{"id":472,"date":"2025-05-01T20:17:40","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T20:17:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/editorsvision.com\/frenzy\/?p=472"},"modified":"2025-05-01T20:17:40","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T20:17:40","slug":"if-gen-z-wants-better-movies-theyre-gonna-have-to-go-to-the-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/editorsvision.com\/frenzy\/2025\/05\/01\/if-gen-z-wants-better-movies-theyre-gonna-have-to-go-to-the-movies\/","title":{"rendered":"If Gen Z Wants Better Movies, They’re Gonna Have to Go to the Movies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The seats were still warm from the opening weekend of Mickey 17<\/em>, when respected film news outlets and Pop Crave<\/em>-adjacent accounts flooded our feeds with reports of failing box office numbers. The Robert Pattinson-led $118 million Sci-Fi thriller grossed $25.4 million internationally\u2014only 21% of its $118 million budget. And so, just 72 hours after release, the film was baptized as a \u201cflop.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the low gross, Mickey 17<\/em> was well received by critics<\/a> and audiences, who gave it a 77% on Rotten Tomatoes<\/a> and four out of five stars on Letterboxd<\/a>.  Featuring a fresh dystopian premise, selective actors, and an innovative director, the movie has all the makings of the kind of film the public has been begging studios to forego their Avengers-level box offices for. So, while these numbers are low enough that we can <\/em>call the film a \u201cflop,\u201d it\u2019s worth asking whether we should.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dreaded \u201cflop\u201d label, especially when used so soon after a film\u2019s release, discourages audiences from seeing a film in theaters, which is a death sentence for its ability to turn a profit, as, even if the film goes on to do well on streaming after its theatrical run, most films still make the great majority of their revenue on ticket sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But why should you care that a film you had no economic investment in didn\u2019t make its money back? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, if you\u2019re one of the millions of people around the world who\u2019s spent the last five years lamenting the onslaught of repetitive IP slop, sequels, and franchise films, or if you\u2019ve ever asked \u201cwhy does no one make good movies anymore?\u201d, you should care very much whether any original film released by a major movie studio breaks even.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Film studios\u2014in their infinite overspending, corner-cutting, and risk-aversion\u2014are businesses, meaning their top priority will always be to make their money back. If you continue not showing up in theatres<\/em> for the risky, genre-diverse, non-mainstream movies, you are confirming to the studios that innovative cinema is a losing bet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simply put, if you want better movies, you\u2019re going to have to go <\/em>to the movies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flop \u2260 Bad<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s no secret that movie theatre revenue has plummeted<\/a> in the five years since the pandemic. While attendance has been growing exponentially, just 833 million people attended major theatre chains in 2024, compared to 1.2 billion in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the main reasons people claim they\u2019re not going to the theatre is the declining quality of mainstream cinema<\/a>. As the film industry flounders and begs the public to return to theatres, audiences, particularly millennials and Gen-Z, who make up the majority of theatregoers, respond by pointing out <\/a>the lack of genre variety, the absence of original ideas, and the lack of new talent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the last five years, film fans have also complained about the greed of these large studios, who leave independent filmmakers struggling in their refusal to fund any project that isn\u2019t a sci-fi\/action film, a sequel, a remake, or a guaranteed blockbuster from a seasoned director.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While these remain valid critiques of the way studios have operated in the last 10 years, what happens when the so-called flop is a film like Mickey 17<\/em>, which is neither a sequel nor a franchise film and lacks the presence of even a single famous Chris? What happens when the flop is No Hard Feelings<\/em>, a decently reviewed, genuinely funny attempt at the early 2010 rom-com revival we\u2019ve all been clamoring for for years? Where is the audience that clamoured for originality, then?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In those moments, we\u2019re forced to contend with the inconvenient truth: the financial performance of a film has little to do with quality and more to do with the way we consume movies in the digital age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Streaming has made it easier than ever to watch films at home, especially films in genres that we consider \u201ccasual\u201d viewing, such as comedies, romance, crime\/mysteries, cerebral literary adaptations, and small-budget indies. We\u2019re also on the verge of a global recession, meaning fewer people are willing to shell out $20 for an AMC movie ticket to a film that they know they\u2019ll be able to stream at home practically for free two months from now or one that isn\u2019t a formulaic, guaranteed<\/em> good time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this way, we have become just as fearful as the studios, setting off a domino effect of mediocrity: audiences don\u2019t watch as many \u201crisky\u201d films, so studios don\u2019t make as many \u201crisky\u201d films, so audiences don\u2019t watch as many \u201crisky\u201d films. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless of their quality, innovative movies are victims of  this behaviour, making it nearly impossible for them not to \u201cflop.