The shrunken post-pandemic box office and rise of streaming changed the way movies make money, and thus, our understanding of what makes a movie “successful.” The box office isn’t bringing in the numbers it used to, and more movies are getting simultaneous streaming releases, in addition to an increase in streaming-only content, so movies aren’t generating revenue the same way they have historically.
For decades, the biggest movies were only released theatrically, making the box office a focal point for reporting and discussing a movie’s performance. Audiences would often root for or against the box office performance of content they liked or disliked, and box office figures would be propped up next to review scores as evidence of a movie’s popularity (or lack thereof), and weekly box office reports were consumed as definitive evidence of a movie’s performance.
More and more big movies were already coming out on streaming before the pandemic, including big awards winners, but that was accelerated thanks to the pandemic. Now that the year’s biggest movies have a split, or even exclusive, theatrical release, and box office revenue is much lower than just a few years ago due (mostly) to factors that have nothing to do with movie quality, we need to reconsider the way we evaluate a movie’s performance and thus redefine what it means for a movie to be a success.
