cheaper. This means that you can have a similar cinematic-experience at home to the experience you would have in a cinema, due to technology such as surround sound and ultra-high definition displays being available to the consumer. This means that people would rather stay at home a watch a film on their own TV, using their own surround sound that they have paid for, rather than go to the cinema where they would have to pay for a very similar cinematic-experience they can have in the comfort of their own home.  

In recent years there has been a lot less choice when going to the cinema. In the past with a budget of $500 million dollars Disney would try to produce four or five individual films, whereas now they are more likely to produce one or two much larger films which will generate more of a profit for them. This means that there are less films being shown in the cinema, therefore you are given less choice as to what film you go and watch. A lot of people may not be interested in a certain type of film, such as action or superhero, which make up most blockbuster films, and therefore will not go to the cinema because the majority of the films are part of the same genre. This will then lead to a decrease in sales. Along with less films being produced, the films that are being produced are similar for the most part. For example in 2014, seven of the top ten highest grossing films worldwide were part of a franchise, meaning that the film was likely very similar to the previous film. This means that people are discouraged when going to see a film because it is likely going to be the exact same structure as previous films, just with a different plot. 

Box office figures are also falling because of TV shows. In recent years the production of television shows has increased drastically, meaning that some TV shows have almost the exact same level of quality as most blockbusters, for example Game of Thrones. This means that people can have a good cinematic experience in their own home at least once a week without paying a lot of money. TV shows also offer a long and expanding story line, meaning there is a new development each episode, getting the audience 'hooked' on the show wanting to see more. Whereas with a film the majority of the story is played out in an around two hour window and any cliffhangers won't be expanded upon for at least another year, meaning audience's are given the opportunity to become no longer interested in the film or franchise's story. TV shows also allow the characters to develop and allow them to play a major role in the occasional episode, this keeps audiences interested because there is variety between the episodes, compared to in a film where the main character will stay the same throughout the entire story.  

The distribution of media is also responsible for the decline in box office figures. Services such as Netflix, who spend over $2 billion a year on new content, and even on-demand TV offer films at the click of a button, usually for a much smaller price than attending a cinema. This means that we as an audience are more to watch a film that is available on a service we are paying for, rather than travelling to a cinema and paying to view a film. Films have become a lot more accessible to people in recent years, meaning you no longer have to travel to the cinema to see a film. Whilst pirating is illegal, it is one of the most common ways in which films are viewed. This is because within the first two weeks of a films release, a full HD version will be available for free online, meaning people will just watch it on their computer for free rather than paying to travel to a cinema and then paying to view the film.  

2015 was the highest grossing year of all time for the box office, grossing a total of $38.5 billion worldwide. This is strange considering box office figures have been steadily declining. In 2015 a number of large franchises released sequels to previous films and other franchises released re-boots. In 2015, Star Wars - The Force Awakens, Jurassic World, Furious 7, Mad Max: Fury Road  and Avengers: Age of Ultron were all released, on top of several other blockbusters. This meant that 2015 was a big year for the box office. Due to the re-boots of several franchises, this creates the foundations for the franchises to take over again, for example the next installment in the Star Wars franchise will be released in 2016. In 2015 there was an increased focus on appealing to foreign audiences, the Chinese audience were responsible for 48% of box office sales in 2014, mainly due to the fact that Transformers: Age of Extinction was filmed in Asia for the most part. This trend of appealing to a much larger audience continued into 2015, for example Star Wars - The Force Awakens had a female main role. This means that the film appeals to a lot more people because there haven't been a lot of films in the past which had women play major roles in films. The films released in 2015 were all very large projects that cost a lot of money to produce. This shows that 'tent pole' films have become the main focus in Hollywood because the audience is more likely to risk their money watching an installment in a franchise that they have previously enjoyed, rather than pay the same amount to see a much smaller film that hasn't built a reputation through previous releases.  

I do not think this trend will continue. I think that over the next four or five years the box office numbers will continue to fall as the did in previous years, just not as drastically. I think this because franchises, such as Star Wars have been rebooted, meaning that there are guaranteed sales from fans of the franchise, however this doesn’t necessarily mean every year a Star Wars film is released will be as successful as 2015 because as new films are released, more and more people will stop enjoying the franchise and therefore stop going to the cinema to see the film.