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Getting Your Money\u2019s Worth<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Like them or not, the most successful releases of the last couple of years\u2014Barbie<\/em>, Oppenheimer<\/em>, Wicked<\/em>, and Deadpool and Wolverine<\/em>\u2014have succeeded, in part, because they offer the audience something they can\u2019t get streaming at home. For people to feel that their movie-going experience has been worth the expensive inconvenience, they don\u2019t want to just <\/em>watch a movie, even if it is a great movie; they want to be part of an event<\/em>, with a packed house, branded popcorn buckets, and audience participation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We expect too much of our nights out at the theatre\u2014certainly more than most original movies with no built-in fan base will ever be able to provide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the state of the economy and the convenience of streaming, it\u2019s easy to throw your hands up and say you can\u2019t afford to go to the movies. However, with the state of cinema and society, I think you\u2019ll find you actually can\u2019t afford not to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caring about and investing in cinema is not about employing a few Tisch grads or throwing your money at droll documentaries out of principle, it\u2019s about letting the people take control of their own narrative. Films have freed prisoners; they transformed the way we thought about segregation and gay marriage and feminism; for centuries, they\u2019ve allowed us to step into the shoes of people from all walks of life and understand them in a way that cannot be replicated by any other medium outside of art. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You shouldn\u2019t be monetizing the value of a film; that\u2019s the studio\u2019s job. As an individual, you have to use your dollars to not just tell but show<\/em> these studios that you value creative ambition, great acting, and fresh stories just as much as you value the slothful indulgence of nostalgia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is something that cannot be done through streaming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Streaming Revenue Works (or doesn\u2019t.)<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When studios sign a distribution deal with a company like Netflix or Hulu, they are paid a lump sum for the rights to host their film on said platform for a year.<\/a> Optimistically, streaming services pay only enough to make sure the production does a little better than breaking even. Movies lucky enough to even land one of these increasingly elusive deals only make that agreed-upon amount for the entire year, regardless of how many people stream the film during that time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, if your favourite indie film was deemed to be worth a certain amount before its release by Netflix, it doesn’t matter if it exceeds expectations and goes on to become a huge streaming hit because the studio was already paid for the year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If this system seems wildly unfair to you, that\u2019s because it is. Ticket revenue, by comparison, is a much fairer metric, rewarding the film according to its actual success with audiences. The predecessor to streaming, home video, did this as well. <\/a>The fact that streaming doesn\u2019t do this is actually a major reason why studios are so afraid to take risks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no substitute for seeing a movie in theatres, not economically for the industry and not experientially for viewers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make the Movies Casual Again<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In a pre-streaming world, a night out at the movies could be a weekly occurrence. People didn\u2019t even really care what movie was playing, they were just getting out of the house. Around this time, 18 to 29-year-olds saw an average of 9.5 movies in theatres a year<\/a>. Now, they see roughly 3<\/a>. A return to this kind of casual attendance would not only be good for reigniting the third spaces we lost to the pandemic, but it\u2019s also a great opportunity for non \u201cevent\u201d films to make some money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the public perception, movie tickets have never been cheaper thanks to major theater chains like AMC, Regal, and Cinemark developing membership programs<\/a>. For as low as $10 a month, you can watch several movies in-theatres at no additional cost and save money on the admittedly overpriced concession snacks. Alternatively, if you’re privileged enough to live in a city that still has independent theaters, supporting them and the often-overlooked films they screen by paying for an in-person ticket is one of the best things you can do for independent movies and your local arts scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the deck firmly stacked against non-franchise films, box office success is a metric that belongs to a different era. The next time someone cries \u201cflop,\u201d don\u2019t just assume the movie isn\u2019t worth your time\u2014assume it might be exactly the kind of film that needs your support. If you\u2019re truly passionate about great cinema, or if you just miss not seeing Ryan Reynolds’s face in terrifying IMAX scale, put your money where your ever-bitching mouths are and get down to the movies. It\u2019s possible you\u2019ll just watch that flop crash and burn with your own eyes, but it\u2019s just as possible you\u2019ll find yourself clapping for a masterpiece in an empty theatre. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It took Academy Award Winner Bong Joon Ho three years to make Mickey 17. It only took us three days to call it a flop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":475,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-geist"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/editorsvision.com\/frenzy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/editorsvision.com\/frenzy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/editorsvision.com\/frenzy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/editorsvision.com\/frenzy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/editorsvision.com\/frenzy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/editorsvision.com\/frenzy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":476,"href":"https:\/\/editorsvision.com\/frenzy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472\/revisions\/476"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/editorsvision.com\/frenzy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/editorsvision.com\/frenzy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/editorsvision.com\/frenzy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/editorsvision.com\/frenzy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}