Blockbuster out of Business

In previous years when someone wanted to purchase movies in DVD form, people would go to Blockbuster or HMV and other locations to buy them. However, due to the transition in the way our generation watches movies, many of these company’s were forced to shut down. Many people have transitioned to watching movies online through sources such as Netflix, Itunes, etc, while many companies have provided a movie rental option within their cable network, such as Rogers. As Blockbuster was experiencing difficulty in finding investors to take over shares, 150 stores were shut down as of June 2011, and the remaining 253 locations were to be out of business by the end of that summer.[1] However, Blockbuster was not the only company that was facing difficulty of staying relevant within the movie market. Another company that is beginning to shut down in certain locations is HMV. As seen in downtown Halifax on Spring Garden Road, this location is forced to shut down because of high rent increases because they have lost their clientele.[2] Over time, it’s becoming very difficult to find movie’s in DVD forms, which shows us this continual transition within movie watching. Many years ago it started off with VHS, then transitioned to DVD’s, and now to online movies. It will be interesting to see the forms of movie watching that our future generation will have.

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[1] The Canadian Press. (2011, August 31). Blockbuster canada to close remaining stores. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2011/08/31/blockbuster-canada-close.html

[2] COSGROVE, C. (2012, November 5). Rent hike forces hmv canada to leave spring garden road. Retrieved from http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/163056-rent-hike-forces-hmv-canada-to-leave-spring-garden-road

A post from Rebecca

Breaking Dawn Part II Box Office Predictions

Recently the new Twilight saga Breaking Dawn Part II was released on November 16^th 2012. This was a highly anticipated release as it was the last movie within the series. The movie topped the box office this weekend with a profit of $340.9 million (where $141.3 million was domestically, and $199.6 million was internationally). Comparing the amount of profit each movie was made within the saga, it was noted that they did not surpass the box office profit from the opening weekend of New Moon, but it did surpass those for Breaking Dawn Part I. Studies have shown Breaking Dawn Part II was the movie within the series with the most male viewers making 21% of sales. Meanwhile, 50% of the audience was 25 years old and older, which shows how this movie was able to attract a very large fan base to make a large profit.[1] With there being such a large profit from the box office, this questions the truth behind comments that theatres make in regards to loosing profits. Breaking Dawn Part II was just one example of movies that bring in a lot of profit just from opening night; other examples that exist include the new James Bond movie, “Skyfall” and Steven Spielberg’s new production “Lincoln”. Ultimately, its seen that watching movies in theatre’s is still very important to our society, and it will always be something that people will make time to do.

IMDB. (Photographer). (2012). Imdb. [Web Photo]. Retrieved from http://www.google.ca/imgres?q=breaking dawn part 2&um=1&hl=en&client=safari&sa=N&rls=en&biw=1038&bih=642&tbm=isch&tbnid=Hl9E_sG_iJ8SgM:&imgrefurl=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1673434/&docid=9PyBU-7T84hp9M&imgurl=http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTcyMzUyMzY1OF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNDQ4ODk1OA%40%40._V1._SY317_.jpg&w=214&h=317&ei=FqGqUO6QJaT10gGuyYGACw&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=261&sig=103012729650806609264&page=1&tbnh=145&tbnw=105&start=0&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:73&tx=63&ty=61

[1] McClintock, P. (2012, November 18). Box office report: ‘breaking dawn – part 2’ bites off $340.9 million global opening. Retrieved from http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/box-office-report-breaking-dawn-391789

A post from Rebecca

Bad Movies

The movie business is a very popular and wanted industry to work in. Throughout the years, there have been many movies that have been released, with both good and bad reviews. Recently, there has been an abundant of poorly done movies because production companies, actors and studios are producing anything to be apart of the industry. Examples of movies that have done poorly when released into the market are “Be Cool”, “The Love Guru”, “Gigli”, “Troll 2”, and many more. [1] Nonetheless, this hasn’t prevented these productions from making millions of dollars from box offices. In order for a rating of a movie to be released, people have to watch the movie, which results in paying for an admission, which produces general profits for the company. With that being said, many people still pay to watch bad movies just to be able to relate to those who talk about them. This is an unfortunate reality as companies who may not deserve these profits still receive them. Also, once a movie is released, those actors and production companies continue to make profits for years through customer purchases, or when other companies want rights for a scene, etc. Ultimately, as poorly done movies are created more often, productions are not only at fault. People who pay to watch these movies also play a large role in contributing to this cycle. Nonetheless, it’s very rare that a production company doesn’t make a profit when their movie was released into theatres. Hopefully, in the future, directors will become innovative and create new productions that have not been used before, and film them well resulting in a well-done movie.

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[1] Complex Magazine. (2010, February 10). The 10 worst movies of the 2000’s. Retrieved from http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2009/09/the-10-worst-movies-of-the-2000s

A post from Rebecca

What Are People Watching Today?

I am not a huge movie-goer myself and I have always wondered what exactly attracts millions of people to the theatres day after day. They must be doing something right if, regardless of all the talk about watching movies at home for free, the top grossing films are earning between 300 and 750 million dollars in theatres alone. Namely the film Avatar, that grossed $760M in 2009, and Titanic, raking in nearly $660M in 1997 (Nash Information Services, 2012). Although I realize that in 1997 we didn’t necessarily have the technology we have today, there is something about the theatre that continues to draw people in year after year.

I found it interesting to read a few stats about the movie industry today, and what exactly people are into watching these days. Surprisingly enough, films under the Drama and Documentary genres were among the greatest number of films produced in 2012. However, the Adventure genre category had the highest ticket sales, grossing $2.4B in total (Nash Information Services, 2012). Second highest in ticket sales and gross income was Comedy, bringing in $1.5B for 2012 (Nash Information Services, 2012). It seems to be that although a number of films are produced in many other genres, the top earners are those in the more competitive and smaller genres such as Adventure and Action. These genres are only producing a third of the total number of Drama films, although they seem to be attracting the largest crowds and doubling their incomes (Nash Information Services, 2012).

It will be interesting to observe the changes in the movie industry over time and see how theatres will adapt to the markets’ new demands of online accessibility and convenience. Time will tell!

Nash Information Services. (2012). Domestic theatrical market summary for 2012. Retrieved from http://www.the-numbers.com/market/2012/summary

A post from Chloe