Box office figures are falling

Box office figures are falling, why do you think this is?

There are a lot of reasons that contribute to box office figures falling. One of them is ‘new technologies’.

With the ever-increasing rise in technology there is no surprise that the recent advancement as allowed anyone who has the Internet to watch films at home very easily. With things like Netflix and love film type websites becoming so popular lately it has allowed people to sit in the comfort of their own home and watch films and TV shows whenever they want for how long as they want. These websites have become so popular and made so much money that they were able to expand their influence to games consoles like Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, this has proved to be effective because the majority of people I know that have a games console have one of these apps.

New technologies also include things like blu-ray players and 3d home cinemas. People can now wait like 3 months for a film out in the cinema to be released to blu-ray and watch it at home with outstanding quality. Also with the sudden increase in popularity of the 3d TV’s and home cinema systems people no longer need to go the cinema to be provided with a new cinematic experience.

Another reason for the fall in figures is ‘piracy’. There are countless websites on the Internet nowadays that allow anyone to come onto the Internet and stream their films for free illegally. Studios are finding it increasingly difficult to combat these websites, so much that the MPAA estimates that piracy and illegal downloads costs the US industry $20 billion a year. I believe this is a large over exaggeration but the fact that they would put this figure so high shows that it is becoming a real problem for them. Illegal downloading/streaming does not take money from the studios it just prevents potential profits by providing an alternative for watching films.

The third reason and probably the most important factor of this decrease in figures are cinema prices. Almost everyone I know has complained about how much cinema prices are. They have become so high that people would prefer to buy a home cinema system. Whilst 3d TV sets and surround sound systems are expensive they are a one off payment and people believe that it will have saved them money down the road.

In conclusion my personal opinion on why box office figures are falling is that it is becoming increasingly easier for the public to watch films on the internet whether it be from illegal streaming or waiting for it to come out on blu-ray or legal streaming sites like Netflix. Due to this advancement in technologies people are now in the mind-set that they don’t feel the need to go the cinema to watch a new film like the way it used to be.