Average moviegoers don’t usually hold high standards for a typical Hollywood movie. They’re conditioned to consume unremarkable — or just plain bad — flicks.

But this year’s slew of lackluster films could potentially signify a change audiences’ attitude toward Hollywood’s output.

In 2011, gross theatrical revenue plunged 20 percent despite average ticket prices reaching $8 for the first time ever. The recent recession in the revenue of this year’s wide releases is common knowledge, and the cause of the decline in ticket sales is an increasingly hot topic of debate.

In an era when only Will Smith can sell a film on name alone and studios continually struggle to market films entirely reliant on the director’s name, box-office success is now generally governed by commercials and trailers, with sequels being king. Box-office revenue has remained fairly stable for the last 30 years, but 2011 marks a major exception, perhaps most easily explained by the quantity of horrible movies flooding the marketplace.

According to the Rotten Tomatoes website, which calculates the percentage of critics who give a positive or negative review to every new film, 2011 has been historically disappointing.

The numbers are simply staggering. Not a single wide release received positive reviews in January or February, resulting in a two-month stretch highlighted by abominations such as ‘Season of the Witch’ (5 percent positive), ‘The Roommate’ (5 percent) and ‘Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son’ (6 percent). Only two of this year’s 12 weeks featured a positive release, leaving 10 weeks of pitiful offerings.

January, February and March usually generate meager revenue, but it’s curious how grosses could have plummeted so severely compared to this point in 2010, even as ticket prices continue to climb. The average ticket price has increased every year since 1989, when it was a mere $3.97. Revenue has increased every year since 1992, save for three small exceptions: revenue dropped 5.8 percent in 2005, a hardly noticeable 0.3 percent in 2008 and 0.3 percent in 2010.

Doug Brode, an adjunct professor in the television, radio and film department in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, believes the type of product Hollywood is putting out, and not necessarily the critics, are hurting revenue. Brode said the audience is indifferent to the critics’ reviews, negative or positive.

‘The critics can praise a film’s quality, but that doesn’t mean most people will go see it, nor does it mean they will stay away,’ said Brode. ‘The audience has an amazing sense of what it wants in a movie — and an instinct about whether any one film will deliver the element or those elements.’

Lately, Hollywood has been struggling to lure in moviegoers.

Brode said, ‘The problem recently is that audiences don’t get the feeling that these are movies that they particularly want to see.’

The increasing popularity and availability of Video on Demand certainly injures theatrical revenue, as the films are available at a cheaper cost for a longer period of time and can be viewed by as many people as the customers can accommodate in their homes. The mainstream films are never released on VOD as soon as they hit theaters, but some are accessible relatively early on, and viewers can watch many prestigious independent films and festival favorites on their cable boxes.

Professor Richard Breyer, co-director of the master’s program in documentary, film and history at Newhouse, sees the popularity of VOD as a major threat to ticket sales.

‘Obviously it’s a whole lot cheaper to watch on your TV, computer screen or iPad,’ Breyer said. ‘Another factor is the improved quality of sound and picture of the screens and speakers in our homes and dorms and the decline of the quality of the multiplex.’

Breyer says all this leads to a change in movie culture.

‘Most of my students seldom go to the mall or downtown to see a new release,’ he said. ‘They prefer to wait and watch it with friends or alone in their dorms or apartments.’

In keeping with the attitude and outlook of any other major industry, those sitting comfortably at the top in Hollywood will not be quick to admit that they fail to give their public what they crave. Since 1980, the largest single-year decrease in revenue was 7 percent, and there’s little reason to believe the current 20 percent drop from 2010 will be erased.

Even if they won’t admit it, the heads of the major studios know that if they want to keep putting their pictures in the movie houses, they’ll have to step their game up.

smlittma@syr.edu

Published on March 30, 2011 at 12:00 pm