Box office performance / viewing figures: why do we (the audience) care?

[Nitefly]

Good morning fellow forumites.

Something that is coming up all the time in threads, more so than ever before, are comments re: the box office performance or viewership of various films / shows.

I think these things do indicate the face value appeal of the media as a ‘sellable product’ compared to other such products made available at the same time… but, that’s about it? From my perspective:

- box office ratings / viewership has little baring on how enjoyable I find a film. I don’t find a film more enjoyable because someone else liked it and vice-versa.

- whether I find a film enjoyable or not is THE most important thing about a film.

- a lot of face value appeal (sales) doesn’t mean the product is ‘good / great’ either.

So I just don’t really care how well a film does or doesn’t do… nor do I feel that box office performance indicates anything other than face value appeal.

As an aside, the amount of box office takings that are being banded around (on this forum) as the point of a film being profitable are so high that only a tiny sliver of the total number films would ever make a profit. I doubt that these massive investments are quite so speculative… but at the same time it’s clear that some studios HAVE made poor investment decisions and will need to recalibrate their spending towards the appeal of their films.

I suppose observing this info is interesting for speculating on the direction of the industry, but that’s about it from my perspective.

What’s your view on it? Do you care about viewership / performance?

 

[Nitefly]

Ostensibly because if a movie has made money at the box office, that is an indicater than it's been successful with audiences

I know what you mean but success here just means ‘people have bought tickets’… it has no real bearing on quality.

The Minions films and the Secret Life of Pets, for example, both did very well at the box office yet are really quite average at best (if you’re being generous).

… then again, Rise of Gru has a frankly insane rotten tomatos audience score of 89%! I think there was a social media thing to do with this film that might have escalated enjoyment? I thought it was shockingly bad. I generally fail to resonate with anything that studio puts out… it’s always so ‘empty’, even if entertaining in the moment. But perhaps I’m in the minority.

 

[Nitefly]

Why do we track numbers on anything?

It's an obvious data point for companies to determine how successful or well something is selling.

Yes - the commercial reasons are obvious. The thread is asking why we, the audience (specifically OcUK members) care.

 

[Nitefly]

Do we care? Sounds like you're overemphasising something as though it's a fact when I imagine most people couldn't care less.

It comes up a lot on the forums hence the thread title and the OP ending on a question.