Following a series of really, really big misfires earlier this year—films like The Lone Ranger and RIPD losing tens-to-hundreds-of-millions—there were a number of relatively silly think pieces wondering if Hollywood was in bad shape and if the era of the big budget blockbuster was drawing to a calamitous close. Except, whoops, Hollywood actually had a record year in 2013:
Some caveats: The number of tickets sold is slightly down year-to-year, and the average ticket price hit an all time high (though I would strangle a kitten to pay $8 to see a movie*). But, obviously, the industry seems to be doing okay. And big budget business is booming: Of the 15 highest-grossing films, only two had budgets under $100M. Even with a few big losses the studios are cranking out enough huge international hits to more than make up for it. Remember, these are just domestic figures: Iron Man 3 alone grossed more than $1.2 billion worldwide. In other words, one big hit for Disney eclipsed the losses incurred by the biggest flops this year.**
What's really interesting, though, is that the box office ticked up despite 3D sales being way off. Here's Vulture's Bilge Ibiri:
Up until Gravity came out, it was a terrible year for 3-D. But Alfonso Cuarón’s awesome space epic convinced viewers to shell out the extra money, and 3-D showtimes represented about 80 percent of its opening weekend gross. Otherwise, however, the 3-D shares of highly anticipated spectacles mostly underperformed. (Iron Man 3’s opening weekend 3-D share was 45 percent, down from The Avengers’ 52 percent. The Great Gatsby’s was 33 percent; Man of Steel’s, 41 percent.)
As someone prone to writing things like "You should not pay to see the film in 3D, as 3D is terrible," I am heartened by that fact. With any luck, studios will stop spending tens of millions of dollars to convert films into 3D and instead focus on, you know, making good movies. And if they don't, well, that's too bad. But we'll survive. Those of us with taste will always have Megan Ellison.
*When I'm not seeing them for free, that is. Critics' screenings FTW!
**Some back-of-the-envelope math: Iron Man 3 cost $200M to produce and another $100M or so to market. Assuming a 50/50 split with theaters, Marvel/Disney took home $600M from the box office. So let's assume a $300M profit (and that's before home video, merchandising, etc., all of which have traditionally served as much larger profit centers for the studios than box office receipts). That's well more than the reported $190M loss Disney incurred on The Lone Ranger.