America, you missed out on some good movies this summer

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.

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."

Metacritic

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.

Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?

Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple of big issues with relying on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on:

First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.

Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. And we can’t do that if we have a paywall.

So even though advertising is still our biggest source of revenue, we also seek grants and reader support. (And no matter how our work is funded, we have strict guidelines on editorial independence.)

If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today? Any amount helps.

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via