THB #269: Box Office... and the rant it inspires

(Note: The was mostly written on Saturday.)

Box office writing continues to hurt my poor little head this year. It has become more and more myopic, even as Anthony at Deadline has added 20 and 30-year-old, utterly irrelevant comps to his mix of almost-meaningless attention-seeking data companies like CinemaScore and RelishMix.

It’s not that I care about the failure of real analysis as much as it is that the consistency of themes in the trades leads to similarly thoughtless coverage in the New York Times and beyond, leading to a general misunderstanding of the industry at this time, particularly theatrical.

I know that the truth is boring and repetitive. It’s not that small movies and “Oscar movies” are somehow failing the market. It’s not that old people or young people or whatever group of people being blamed for failed marketing this week refuse to return to theaters. It sure as hell isn’t COVID.

It’s the lack of movies, stupid. And the lack of a range of movies.

The “big opening” obs…