Bad Summer For The Movies

The anemic Labor Day weekend movie box office ended a summer that was the worst for Hollywood in 11 years, despite the success of films like Wonder Woman, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2, Dunkirk, Spider-Man: Homecoming and Girls Trip. So why did audiences stay away?

NBC News outlined the likely main reasons:

• Franchise fatigue -- Big-budget franchises with their continuing sequels, prequels, reboots, spin-offs and crossovers are reliable revenue streams for film companies, but the disappointing performances of some franchise entries this summer -- like Transformers: The Last Knight, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, and Alien: Covenant -- suggest moviegoers may be tired of seeing the same thing all the time.
• Competition -- Consumers have more choices than ever for their entertainment instead of going to the movies, including streaming services like Netflix, high-quality shows like Game of Thrones on cable or streaming platforms that can be watched on big-screen TVs, video games on systems like Xbox and devices like iPads, and more.
• 'Rotten Tomatoes' Effect -- Although reviews have been around for decades, including online in the internet age, consumers are increasingly looking to the website Rotten Tomatoes, which has aggregated review scores, to check out a film ahead of time, and are avoiding those that get bad reviews