As any cinema cynic or cane-waving old crank knows deep in their world-weary heart, the worst year of all time for movies is whatever year it is right now. However, despite a cruel summer, a significantly sluggish final month, and complaints of declining quality, 2010’s actual box office numbers haven’t fared too badly. Total domestic revenue is down a tad from last year’s record-setting $10.6 billion, but it’s not down by much. In fact, the estimated $10.556 billion take is only the second time the annual figure has been higher than $10 billion.
But the numbers are only part of the story, and they constitute a disappointment when you consider that 2010 was poised from the start to bust 2009’s record wide open.
While the year might be going out like a Little Focking lamb, it came in like a big, blue, motion-captured lion. January and February, usually an Island of Misfit Toys for movies no studio has any faith in, saw major holiday leftovers from Avatar, the long-legged success of which pushed the front-end of the year into probable record territory. Yet the momentum from that early push was squandered by one of the worst summers in recent box-office history, and an almost equally disappointing winter.
The renaissance of 3D also gave studios the wallet-gouging means to push their grosses into the stratosphere. Well, it didn’t happen, but not for lack of trying. They used the technology on any and all blockbusters they could get their hands on — I feel like I saw more movies this year with those polarized Elvis Costello shades on than without them — hoping the $3-$5 surcharges would pack their coffers. And they did, but only enough to help mask a pretty precipitous drop in attendance: 5.36 percent from 2009, the biggest drop since 2005.
It was mainly a year of squandered opportunity and, even by the account of those who aren’t wistful nostalgists, of not-so-great studio tentpoles. Maybe a lack of quality has finally translated into lack of interest from moviegoers, especially when ticket prices are increasingly inspiring a WHAT?!?! reaction. The fact that the critically acclaimed Toy Story 3 ended up the highest-grossing film of the year with $415 million helps to bear that theory out. How about you? Did you find yourself staying home more this year because there was nothing worth seeing? Is anyone optimistic for 2011?
No doubt, this was the worst year for movies in memory. Uninspired, unintelligent drivel from top to bottom. All you had to do was look at the release schedule last January, and you could see how grim it looked. 2011 doesn’t look to be much better; some slight hope for 2012.
It’s official, people generally just go online to complain and be negative. Actually this was one of the BEST years in history; Inception, Nolan’s best work (sorry, stop saying another BATMAN movie is a work of art), The Social Network (the best work from a genius that BEGAN his career with a genius film called A FEW GOOD MEN), Toy Story 3 (arguably the best PIXAR movie), Shutter Island (arguably the best work of the Scorcese Renaissance), Black Swan (the best work of one of history’s greatest film auteurs), The Kids Are All Right, 127 Hours..the list goes on… compared to LAST year, where AVATAR (sorry, there is NO originality in that film and I’m not the only one in the theater who laughed out loud at the dialogue, that and it’s arguably the WORST film of JC’s career) was considered by many to be the best of the year, along with Hurt Locker, where I did not hear from ONE viewer Or member of the military who thought it was better or more realistic than BLACK HAWK DOWN. Don’t be a jerk just because YOU lined up for the WRONG movies (Alice, Tron, Voyage, every other OBVIOUS dud).This is also about the sickening greed of the industry: It’s not about art, it’s about 10 billion not being ENOUGH, even in a recession. And don’t try responding to this post just to be MORE negative, I won’t check back, because I enjoy being positive about life, and I don’t feed off your negativity like you want me to.
Bravo. Agree to everything you just said. This was a great year for movies. Some Blockbusters may have been lacking, but most movies were very satisfying. And 2011 has the last HP movie. Nuff said. Can’t wait.
I laughed out loud at Avatar dialouge too. I thought it was just me… Aside from that the movie was completely humorless. I doubt I’ll ever sit through it again.
I loved Inception, The Social Network, Scott Pilgrim, Kick-Ass, Eclipse (yes, I know…low brow) and True Grit. I’m pretty happy with 2010.
