Hollywood Drags Up Old Statistics To Make Estimated Claims

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Amazing what can be summarised with figures your only guessing at ..

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1119280058316_114689258?s_name=&no_ads=

According to studio estimates released Sunday, North America's Top 12 movies took in approximately $128.5 million US. That was down 1.6 per cent from the same weekend a year earlier.
Compared with 2004, movie revenues are down 6.4 per cent so far this year.
According to the U.S.-based sales tracker Exhibitor Relations, when increased ticket prices are factored in, there are nine per cent fewer cinema-goers this year.

If that trend continues, Exhibitor Relations expects overall domestic admissions to be at a 10-year low by the end of 2005.

The first worrying thing is that the article is talking about a 10 year low, and the title a 20 year low,  which grabs the bigger headline ?

I would like to see the figures myself so we could work out whether other factors such as the amount of films released is equivalent, are the profits from spin off products factored in here, and yes did the increased cinema ticket price put folks off, as the economy has been suffering recently and folks incomes are suffering also.

Regardless of all this statistics for headlines waffle , one thing is certain , make a decent movie and folks will go to see it , I cite starwars as the best example of this.
Offering low quality (and budget) rehashes of old releases is not the way forward, folks want new original content

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Its nice to see an ex RIAA president agrees with my last post.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/hilary-rosen/the-supreme-wisdom-of-not_3221.html

What about the consumer you say? Oh yeah, us. Well, what the consumer wants has been ignored far too often by both of these sides. The technology industry makes money from hardware and software innovation. They have seen that with enough “innovation” their consumers can get all the content they want for free without it really being the tech industry’s problem to worry about the investment required to make that content. And those that do try to find common ground and acknowledge that there can be good guys and bad guys in their business as well, get so quickly attacked by their own that they withdraw. And the entertainment industry is still far too often spending time comparing the profit margins and risk of new ideas to an earlier time when the world was less digital.

Common sense folks, Its good to hear it from a member of the Cartels camp, very Refreshing

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It seems its not the fault of file sharers this year at least, not even a small mention is made here of it.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1120179796391_108/?hub=Entertainment

The summer of 2005 has been a summer of discontent for moviegoers and Hollywood executives alike.
Film fans aren't finding the movies they like, and the movie industry finds itself in a record slump.

Statistics Canada recently released a study that showed a five-per cent drop in movie ticket sales between 2002-03 and 2003-04 -- and a profit drop of nearly 16 per cent.
While the statistics show a potential problem -- and Statistics Canada noted there was a small price increase between the two fiscal years, plus the SARS outbreak and fewer blockbusters released -- a solution is less evident.

The solution is simple stop moaning about file sharers and make some decent movies, folks are always only ever going to part with cash if they are enticed and excited enough to go to the cinema, this market is predominately one best addressed to the youth sector if a slump is on, as they are more likely to make the effort to go, but repeats of tired old formats and rehashed content is not top seller material.

These cinema figures are not an accurate benchmark of the market as we are not being shown the true rates of cinema attendance for all the years just comparing the takings to a time long ago is a complete distortion of events, what where the release figures that year ?  
Also last few years the cinema has picked up a little so thats why they have only chosen to highlight this year over last , but the same thing applies   no movies released = no revenues.

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Its seems there are as many reasons for a slowdon in dvd sales as answers.

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/jul2005/nf2005071_7277_db035.htm?campaign_id=topStories_ssi_5

Small but troubling signs are emerging that the DVD market's growth could be trailing off faster than Hollywood expected. On June 30, Pixar Animation Studios (PIXR ) cut its earnings-per-share estimate for the second quarter to 10 cents from 15 cents, due to slower-than-expected DVD sales of its blockbuster The Incredibles. The stock of Dreamworks Animation (DWA ) dropped sharply in mid-May, after the studio reported that returns of its own blockbuster Shrek 2 left sales 5 million short of its forecasts.

Forecasts are just that, its a very rich man who can tell the future.

I suppose all theses decreaes have nothing to do with certain boycott campaigns, of cinemas , dvd, video products etc ,  just a thought.