10 Reasons Why 2016's Blockbusters Are Failing

10. You Can’t Count On A Review Proof Hit

Some of the most gargantuan box office hits of all time received fairly ropey reviews. Titanic and Avatar were two of James Cameron’s biggest critical misfires - yet they’re the two biggest movies of all time, if you don’t adjust for inflation.

Tim Burton’s 2010 ‘reimagining’ of Alice In Wonderland is another case in point, receiving decidedly mixed reviews and netting well over a billion dollars at the worldwide box office. This year, Suicide Squad is repeating that slender trend: despite some of the worst reviews for any superhero movie, it’s comfortably slid over the $700million mark worldwide without any recognisable capes or costumes in the main cast.

The thing is, critical consensus is still the benchmark when it comes to deciding to go and see a movie in theatres. It’s an expensive night out these days, the flicks… and given that the whole of that night out will revolve around the two hours and change you spend sitting in that cramped seat being shouted at by giants on a wall, if it’s not a good film then that’s the night ruined and all that money wasted.

That’s why so many obsess over sites like Rotten Tomatoes, despite the fact that most people don’t understand how it works. That percentage isn’t exactly scientific, you know.

But no one really understands why a few movies are review-proof and most aren’t. It’s never something you can rely on, and the alarming reviews for so many of the turkeys released to great fanfare this year have effectively cut the legs off most of them before they could get out of the front door.