Box office figures are falling. Why do you think this is?

Many things can affect box office success or failure and one of the many reasons for its decline in recent years is new technology.
There are many different ways to view a film these days such as Pay per-view, subscriptions to Netflix and Lovefilm, illegal downloads and Blu-ray and DVDs. This combined with the rising prices of cinema tickets is greatly affecting cinema attendances and so its knocking box office figures down.

Many people can’t afford a family trip to the cinema because the combined prices of each person in a family of four could reach around £30. This means people are saving their cinema visits for films and franchises they really want to see. This is a problem because so many franchises are failing, for example John Carter and studios are relying on remakes, which generally don’t appeal to audiences. 
Movies can no longer rely on star power to draw an audience; in fact star power is having more of a negative effect on newer releases. People would rather see an unknown playing the lead role in a film than someone like Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt because unknowns seem more relatable. Because of these reasons, the amount of films people actually do want to see is dropping. People are swapping cinema trips for a night in front of the TV where they can pay £5 a month for an array of films from Netflix rather than £30 a night for one film they might not even end up liking.
These prices are also a big reason for illegal downloading. Torrents and streaming sites offer new movies, albeit usually bad quality, for free as opposed to paying extreme cinema prices.
On top of that, the accessibility of movie downloads both illegal and legal is more appealing to people with busy schedules. It’s much easier to download a film that you can pause and watch at a time that suits you than to organize a trip to the cinema around work and home life

Special effects and cinematic experience do pull in audiences, for example when Avatar was released, the only place to see it in 3D was the cinema however, in todays time, most if not all of those things are available at home which takes away yet another reason to chose cinema over your home. This was one of the main reasons for John Carter’s failure. Televisions that are equipped with 3D and HD are available and surround sound is very common in households now. These are all things offered by the cinema but you have to pay extra so it’s cheaper in the long run to invest in a TV that offers these things.

Movies themselves are dropping in popularity because of the increase in long-run TV dramas. Many of the new TV shows being shown run for seasons and this appeals more to an audience because 2 hours is no longer enough to satisfy a need for entertainment. Also because of the seasons, there is more room for character development, which is a part of movies and franchises that audiences love. TV shows are starting to include more special effects and have large budgets. LOST’s pilot episode cost around $10 and $14 million and Lost went on to be one of the most popular TV series of all time.

Again, it’s cheaper to stay at home and watch 12 episodes of a TV show on something you’re already subscribed to than to pay a high-ticket price for two hours of film.

The teenagers of this generation are considered a “gaming generation” and many spend hours on games consoles daily. Newer games consoles such as the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 are able to connect to the Internet and so you can join film websites like Lovefilm and watch a movie on your games console rather than visiting a cinema to see it as a new release.
Recently there has been a movie called Pulp that was advertised specifically on Xbox so this could be the beginning of an increase in the use of games consoles used to watch and advertise movies and so again this is giving audiences more of a reason to stay at home rather than visit a cinema.

Box office figures are falling primarily due to high ticket prices and new technologies. People are no longer able to afford to pay to see movies regularly and they are not willing to pay for an experience they can have comfortably at home for a lower price.