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CNN Live At Daybreak
Movie Attendance Fell More Than 4 Percent This Year
Aired December 29, 2003 - 06:15 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Time now, though, for a little 'Business Buzz.' Is bigger always better? Hollywood thinks so, but audiences aren't buying it.
Sasha Salama has the story live from the Nasdaq market site.
Good morning.
SASHA SALAMA, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Carol, have you seen the new "Lord of the Rings" film yet?
COSTELLO: Yes, I have.
SALAMA: You have. Any...
COSTELLO: It was fantastic.
SALAMA: Thumbs up. OK. I mean a lot of folks are with you on that one. I haven't seen it yet, but we're planning to this week.
"Lord of the Rings" is a perfect example of a blockbuster film that a lot of money was spent on. Actually, it is bringing in some good revenues at the box office. But overall, like you were saying, the blockbuster films that had a $100 million or more spent on them are really not doing as well as Hollywood had expected. In fact, according to "The Wall Street Journal," Hollywood is on tract for its first decline in annual ticket sales since 1991.
Now they are still bringing in a lot of money, folks. According to a company that tracks box office receipts, they are looking to bring in more than $9 billion, but that is on track to be the first decline in 12 years. And the main reason for that is this glut of expensive films. A lot of them are sequels and they are just not bringing people to the box office like Hollywood had expected.
A perfect example of that, even though "Lord of the Rings," by the way, took in more than $51 million over the weekend, that's on track to do quite well. An example of something that's not doing well is "Peter Pan." "Peter Pan," which was put out by Universal and Sony, cost more than $100 million to make and it brought in so far just $15 million since it opened on Christmas Day. So that's on track to be a big bust.
We'll see if the rest of the movie season this holiday time pans out that same way. So that's kind of an interesting story to keep an eye on, especially with these movie studios spending more than $100 million on films that turn out to be a big dud -- Carol. COSTELLO: Most definitely.
Sasha Salama reporting live from the Nasdaq market site this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired December 29, 2003 - 06:15 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Time now, though, for a little 'Business Buzz.' Is bigger always better? Hollywood thinks so, but audiences aren't buying it.
Sasha Salama has the story live from the Nasdaq market site.
Good morning.
SASHA SALAMA, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Carol, have you seen the new "Lord of the Rings" film yet?
COSTELLO: Yes, I have.
SALAMA: You have. Any...
COSTELLO: It was fantastic.
SALAMA: Thumbs up. OK. I mean a lot of folks are with you on that one. I haven't seen it yet, but we're planning to this week.
"Lord of the Rings" is a perfect example of a blockbuster film that a lot of money was spent on. Actually, it is bringing in some good revenues at the box office. But overall, like you were saying, the blockbuster films that had a $100 million or more spent on them are really not doing as well as Hollywood had expected. In fact, according to "The Wall Street Journal," Hollywood is on tract for its first decline in annual ticket sales since 1991.
Now they are still bringing in a lot of money, folks. According to a company that tracks box office receipts, they are looking to bring in more than $9 billion, but that is on track to be the first decline in 12 years. And the main reason for that is this glut of expensive films. A lot of them are sequels and they are just not bringing people to the box office like Hollywood had expected.
A perfect example of that, even though "Lord of the Rings," by the way, took in more than $51 million over the weekend, that's on track to do quite well. An example of something that's not doing well is "Peter Pan." "Peter Pan," which was put out by Universal and Sony, cost more than $100 million to make and it brought in so far just $15 million since it opened on Christmas Day. So that's on track to be a big bust.
We'll see if the rest of the movie season this holiday time pans out that same way. So that's kind of an interesting story to keep an eye on, especially with these movie studios spending more than $100 million on films that turn out to be a big dud -- Carol. COSTELLO: Most definitely.
Sasha Salama reporting live from the Nasdaq market site this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
