K so I read the first 30 pages or so but couldn't keep going. I hope I don't just repeat things others said in the 38 pages following. Anyway, here are my thoughts on Interstellar's good but underwhelming boxoffice performance:
1. Poor release date.
Sure gravity did well in a similar spot last year, but the competition was different and it came out first. Switch Gravity and Interstellar and we might see something different.
I was worried about a fall release from the beginning. Plenty of movies thrive in the fall, but I felt without being a franchise, even riding off Nolan's name, it would be better suited in a late July spot. Part of the success for Inception's word of mouth was that the last few weeks of that summer there were very few if ANY must see or even marginally interesting movies. That wasn't exactly the case this year but I still think would have been more suitable.
2. Less glowing reviews
Rotten Tomatoes isn't the end-all-be-all of meters for film quality, but it is a fairly reliable indicator. This started out and pretty well leveled out as his lowest scoring film to date. His last three films were significantly higher. If critics were raving about it I do indeed think more people would have gone to see it. I was less than uninterested in both Edge of Tomorrow and John Wicke. Upon seeing very positive reviews I went and saw each of them and enjoyed them for what they were.
3. Lack of an ambiguous ending
Yes, this movie leaves you plenty to think about and overall I feel is a much more challenging movie than Inception, but Inception's ending got people talking AND going back to the theatre to watch again to see if they could pick up on anything else. Interstellar has more honest food for thought, but the ending of the movie is pretty straight forward.
4. It's not an action movie
Let's face it, Inception is an action flick and Interstellar is not. Traditionally big budget action movies do pretty well. Interstellar is more stimulating to me than Inception, but the teenagers are less inclined to check it out and/or rewatch it with their friends.
5. This year sucked
An overall abysmal year for the boxoffice. This is a combination of film quality and industry trends. Sadly people are just going to movies less than they used to. Even as recently as 4 years things were quite different. Streaming is in a MUCH different place than it was in 2010.
I did not cite lack of 3D in that I am primarily comparing to Nolan's films, not industry grosses as a whole. Additionally, 3d is dying down. The percentage of tickets for any particular movie that were 3d is dropping significantly with a few exceptions.
I can't cite this as a direct reason, but rather an industry trend, that original movies just don't seem to make much money these days. There was a time when someone like M Night Shyamalan (regardless of his bulk of poor films over the last 10 years or so) could release an ORIGINAL film and it it would gross over $200. Signs made SIXTY million it's first weekend with an august opening and that was 12 years ago! Today that would be closer to $80 million.
Anyway, I REALLY hope it cracks 200, but I'm not expecting it will. And Maybe it'll hit 700 internationally.
At the very least, we can feel good knowing it is the top grossing original film of the year.
This was far from a flop, but surely not what many people were hoping for.