Undoubtedly there will be movies that underperform at the box office, but in recent years some box office flops have been a surprise.
The marketing for these movies seem to be the main contender for why these movies fail to appeal to any audience. While popular media can draw a lot of hype for a movie, that may not do enough, which is why good marketing is necessary. The new movie “Lisa Frankenstein” for example gives some good insight into why so many movies are flopping. The marketing for Lisa Frankenstein has only consisted of some trailers dropping on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, compared to a movie like “Barbie” which partnered with a lot of brands, which got people intrigued with the movie.
However, consumers are currently not pleased with a lot of the current line ups of movies. A lot of this may have to do with advertising and anticipation for certain movies. When the movie has some popularity ahead of time, it is more likely to be successful. If they can’t get people interested then it is most likely that the movie will not do well in the box office.
The measure of success for movies has changed so that the median for box office earnings has recently been lower and for a movie to be seen as successful, the earnings should be three times more than its budget. In 2023 and 2024 there have been those few movies that make more than three times their budget, but most of them have failed to make that kind of money. Movies like “Barbie”, “Oppenheimer”, and “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” made more than triple their budget.
Even starting at the beginning of this year, but even movies that have iconic and famous names attached to them still do not seem to be enough to get people interested.
While Action/Superhero movies usually accumulate a lot of money when it comes to new releases, but this year, this has not always been the case. Movies like “The Flash”, “Shazam! Fury of the Gods”, “The Marvels”, “Antman and Wasp: Quantumania”, “Blue Beetle”, were box office bombs. They were barely able to break even. The DCEU had its worst year in 2023, and so the DCEU seems to be rebooting itself entirely.
Disney seems to be doing no better either, with their MCU movies performing in a similar way to the DCEU, and even their original content like “Wish” and “Elemental”, which also came out in 2023. Landon Richey, a Senior at Homestead, helped explain better why movies often in 2024 are failing, saying “The reason that films are bombing so much is because studios are putting way too much money into films that will never have the turn out needed to make a profit. Every studio wants the next Endgame or Infinity War and the reason we see studios like Disney losing so much money is because audiences do not want to see rehashed films.”
The content that Hollywood puts out all seems very similar, whether that’s just that all of the recent movies are sequels or remaking popular content. There are a ton of sequels that are making a big profit, just from being popular, like the movies “Wonka”, “Mean Girls”, and “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” which are all remakes or prequels of popular media. All of these movies receive a lot of attention and criticism, whether it be from lack of creativity or repetitiveness which seems to be a recurring thing within Hollywood at the moment.
All this boils down to the sole fact that either a movie builds hype because it is attached to a big name, or it’s completely its own and has a potential chance to flop due to lack of good marketing and getting enough people interested. Whether it’s because of streaming services or the pandemic, there is clearly a huge issue that needs to be resolved or eventually, movie theaters will become obsolete