Completely agree, except for Tron, I thought that film was visually and audibly spectacular. Soundtrack is comparable to Inception. So the dialog wasn’t great, who honestly though it would otherwise? It’s a fun movie that looks and sounds incredible. Definitely one of the best years yet.
…and Harry Potter which was one of the best book adaptations ever.
I can’t take anyone who calls themself Ry seriously.
Ah, the rant of intolerance raises its ugly head again. The mark of the modern tea-partier: “I will say everything I want, but don’t bother responding because I won’t even listen.”
Sorry you won’t be checking back, because you’d have seen I agree with you on so many specifics- “Inception” and “Shutter Island” were great, “The Dark Knight” was one of the worst movies of the decade, “Avatar” is vastly overrated, “BlackHawk Down” was vastly superior to “Hurt Locker”, etc… My only point was that the quantity of decent movies in 2010 was way below any year in memory. But I know you won’t see how much we had in common, with your nose buried in the latest Sarah Palin “book”.
He’s no more a jerk than you are for having an opinion. In fact, you’re the jerk in this scenario for insisting that he shouldn’t have one just because you don’t agree with it. You aren’t the end-all-be-all of movie critics.
I had to come back because it DID eat at me that I mentioned TRON on the baddies list, just because the name itself makes it an easy target. That’s basically succumbing to the same negativity I said I was against. But thanks for the positivity I hear, it makes me a little less reluctant to check back on posts again, because I didn’t want to after getting used to such bizarre hatred some people want to project onto others simply with different viewpoints. But I will respond to Steve, not because I care about the insult, but just to suggest not to assume that anyone who is passionately against NEGATIVITY for the sake of garnering attention and feeling a part of something bigger (only a personal assumption, I’m not saying anyone who hated this year’s MOVIES, with more passion than they showed against an ex president and congress that illegally slaughtered hundreds of thousands of civilians in Iraq, wasn’t justified) would be a fan of the woman who’s arguably the 20th century MASTER at exactly that. That bit of irony really made me smile. Oh, and Ry is short for Ryan
David Fincher the man behind Social Network had nothing to do with A Few Good Men, a movie far removed from genius
Kev, A few Good Men was written by the same writer of the Social Network, but I’m glad you respect the people you are arguing with enough to do a simple google search first (that was a joke, you obviously have no respect for anyone). Thanks for making assumptions that were false. That goes for all of you negative jerks. Seriously, way to go, slinging mud, and even accusing people of political incorrectness (STEVE, you are just so negative, I can only hope you find true happiness in your lifetime like I have with the love of my life). Thanks for proving my point correct, and thanks more TRULY to those who stood up for me, and more importantly, stood up for the chance of having another side of the argument in the face of people telling others to just “shut up and go away”. Tea Party, Steve? you invented the thing.
My God, has the world gone completely crazy? Where did I “insist that he shouldn’t have an opinion” (Michael)? Where did I tell anyone to “shut up and go away” (Ryan)? It’s like people are just making up their own reality as they go along.
I agree that it was a good movie season. I enjoyed a lot of films this year. Harry potter and Alice in wonderland were enjoyable to me. Kick ass and scott pilgrim had small box office gross numbers but were brilliant.
My local plex is stuffed with boring, poorly crafted popcorn movies, but the quality dramas and indie films that I want to see won’t play within 100 miles of my location. I feel lucky that the Fighter and Black Swan went wide, but there are tons of movies that I’ll miss until they come out on DVD.
You should move.
And you should lose weight.
2010 was probably the year when I saw the fewest films at the cinema. Overall, I bet I saw maybe only 15-20 movies this year. The outrageous ticket prices and the price you pay at the concession stands is enough to keep me away. The movie had to be something I REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted to see like Ironman 2, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 1, Toy Story 3, and I broke down and saw Avatar in 3D so I could see what all the fuss was about (that was a waste of money n my opinion). Other than that I just told myself to wait for the DVD.
Increase story quality + reduce ticket prices = people will come.
Amen.
