By The days of more than one or two films making over a billion dollars at the box-office in a year seem to be over.
A combination of multiple factors is to blame. From pandemic-induced habit change, to shortened release windows, to more competition for eyeballs and overall generational change.
It leads to the obvious question of what exactly constitutes a hit these days – is it purely box-office? Is it a level of engagement or subscriber sign-ups? Is it overall cultural perception?
In an appearance this week on The Hot Ones podcast, “Bad Boys” star Will Smith was asked his take on what defines a hit these days.
He says it remains the same, what’s changed is the competition from the small screen:
“The definition of a hit is still pretty much the same. It is, you know, essentially it’s just harder to get one, right.
You used to be able to put some explosions in the trailer and a couple of good jokes, and people were there.
And television is so good, there are things that people just aren’t going to leave their house for any more.
So there’s definitely a higher demand for a certain type of film for people to leave their homes.”
Overall domestic box-office for the year to date stands at just over $2.7 billion. If the box-office across the remainder of the year tracks as badly as the first five months, the year’s overall gross will be around $6.3 billion. Pandemic years (2020/21) aside, it would mark the lowest overall box-office since 1997.
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