I am not a film maker in any way. So then why do so many news sites tell me about how much money the film has taken in during its first weekend, week, etc…?
As a film fan / viewer, why should I care?
Any sort of historical explanation would be very appreciated.
Keep in mind that there’s such a thing as “Hollywood Accounting”. Studios will claim big box office, and then turn around and tell the IRS and stakeholders that their pictures never made money.
It’s just a metric for success and popularity.
I think it’s even worse: If I’m curios and buy a ticket yet absolutely hate the film after seeing it, i still paid a ticket. So Ticket sales are absolutely unrelated to the quality of the movie.
I also just started to realize how out of touch most critics are with regular viewers (or me at least). Some films on IMDB have horrible critics reviews yet the user reviews are almost always higher or even quite decent.
Once upon a time, the theatre was the only place to watch a film.
So, the box office takings were the only income and sole measure of the success of a film.
That metric has hung around, but the modes of film consumption have expanded.
I want to add that the box office income is simply one of the only objective metrics to compare the success of films.
Money is all that matters. Is a movie good? Well, let’s look a the box office. Same in all facets of life. It’s pretty gross and bugged me for years and years. I have spent so long developing a habit of ignoring those types of numbers in news. It’s almost automatic at this point. Just in one ear and out the other.
That and doesn’t Disney still own ABC? I remember ABC used to always cover Disney movies like it was newsworthy. Conspiracy hat on, all these companies are in bed together and their number one goal is to take your money. And mine. Americans love a front-runner. I was raised to believe we rooted for the underdog, but that’s bullshit. If the news can hype a movie, people will think Other people are spending money on it. I better as well. If nothing else, then just for social situation bullshit. So the numbers go up. The movie studio loves it. They make more money, spend more on ads. The TV studios love it, they make more money. People love it, they’re all part of a club now, if only marginally poorer. And now it’s just a race to the bottom. Highest $$ wins. Less Kubrick, more Bay.
tl;dr You shouldn’t give a shit. I don’t.