Hi guys, I don't know if you know this, but it has been a disastrous summer season at the box office. How disastrous? Well:
Labor Day is coming in slightly better than anticipated, but it’s still one of the lowest finales to summer since 1999, when the four-day stretch totaled $98.3M. ComScore is figuring $95M-$100M for the four-day Labor Day weekend; however, some studios’ internal numbers think it could be as high as $102M-$104M. If the four-day comes in under $98.3M, it will be the lowest since 1998.
Oof. And:
For the first time in 25 years, both major studio and specialty distributors will not be releasing any new wide releases in north of 1,000 theaters. The last time this occurred was in 1992 with the Universal Matthew Broderick comedy Out on a Limb which debuted in 703 locations (by the way, that was considered wide back then).
Ouch. I'm sure things are fine overall, right?
It was the final nail in the coffin of a disappointing summer, at least from a box office perspective. According to Bloomberg, the final total for summer 2017 domestic ticket sales was "$3.8 billion ... the first time the season’s tally has dipped below the $4 billion mark since 2006." In addition, the weekend box office over Labor Day generated "about $99.5 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters from Friday through Monday, the least since 1998."
YIKES. Anyway, Vic and I were joined by A LONG-LOST GUEST HOST to discuss the summer's disappointing box office returns on the latest micro-episode of The Substandard. Give it a listen!