Pop culture has, many times, given us proof that there is no correlation between something being critically-acclaimed and something being wildly successful. For example: Twilight, Justin Bieber, 50 Shades of Grey. And 2014, it turns out, provided us with one more instance.
America, you missed out on some good movies this summer
Alex Abad-Santos is a senior correspondent who explains what society obsesses over, from Marvel and movies to fitness and skin care. He came to Vox in 2014. Prior to that, he worked at The Atlantic.
According to Metacritic, the movies this summer were the best-reviewed wide-release summer movies since 2007 (with the exception of a curve-breaking, very good 2013). That extends to films that appeared on fewer screens than they would get in a wide release.
"In limited release, 86 films this summer met or exceeded the 61 cutoff indicating that critics generally liked the film," Metacritic reported. "Add in the 51 films released nationwide, and this summer critics gave positive reviews to 102 of 230 films, or 44 percent."
The parade of good films was led by Boyhood, which received the ultra-rare perfect 100 score on the film review-aggregation site.
Yet, as we found out, no one went to the movies this summer. And this year’s domestic box office is the lowest it has been in the last six years. Clearly, there was something going on here, besides people wanting to see “good” movies.