I thought the year had some great quality films, but the big blockbusters were not very good. Even Alice in Wonderland, which grossed 330 million, wasn’t very good. For a year that had Inception, The Town, Toy Story 3 and How to Train a Dragon,127 Hours, and Social Network I think it was still pretty good.I think next year will destroy the yearly box office record.
I saw a few movies this year that I thought should have gotten more praise. Granted Im no film critic but a fanboy knows a good movie when he sees one.
I definitely saw fewer movies this year than I have in recent years, and a couple of the times I went, I was seeing a movie for the second time (‘The Town’ and ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1′). Most of what’s been released is total crap, and the hefty pricetag per ticket does not help. I’ve also been desperate to avoid seeing movies in 3D, and it’s difficult to find some. I had a hard time finding ‘Voyage of the Dawn Treader’ not in 3D, and there were no theatres in my city showing ‘Tangled’ not in 3D, which means I haven’t seen ‘Tangled’ yet at all. Here’s hoping for a 2011 with higher quality films and a reduction in ticket prices (like that’ll ever happen)!
We used to see 20+ films a year. This year it was less than 10. It is cheaper to see them at home unless they require the big screen experience (and few did).
I happen to like popcorn flicks and summer is usually fun. But I think the studios are killing themselves by releasing one major tentpole film each week. Each major release saw drops of 50-60 percent. Movies I would have seen twice I didn’t because there was something else playing the next week. And if I missed a week, then whatever movie was playing I skipped. But I like many others drastically trimmed how many times I went and if there was a 2D presentation, I went to that. $11 for a movie is enough. I wont see anything in 3D if I can avoid it
As someone from the other side of the Atlantic, may I congratulate Americans in causing the latest Potter movie to underperform on WB expectations. Next time this story is told perhaps they won’t employ a hack screenwriter and director and allow them to bastardize Rowling’s characters.
Amen to that. I never expected Harry Potter to be heartless
That hack has been there since Day 1. I hate Steve Kloves so much.
Sorry to disappoint you, but it hasn’t underperformed at all. Its only been out a month and 11 days and its already earned over 830 million and is the number 25 highest grossing movie of all time. All the HP filmmakers have done an amazing job adapting Jk Rowling’s brilliant series to film. Considering the amount of detail Im surprised they’ve been able to be as faithful as they have.
Avatar, Inception, Toy Story 3, and Harry Potter were about the only ones worth seeing!
There were huge box office disappointments this year, too. Harry Potter 7: P1 should be close to $300 million already. Sex and the City 2 didn’t even make $100 million. Let Me In’s failure was inexplicable. And, for the icing on the cake, Warner Bros. absolutely destroyed the marketing for Flipped, and it only made about $1.7 million, despite being a Rob Reiner film. Seriously, WTF? How do you butcher the marketing for a family film?
Harry Potter has actually already made $860 million even though it may not be that great a film.
M1 was clearly talking about domestic gross. Spare me your asinine pedantry, Alex.
This was a really crappy year for Hollywood, even by their already low standards. There were a couple of bright spots but as a whole we’re in the midst of the worst creative period in the history of American cinema, with every other film being a remake of an old TV show or a cookie-cutter romcom. Hopefully success stories like Inception will convince studio heads to actually give talented directors some freedom again.
On the other hand there were tons of great foreign and American indie films released this year. Even as the industry finds itself sailing into unknown waters thanks to the rise of streaming/torrenting I’m confident that there will always be auteurs and mavericks willing to go the extra mile to get their film made, studio or no studio.
This is far and away the worst holiday season, and year for that matter, I can remember. Industry really needs to consider less movies and higher quality and stop putting everything in 3D. It’s a gimmick and finally being seen as such as evidenced by box office results. Instead of making every comic book into a movie why not spend some money on developing good, intelligent scripts? Movies like Inception and Social Network have shown that people still will pay to see smart movies made well.
Quality is very far down the list of reasons people go to movies. (See: Norbit, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, et al.) Fewer and fewer people are going to movies because there are more ways to be entertained (video games, for example) and it is easier and easier to just pirate movies.