It is no secret that this summer has been something of a dud for the movie industry, as well as for audiences. With less than six weeks until the unofficial end of summer (Labor Day), Hollywood realizes that the North American box office will not recover after its 15 to 20 percent dip in revenue from 2013.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the season is expected to be the worst year-to-year decline in three decades, with profits struggling to break $4 billion overall. That's the first time this will happen in eight years. In general, analysts foresee that the full year will take a hit of 4 to 5 percent.
The reasons behind the slide at the box office are being discussed by all of the Hollywood brass and the movers and shakers of the industry. It did not help the summer landscape of films that the death of Paul Walker delayed "Fast and Furious 7" until April of next year, vacating a July slot this year. Unfortunately for the bean counters, "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" opened in early April and it was a bonafide smash. However it was out of theaters by the time the summer season started.
Not all superheroes did well in 2014, though. The main culprit seems to be the much maligned "Amazing Spider-Man 2." The sequel to the 2012 film did not fare nearly as well as the industry had hoped. The movie was bogged down by lousy reviews and die hard fans just not liking the new take on Marvel's flagship character. The movie topped out at $706.2 million globally, which was the worst in franchise history.
"Moviegoing begets moviegoing, and we have lost our momentum," says Rentrak's Paul Dergarabedian. "People aren't seeing trailers and marketing materials. They still want to go to the movies -- they just want to go to really good movies."
The Hollywood Reporter points out that while there have not been any total train wrecks like last summer's stinker "The Lone Ranger," this season will be the first time since 2001 that no summer flick will cross $300 million domestically. However, international returns remain strong, especially in China where "Transformers: Age of Extinction" became the highest grossing film of all time.
This does put the fate of the summer box office squarely on films like August's "Guardians of the Galaxy," "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" and this week's "Lucy" with Scarlett Johansson. Still, next year's summer movie season is already being touted as the savior of the industry with "Avengers: Age of Ultron," "Minions" and "Jurassic World" all being released.
"I think it's cyclical," says X-Men producer Simon Kinberg. "Next summer will be the biggest box-office summer in history, and nobody will be worrying about the business."
There are probably a lot of people in Hollywood hoping he is right.
