Maybe studios should just push back releasing DVDs so people are more motivated to go to the theater.

I personally don't undertand the people that refuse to see a movie in the theater (saying it doesn't look worth it) but are willing to buy the DVD. You do realize you are paying over twice the amount of money for the DVD than you would seeing it in the theater.

Orlando Bloom's box office take is way inflated. Starring in all Lord of the Rings films and Pirates of the Caribbean will do that, however, he was certainly not the leading man in any of those films.

But you do realize that for less than the price of getting two people to go to the theater alone to watch it only once. You can buy the dvd and make an evening out of it. Add to that the price of popcorn and a soda for you and a date at the theater and that's two or three dvds right there.

It's no wonder that folks are opting out of the theater going experience. Especially when the turn around time for a film is about 4 months.

As for Bloom, yeah, being in those blockbusters has given studios the idea that he is a major draw. That'll balance out. Though I'm sure Kingdom will be pretty big on DVD. It's just another one of those epic films that folks are already tired of by now.

Actually studios probably make more money on DVDs than in the theaters (where they also split profits with the actual theaters), so it's no big deal to them. As for why people buy DVDs, just the cost of a ticket and the gas to go to the theaters is almost as much as you can pay by just buying on the internet. Not to say their aren't other benefits to going to the theater, but economically, DVDs seem the better buy.

that number for kingdom of heaven is surprising. i am one of those who much prefer waiting to see the DVD in my house. while i do make exceptions, if it's something that i don't have a burning desire to see it, i prefer to wait. the EW article asked who was going to rush out to see SW3 opening weekend:

62% said no.

IMO, that's a bad sign.

If this really is the start of a new thrend for summer... it's not going to be pretty for a while. Sure the studios will make their money back, but eventually Summer will just be any other time. Lets see what happens. Though I think with the pg-13 rating and schools letting up. The summer should pick up some... hopefully.

These right here are probably the biggest reasons by far. Just about anyone can get a decent sized widescreen EDTV anymore. May not be the best on the market but if you're replacing a standard TV that's even 3 years old, the differences can be huge. It greatly lessens the drive to go to the theaters.

The theaters themselves have a host of problems. My girlfriend is particularly sensitive to people talking and such in a theater, drives her batshit. It's to the point that any movie that's a quieter drama type that isn't pretty much loud non-stop action we just don't go see. We've also gotten into the habit of showing up 10 mins late for a movie(we go on Sundays between 11-1, so seating isn't a problem). Essentially, whatever time the movie should be starting is the time you should be getting into the concession line. This lets us skip the bullshit pepsi commercials but usually catch a few trailers(we like trailers, sometimes that's the best part of a movie).

Services like Netflix are a huge part of this as well I'm sure. For less than the price of a single trip to the movies I can see a several on DVD in a single day. Over the course of a month I've seen probably 10 or more for $20. Subscription style rentals provide a different attitude as well, I've taken risks on movies I never would have seen at a theater or even rented, and been really suprised by several. Then with the ones that did disappoint, I don't feel like I wasted money. Overall my movie watching experiences at home are better for most movies than at the theater. My system is decent, the TV is good, the house is dead quiet except for what's coming out of the speakers. We just watched Elephant a few weeks back, and both of us loved it. However if I'd tried to watch a movie like it in a theater odds are pretty good I'd have ended up staging my own massacre right there. Probably on some teenagers too.

War of the Worlds will be the biggest movie of the summer. Mark my words!

I agree it'll be big, but bigger than the last chapter in the Star Wars saga ever?

You know, I would be concerned about KoH not doing so well if it weren't for the fact that it really isn't that great of a movie.

I think this box-office slump will end next week when Will Ferrell's new movie comes out and then the release of Star Wars.

EDIT: Not to add to a problem, but can anyone tell me which HD TV can give you the best for your dollar? I'm leaning towards something from Sony.

Also, the price of real HDTV-compatible TV sets are dropping, too. Don't be surprised that 50" (diagonal) LCD, DLP and HD-ILA based rear-projection TV's drop under US$2,000 by this Fall and that will really reduce the need to go to a theater. Having seen the latest models from Samsung (DLP), Philips (HD-ILA) and Sony (LCD), you know what I mean.

Yes, we'll miss the shared experience of a big movie theater but we'll also miss the annoyances I mentioned in my original message on this message thread.

That is crazy talk. No matter how well it does, it will not beat Ep. III. Good reviews + being the last one + the fact that it is Star Wars = #1 grossing movie of the year.

I haven't paid much attention to Kingdom of Heaven, but it didn't seem to me like they billed Orlando Bloom as being the leading man in the film much at all.

Exactly.

Bloom? DVD?

How about this: people just were not interested in the film. Sometimes that's why films bomb too.

Shhhhh! You're going to ruin it!!!

I don't think so. I think the first 2 prequels have turned off a lot of people that would normally go see it. And I think War of the Worlds, if in fact it is good, will be huge with kids and adults alike.

Survey-schmurvey. I have 10 sold out midnight screenings at the local AMC which says otherwise.

I have this movie as my #1 to see this year, but I don't see it topping Star Wars. Anyone who has even the slightest interest in Star Wars wants to see Anakin turn into Darth Vader. And they want to see it on the big screen, for the last time.

The type of crowd has something to do with it as well.
Today's hip hop teen crowd is very rude in movie theaters.
It's not like in back in the day when you can tell a teenager to be quite, now a days you can lose your life doing that.

that was always the case. when was there a time when teenagers gave a shit about what adults told them?

I think around the time drive-bys started in the 90's during the Clinton adminastration.

I dunno - I'm in this, so nobody's rooting for it as much as me, but I still think Star Wars will be bigger.

I want War of the Worlds to do huge numbers.

But no way will it come close to RotS. Look how much fanboys thought that Episode 2 sucked... and it still did over $300 mil domestically. I doubt that WotW will even approach that number.

Locally there's 2 AMC's within a couple miles of each other. Together, that's 14 midnight screenings... almost all sold out. I have friends at work that have never been to a midnight screening but they're going. That's pretty indicative of how big it's going to be.

But I'll put my money where my mouth post is. Here's the deal: If War of the Worlds does bigger box office domestically than Revenge of the Sith I'll pay for your copy of BOTH movies when they hit DVD. Hell, I'll even spring for shipping.

You know, I really don't think we're seeing the start of a trend. Last year we had the early part of May greeted with similar skepticism considering the lackluster openings of Van Helsing and Troy. Granted both of those were in the 45-50 million range, which is much better then what we are seeing here.

But I don't think it's an indicator of the summer as a whole. Star Wars is gonna be huge...and this slump if anything might help it. Granted I don't see the box office necessarily growing much this year, but no massive slump. There's more then enough stuff out there to fuel a big summer, and Star Wars will probably be the film to really kick off the summer as opposed to those early May releases that have done it in previous years. Kingdom of Heaven was just not a strong movie stateside, and really I think that's just indicative of that movie versus an overall trend. I could be wrong, but these ebbs and tides seem to come and go all the time.

Mind you, you'll be cheating if you order it from Amazon given that any orders over US$25 qualify for free shipping.