Major theater chains took a bit of a hit on Wall Street as box office sales failed to match expectations or analyst predictions.
True, box office isn't living up what people want, but whose fault is it?
The studios perhaps?
They slashed their output, created ever growing gaps in the film market place, rammed the snake-oil of 3D down everyone's gullet, and seem intent on choking the whole superhero market to death with over-exposure.
But it's the theaters who get punished.
Why?
Because they are almost completely dependent on the major studios. The theaters can't sell their movies, even the stinkers, to television/home video/internet streaming like the studios, they can only make money from their share of the tickets, and the profits from the popcorn and soft drinks they sell at the snack counter.
That's why you have AMC and Regal starting Open Road to buy and distribute movies for their own screens, and the screens of their competitors. They have to, the studios are screwing them into the ground. I fully expect Open Road to either start their own production division, or buy a pre-existing production to start making as well as distributing movies. The studios worked very hard to suck the life out of independent films in the 90s, and 2000s, and it's in the theaters' best interests to do whatever they can to revive a commercially viable independent cinema for their own survival.
The studios just aren't doing their job, so it's time for someone else to do it.
True, box office isn't living up what people want, but whose fault is it?
The studios perhaps?
They slashed their output, created ever growing gaps in the film market place, rammed the snake-oil of 3D down everyone's gullet, and seem intent on choking the whole superhero market to death with over-exposure.
But it's the theaters who get punished.
Why?
Because they are almost completely dependent on the major studios. The theaters can't sell their movies, even the stinkers, to television/home video/internet streaming like the studios, they can only make money from their share of the tickets, and the profits from the popcorn and soft drinks they sell at the snack counter.
That's why you have AMC and Regal starting Open Road to buy and distribute movies for their own screens, and the screens of their competitors. They have to, the studios are screwing them into the ground. I fully expect Open Road to either start their own production division, or buy a pre-existing production to start making as well as distributing movies. The studios worked very hard to suck the life out of independent films in the 90s, and 2000s, and it's in the theaters' best interests to do whatever they can to revive a commercially viable independent cinema for their own survival.
The studios just aren't doing their job, so it's time for someone else to do it.
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