The far-left New York Times will never admit why this is happening, but it did report that the 2025 summer box office was the worst since 1981, the worst in 44 years.
“Multiplexes in the United States and Canada had their worst summer since 1981, after adjusting for inflation and excluding the Covid pandemic years,” the Times reported.
This was supposed to be the summer when the North American box office returned to form — finally from the pandemic slump.
“We believe that a dramatic reawakening of the industrywide domestic box office has begun,” Adam Aron, chief executive of AMC Entertainment, the continent’s largest theater operator, gleefully told analysts in May. He predicted that Hollywood’s summer movies would be “barn burners, one after another.”
“Survive till ’25,” was the Hollywood mantra, as though the appeal and quality of the product had nothing to do with that survival.
“Is it time for Hollywood to concede that a lot of moviegoers in North America are never coming back? That movie theaters have permanently lost 20 to 25 percent of their customers?” the Times asked.
Yes, but for only one reason — which has nothing to do with the pandemic, streaming, or early releases to the home video market. And that single reason is … appeal.
If streaming and theatrical windows and the pandemic caused the worst summer box office in 44 years, why did the summers of 2022, 2023, and 2024 produce better box office results?
The Times does, in a roundabout way, admit that part of the problem is quality, as in tired franchises that don’t deliver like they once did: Superman, Jurassic Park, all things Marvel, etc.
Let’s face it, though — movies suck today. So far, of all the movies released this year, I can only see myself bothering to watch F1: The Movie, Sinners, and Weapons again. What does that tell you?
Here are all the titles released in 1993 I own on Blu-ray: Jurassic Park, The Fugitive, The Firm, Sleepless in Seattle, Indecent proposal, In the Line of Fire, Cliffhanger, A Few Good Men, Groundhog Day, Dave, Cool Runnings, The Crying Game, Demolition Man, The Pelican Brief, Last Action Hero, Nightmare Before Christmas, The Good Son, Addams Family Values, What’s Love Got to Do With It, Falling Down, Son in Law, Hard Target, The Sandlot, The Age of Innocence, Point of No Return, A Perfect World, Menace II Society, Loaded Weapon, Striking Distance, Benny & Joon, Rudy, and I’m missing a few.
And guess what? Back in 1993, we had the equivalent of streaming with 100 cable channels. We also had big-screen TVs, surround sound, video games, and our own movie collections.
The box office sucks because movies suck. The movies suck because Hollywood sucks. Hollywood sucks because it’s run by a Woketard Gestapo that hates their customers, hates the franchises they are in charge of, and spends too much time online instead of dreaming.
John Nolte’ s first and last novel Borrowed Time, is winning five-star raves from everyday readers. You can read an excerpt here and an in-depth review here. Also available in hardcover and on Kindle and Audiobook.
