Franchises and sequels dominated the 2024 box office. The only movie in the top 15 not based on an existing film was "Wicked," which was based on a Broadway musical.
Genuine question: is it bad if movies don’t make a ton of money in theaters? Like, if it goes to streaming, is the assumption then that it won’t make near as much in profit syndicated on some
Streaming platform? There are some
Movies I definitely want to see, original films
Ideally, but I am not a movie theater goer generally, even in the best of scenarios. I’d rather watch at home.
Matt Damon goes into this in an interview on Hot Ones, apparently in the past what you mention wasn’t as much of an issue due to the home market with DVD sales. But streaming doesn’t give that same return on investment, I think because the movie makers just get money from streaming services buying the rights and maybe some residuals, so theater profit is the main focus.
Historically movies make most of their money at the box office. It’s rare for something to be profitable just from rentals/streaming, and even if it eventually is it will take a long time for the studio to recoup its costs.
I don’t think this is true anymore, because the studios now own the streaming channels. They make more money from subscribers and ad sales than they do theater releases. If they made their money from theater releases, the theaters wouldn’t be struggling and the movies wouldn’t be rushed off the big screen and onto the streaming channels.