At this point, pretty much everyone who pays attention to the North American box office is in agreement that 2014’s total box office will end up behind 2013’s. The final yearly decline should end up somewhere between 1.5-2.0%.
此時此刻，幾乎每個關注北美票房的人均一致認同，2014年總票房會落后于2013年。最終年度跌幅應該介于1.5-2.0%間收尾。
The North American box office survived one of the worst summers in years. The months of May-July lacked the kind of blockbuster power that Hollywood needs every year. August rebounded significantly with Guardians of the Galaxy, but it wasn’t enough to help the season make up losses. A big reason why Summer 2014 was so weak is two major films that were scheduled to open had to change release dates: Furious 7’s release date was changed after the tragic death of star Paul Walker and Disney moved Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur into 2015 for creative reasons. If those films both still opened in the Summer, the tone of this article would be drastically different.
北美票房遭受了幾年來最糟糕的夏季。5月—7月缺乏了那些每年好萊塢都不可或缺的票房爆炸力。8月因《銀河護衛隊》而有顯著回升，但還不足以彌補該季度的虧損。2014年暑期如此薄弱的一大原因是，兩部本已排期的主要電影臨時改檔：《速度與激情7》由于影星保羅·沃克悲慘的死亡事故而改期，迪士尼因創作原因將皮克斯的《恐龍當家》挪至2015年。如果這些電影均在夏季開映，這篇文章的基調會截然不同。
September was a very weak month, with the exception of The Equalizer starring Denzel Washington. Washington is one the most reliable box office draws working today and he did not disappoint with his latest effort. The market Started to turn around in a more Significant way in October. Gone Girl and Annabelle Helped the month off strong and things haven’t really slowed down since. Many analysts, myself included, were afraid that October 2014 would have a tough time matching the impact that Gravity made in 2013. Luckily, those concerns did not become a reality.
9月還是非常薄弱的一個月，除了丹澤爾·華盛頓主演的《伸冤人》。華盛頓如今是最可靠的票房保證之一，他的最新力作沒令人失望。十月市場開始峰回路轉。《消失的愛人》與《安娜貝爾》助力該月走勢強勁，局勢并沒有真正放緩。許多分析師，包括我在內都擔心2014年10月將無法匹敵2013年《地心引力》造成的那種票房沖擊。幸運的是，這些擔憂沒有變成現實。
November is already performing well thanks to healthy debuts from Big Hero 6 (shown) and Interstellar. The market expanded to accommodate both films during the November 7-9 weekend. November will also bring the release of two films that promise to be global hits: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 and Penguins of Madagascar.
11月已經表現良好，得益于《超能陸戰隊》（如圖所示）與《星際穿越》。市場擴展容納11月7-9日周末的兩部電影。11月同時將放映勢必全球大熱的兩部影片：《饑餓游戲：嘲笑鳥》與《馬達加斯加的企鵝》。
December offers a lot of films that will be good choices for families. This is very important because one of Summer 2014’s main weaknesses was a lack of family films. Annie, Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb and Into the Woods will all bring in that important segment of the moviegoing population, while Big Hero 6 and Penguins of Madagascar will continue to do steady business.
12月提供的許多電影對家庭來說是不錯的選擇。這是非常重要的，因為2014年暑期主要薄弱點之一就是缺乏家庭電影。《安妮》、《博物館奇妙夜3：墓葬秘密》和《魔法黑森林》都將吸引觀影人群中這部分的重要群體，同時《超能陸戰隊》與《馬達加斯加的企鵝》將持續穩固表現。
There are also plenty of films aimed at adults that will be hitting theaters in December. The Interview with Seth Rogen and James Franco promises to be controversial since it looks at a mission to kill Kim Jong Un in a comedic way. North Korea has already vocally spoken out against the film. Exodus: Gods and Kings will also do well with adults. The film is aimed mostly at Christian audiences, and it should deliver solid grosses in countries with large, active Christian populations.
12月同時也有豐富的面向成年人的影片進入電影院。塞斯·羅根與詹姆斯·弗蘭科的《采訪》肯定會備受爭議，因為它講的是以喜劇方式刺殺Kim Jong Un的故事。北朝鮮已經口頭抨擊該部電影。《出埃及記：諸神與國王》對成年人同樣奏效。電影主旨針對大多數基督徒觀眾，該片將在基督徒人數眾多而且十分活躍的國家獲得穩固票房。
Very few people in Hollywood are panicking about 2014’s results because they know that 2015 is probably going to be the biggest year this industry has ever had. Many strong franchise films are being released in 2015 such as The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Mission: Impossible 5, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Furious 7 and a new James Bond film, just to name a few. A lot of those franchises have performed very well in China. It’s important to remember that a good year for North America will also mean a good year for the Chinese box office. It will be fascinating to see how well Hollywood films can perform in China next year after the groundbreaking success of Transformers: Age of Extinction established new possibilities in terms of what can be accomplished.
好萊塢極少數人對2014年的結果恐慌，因為他們知道2015年可能將是行業有史以來創收最高的一年。許多強勁的系列電影將在2015年上映，諸如《復仇者聯盟2：奧創紀元》、《碟中諜5》、《星球大戰：原力覺醒》、《速度與激情7》和一部新的007電影，這里僅列舉其中的幾部。這些系列大多數在中國表現出色。重要的是要記住，北美大豐收年也是中國票房大豐收年。尤其在《變形金剛：絕跡重生》取得了效益突破性的成功打開了新的機會大門之后，我們不妨拭目以待明年好萊塢電影在中國會有多么出色的表現。