AMC, one of our largest movie theater chains, saw a drop of nearly 10 percent in fourth-quarter ticket sales. AMC is already deep in debt. Thanks to lousy fourth-quarter attendance fueled by a lousy selection of fourth-quarter movies, the chain is now in even deeper debt.
“On Monday, the debt-laden parent of AMC Theatres reported overall revenues at $1.28 billion, down 1.4 percent against a year-earlier $1.3 billion,” reports the far-left Hollywood Reporter. “That came as total attendance at its domestic and international theaters fell nearly 10 percent to 56.3 million patrons during the latest quarter.”
“U.S. markets attendance was off 7.5 percent to 39.7 million filmgoers,” the report adds, “while international attendance was off nearly 15 percent at 16.5 million ticket buyers.”
Bottom line: AMC Theaters saw a total fourth quarter loss of $127.4 million.
Let’s see if we can’t diagnose the problem with a look at what Hollywood released during the fourth quarter of last year:
- Tron: Ares
- The Smashing Machine
- Kiss of the Spider Woman
- Roofman
- Black Phone 2
- Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere
- If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
- Predator: Badlands
- The Running Man
- Now You See Me, Now You Don’t 3
There’s more, but you get the idea.
Because no one in Hollywood or the Hollywood trades has the courage to speak the truth — The dogs don’t like the dog food — the usual-usual blame will fall on 1) too few movies, 2) the pandemic, 3) streaming competition, and 4) something-something Trump.
Then why did Wicked: For Good make money? Then why did Avatar 3 make money?
If you want people to go to the movies, you must create a product that they want to see, and see right now.
It’s that simple.
People can eat at home, but if the restaurant is good enough, they go out to eat.
People can watch sporting events at home, but they still show up in person.
Hollywood used to deliver big laughs, big thrills, big romance, and an emotional experience that — whenever you remembered the movie — stayed with you the rest of your life. Today, Hollywood has diluted its product into content. Worse, it’s woke content, which makes it shallow and predictable. White men are evil or incapable. Gay people know everything. Women are take-charge girlbosses. Sexuality is gone (unless it’s gay sexuality). Masculinity is toxic (unless it’s a female acting all badass). Capitalism is evil. Christianity is fascism. Boys act like girls. Girls act like men.
Instead of appealing to human nature, Hollywood is seeking to rewire it. Sorry, but that’s just not possible.
Make better movies.
We’ll come and see better movies.
Remember when Hollywood reproduced every hit movie 20 times? Where’s our 20 Top Gun: Mavericks? Well, we only got one: Brad Pitt’s F1, which was also a hit. A sane Hollywood would bury us in movies deploying that same formula — masculine male shows the cocky youngens how it’s done. Instead, it’s more woke garbage.
I used to root for the movie business. No more. Not now that they are aggressively sexualizing children.
Die, Hollywood, die.
