2017-05-23

Social Mood at the Movies

Social mood is relatively positive at the moment, so the only blockbuster delivering at the box office in 2017 is an action comedy.

Hollywood Reporter: Summer Box-Office Blues: Revenue Down 10 Percent So Far From 2016
Director James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 — with its gaggle of quirky superheroes — is the only summer 2017 tentpole to live up to the hype so far. Over the weekend, the Disney and Marvel superhero sequel grossed $35.1 million in its third outing, not that far behind the disappointing debut of Ridley Scott's Alien: Covenant.

Launching to a lackluster $36 million domestically, Alien: Covenant is the second big-budget movie in a row to disappoint after King Arthur: The Legend of the Sword, helping to contribute to an early summer revenue box-office decline of 10 percent compared with 2016 and 20 percent compared with summer 2015, according to comScore.

There's still plenty of time to make up ground, but Hollywood is on high alert.

"The thing is, we already know August is pretty lean this year, so studios have to make it up elsewhere in June and July. That will put a lot of pressure on original films like Wonder Woman and Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk to succeed," says box-office analyst Jeff Bock of Exhibitor Relations.

"I think whether or not we turn things around is extremely dependent on Memorial Day weekend," he continues. "Last year was a pretty big disappointment with Alice Through the Looking Glass and X-Men: Apocalypse. Hopefully, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and Baywatch will performer stronger this time around."
Both of those movies should do well given current social mood.

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