The box office is in rough shape right now — but let’s be clear, this slump isn’t because audiences have disappeared. They’re still out there. The problem? The major studios simply didn’t deliver the goods.
Yes, October offered a handful of gems — “Blue Moon,” “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,” “It Was Just An Accident,” “The Mastermind,” and “Urchin.” But those films barely reached anyone, rolling out in extremely limited fashion. Meanwhile, the studio releases meant to carry the month fell flat.
October’s box-office haul is expected to land around $425M. Outside of October 2020 — when many theaters were literally shut down — this is the worst October in almost 30 years. The last time numbers were this low was 1997, when the month brought in $385M. Adjusted for inflation, that 1997 total would be around $779M today.
What went wrong? A lot of things. THR is partly blaming it on strike-related delays, but didn’t the so-called experts say this was going to be the year Hollywood bounced back from the strikes? Quite honestly, the simplest, and most reasonable, explanation for me would be that audiences just didn’t connect with most of what was released.
“TRON: Ares” topped the month, but even it sits at only $63M domestic after three weeks. “Black Phone 2” pulled in $53M, and Taylor Swift’s album documentary sits at $34M. Beyond that? Crickets. Even the supposed awards contenders — “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere,” “The Smashing Machine,” “After the Hunt,” “Kiss of the Spider-Woman,” “Anemone,” “Bugonia” — fell flat.
It’s also odd how no major studio chose to launch a wide release over the Halloween weekend, capping an already slow October box office with a flat finish — the lowest grossing weekend of the year . Leading the pack is the third instalment of “Black Phone 2, which was released two weekends ago, with a $7M showing.
The good news? November looks loaded. Incoming potential saviors include “Predator: Badlands,” “The Running Man,” “Wicked: For Good,” and “Zootopia 2.”
Studios better hope at least a couple of those deliver — because audiences are ready to show up. They just need something worth showing up for.