On the North American movie box office list last weekend, "Kung Fu Panda 4" and "Dune 2" continued to rank in the top two, with box office receipts of approximately US$30 million and US$29.1 million respectively. There is not a big gap. With this, the North American box office of "Dune 2" has exceeded the US$200 million mark. This is the first film to achieve this result since the Christmas film "Wonka". Yes, both films star Timothée Chalamet, and it seems that the new generation of Hollywood's most popular king has already been selected.

According to U.S. box office analysts, it is a rare achievement to have two such blockbuster movies in just eight months. In the past, it was probably only in the late 1970s with John Travolta's " Saturday Night Fever" and "Grease" did this.

Dog movie "Champion Arthur" gets rave reviews from audiences but fails at box office

In terms of new films, the biggest release was the dog movie "Arthur the King" starring Mark Wahlberg. The producer, Lionsgate Pictures, arranged for the film to open in 2,960 North American theaters. In the end, it only earned US$7.5 million at the box office, ranking third on the weekend box office list.

"Champion Arthur" stills

"Champion Arthur" is adapted from a true story and tells the touching story of a stray dog who accompanied Swedish cross-country athletes to complete the race. Although the film's freshness rating on the film review website "Rotten Tomatoes" is only 64%, the audience score is quite good, as high as 97%, but it obviously cannot attract enough viewers to go to the theater.

Similar situations like this, with a single star in the lead, small and medium-sized productions (the film's production cost was only US$19 million), CinemaScore audience ratings of A, and unsatisfactory North American box office, have occurred repeatedly in the past few years. From a general analysis, I am afraid that ordinary people have developed a new consumption habit of not buying tickets to "get the first prize" when faced with such works, and only need to wait for them to be released on streaming media before watching them.

Specific to Mark Wahlberg, a 52-year-old Hollywood A-list celebrity, in the past 20 years, he has acted in "The Perfect Storm", "Planet of the Apes", "Italian Mission", "The American Version of Infernal Affairs" and "Transformers" series As well as different types of blockbuster films such as the "Teddy Bear" series, its popularity has always been quite high. However, checking his resume, he found that his previous work before "Champion Arthur" was the action comedy "Family Plan" which was released directly to streaming media last Christmas and did not enter the theaters at all; the previous one is in the summer of 2022 The comedy film "Only One of Us" invested by Netflix also did not enter the theater. The reviews of these two works are not very good, but many people have actually watched it. "Family Plan" is said to have become the most watched movie on Apple's streaming media platform in the four years since its launch. Going forward, in recent years, he has also produced several works such as "Infinite" and "Spencer's Secret Mission", all of which were only released on streaming media. The reasons behind this are partly due to the epidemic that happened in those three years, and partly due to the ebb and flow of the streaming media model and the theater model.

In recent years, the media has often quoted a famous quote from Denzel Washington. That was the advice he mentioned in an interview with the media more than ten years ago from the senior black actor Sidney Poitier: "If they can see you five days a week without paying, on the weekends, they will I won’t pay to come see you.” More than ten years ago, streaming media had not yet been born. Of course, what Sidney Poitier said was that movie stars must maintain a certain sense of mystery and cannot just follow any TV show or TV series. Accept it, otherwise it will be tantamount to devaluing yourself and ruining your brand.

Once upon a time, when streaming media represented by Netflix first entered the market, big-name Hollywood actors and gold medal directors did say no to it, fearing that participating in such works that did not enter theaters would damage their own worth. But times have changed. Under the silver bullet offensive of streaming media platforms, this industry taboo in the past has been completely broken. However, actors like Mark Wahlberg do have to face this harsh reality. Fact: Audiences are used to seeing you on TV and are no longer willing to spend money to go to theaters to support you.

Two-thirds of U.S. adults would rather watch movies at home

In addition to "Arthur," the new film, the thriller "Love Lies Bleeding" produced by A24 Films and starring Kristen Stewart and Katie M. O'Brien was released in 1,362 theaters. With a weekend box office of approximately US$2.5 million, it ranked sixth. There is also the Holocaust-themed film "One Life" adapted from the deeds of real people, starring Anthony Hopkins, which opened with a box office of US$1.7 million in 983 theaters, ranking eighth.

In addition, the satirical comedy "The American Society of Magical Negroes," which had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January, was released in 1,147 theaters by Focus Features and only earned an opening of $1.25 million. At the box office, it ranked ninth.

"American Black Magic Society" stills

In short, the box office of the above four new movies released this weekend combined is less than half of the box office of "Kung Fu Panda 4" or "Dune 2". The latest public opinion survey report released by the market research company HarrisX may provide some evidence for the occurrence of this situation. According to it, 34% of American adults surveyed prefer to watch movies in theaters; the remaining 66%, or two-thirds of American adults, are still more willing to sit at home and wait for the movie to play. Streaming media is online.

“The competition between streaming services and theaters continues.” Alli Brady, vice president of HarrisX, said in an interview with the media, “Although recent box office data shows that there are still some loyal audiences who are willing to go to physical theaters. However, our latest research shows that two out of three potential movie viewers actually prefer to watch movies at home through streaming media. However, we also found that the American people’s demand for movie content has not decreased. , but it has increased compared to the past. Because nearly half of the respondents said that they watch at least one streaming movie every week, and one-third watch two or more movies on streaming media every week. Movies. In other words, Americans still love to watch movies, or I should say they love to watch movies more than before, but the location is changed from theaters to homes."

HarrisX completed the survey online earlier this month, collecting responses from more than 1,000 American adults. For the theater industry, this research report is not all negative news. 59% of the respondents said that the most attractive thing that attracts them to buy tickets to watch a movie in a theater is the "big screen experience"; another 47% of the respondents said that the most attractive thing for them is the "surround sound system"; and 39% of people said that they mainly watch movies without various "interferences" at home. Factors that ranked next included "theater seats", "theater popcorn and other food", "this movie can only be seen in theaters", "advanced projection technology such as 3D and IMAX", and "being with a group of people" "The experience of watching a movie", "Only theaters can experience the feeling of a premiere or various special screenings", etc.

As for those who would rather stay at home and wait for streaming media to come online, 53% actually attributed the most important reason to high movie ticket prices. In addition, questions such as “The environment at home is more comfortable than theater seats”, “I am worried about the environmental sanitation of theaters and the spread of diseases such as influenza”, “Today’s movies are too long and you can pause to go to the toilet or take a break at home”, “Watching movies at home” Factors such as "being affected by the poor audiences in the theater" and "inconvenient transportation to the theater" have all become reasons that hinder Americans from going to the theater to spend money.