2015: The Hits, The Flops & The Year In Box Office

If it’s not obvious by now, the film industry and particularly the box office, is starting to mirror the North American economy: All aspects of its middle class are shrinking into non-existence. This goes for both the type of films being made — mid-sized-budget films which have diminished since 2008’s global economic crash — and the wealth inequality and disparity. 2015, on paper, looks like a banner year at the box-office, with $11.1 billion worth of receipts in North America alone by year’s end. That’s up 5.9% from 2014 and will surely rise as “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” continues to outperform all expectations. But again, the distribution of wealth and budgets are slanted to the 1% of big blockbusters and it was either feast or famine for most films with little middle.

With the rise of “peak TV” — an estimated over-400 number of narrative TV shows not including reality TV, news or sports are available to choose from these days — and myriad streaming outlets, the modern...