海角大神

In the past, industry watchers have divided the movie release calendar into distinct seasons. The summer is for big-budget comic book movies, action films, and big movies like 鈥淛urassic World鈥� that are designed to please various age groups.

But when autumn arrives, that鈥檚 when serious movies with possibly Oscar-worthy performances come to movie theaters, the kind of films that some call 鈥済rown-up鈥� movies and which are thought of as more high-minded than the summer or late spring fare.

What happens when there are too many of them?聽

This month sees Hollywood trying to address that question. This summer saw movies like 鈥淛urassic,鈥� 鈥淎vengers: Age of Ultron,鈥� and 鈥淢inions鈥� win over audiences, so now that the air is cooler, it鈥檚 time for a new historical drama by Steven Spielberg, a space-set movie with an A-list cast, and an acclaimed biopic about one of the most famous people in the world.

The problem is not all of them can win at the box office.聽

This fall is full of awards season contenders and 鈥渟erious鈥� dramas. The movie 鈥淭he Martian鈥� and the biopic 鈥淪teve Jobs鈥澛燾ame out earlier this month. Spielberg鈥檚 鈥淏ridge of Spies鈥� opened earlier this month as well, as did the drug war film 鈥淪icario.鈥� This week sees the arrival of 鈥淥ur Brand Is Crisis鈥� starring Sandra Bullock and 鈥淏urnt鈥� starring Bradley Cooper, an Oscar winner and Oscar nominee, respectively. Bullock鈥檚 turn as a political expert who travels to Bolivia to work on the election there and Cooper鈥檚 role as a temperamental chef have intrigued Hollywood.聽

But neither 鈥淐risis鈥� nor 鈥淏urnt鈥� are expected to do well at the box office this weekend, despite their A-list stars and presumably drama-friendly fall release date. Why?聽

One reason is that there are only so many moviegoers who will go see movies like this and these people will only see so many movies.聽

鈥淭he audience is being fragmented,鈥� Paul Dergarabedian of the entertainment data company Rentrak said in an .

Sometimes this is the case and sometimes it鈥檚 not. Last year, October鈥檚 鈥淕one Girl鈥� (which eventually earned actress Rosamund Pike an Oscar nomination) became a box office and critical success and may have drawn audiences away from dramas like 鈥淭he Judge鈥� and 鈥淔ury,鈥� both of which had middling box office performances. But in 2013, 鈥淕ravity and 鈥淐aptain Phillips,鈥� both of which earned Best Picture nominations, both found an audience. It of course depends on the individual movies.聽

With November approaching, awards season contenders will continue to arrive on the scene. It remains to be seen whether upcoming movies like 鈥淏rooklyn,鈥� 鈥淪potlight,鈥� 鈥淭rumbo,鈥� and 鈥淏y the Sea鈥� can find enough of an audience in coming weeks to score at the box office.