I tell you, the world is full of shocking, totally unexpected, not-at-all-foreseeable stuff like this:
Despite modestly budgeted successes like Sony's "The Woman King" and Warner Bros.' "Don't Worry Darling," this September's box office has sunk to the lowest levels in a quarter-century.
The overall total for the month is set to sink to 25-year lows, not counting 2020, when Christopher Nolan's "Tenet" accounted for nearly half the $86 million box office as most theaters remained shut down at the height of the pandemic.
With just $275 million grossed in North America to date, this will be the first September since 1997 with a monthly total of less than $350 million. To date, the running total for September 2022 is 20% behind last year's pace and 52% behind the pace set this month in 2019.
Are you seeing my face right now? That's disbelief. Total lack of belief right over here on this face.
I mean, and maybe this is naive of me, but I figured the more Hollywood churned out trash remakes and reboots, and the more it shoved woke dirge down our throats — why, I figured more and more people would just flock to see movies like that!
Don't worry, though, brighter times are on the horizon:
The hope is that November and December will outperform 2021, with Disney/Marvel's "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" and 20th Century's "Avatar: The Way of Water" leading a slew of holiday offerings to a stronger winter than last year, when Sony's "Spider-Man: No Way Home" was deadlifting the box office all on its own. Ideally, a holiday box office boom will lead into a somewhat improved market in January and an early-year slate led by films such as Paramount's "Babylon" and Disney's "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania."
Ahh yes: A winter of more sequels will surely bring the movie industry out of the slump.
Thank goodness they figured out the problem!
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