Why does the film press talk so much about box office income?

I try not to read too much into it. The box office income is obviously important in terms of what sort of films may get produced in the future. If a movie flops, it will be unlikely to get a sequel, but more broadly, the whole industry may pivot towards one genre or another depending on recent successes.

But I often wonder about entertainment columnists who write things like "They really liked this film over in China but not in North America." How good an indicator are box office sales of how much people really enjoyed a film? The reason I ask is based on my own viewing habits. When I feel like going to a movie, I look at what's showing and think ok, that looks pretty interesting. I might read a review or watch a trailer, but at the end of the day, I'm taking a risk that I will like it. I may or I may not. And either way, it is unlikely that I would see it again at the theatre.

So I guess what I'm saying is that for me, at least, a ticket purchase is not an automatic vote of confidence that I think this film is great. But maybe I'm not a typical moviegoer, introvert that I am? Maybe the normal pattern is you see it with a couple friends, and if you like it, you gather more friends and see it again and again? If that's more the way it goes, I can understand why box office sales would truly correlate to a film's worthiness. But if more people are like me, it could just be that the movie was really hyped up and people decided to go see it even if they come out of there going wow, that sucked. But they still paid for the ticket regardless, which reflects well on box office sales.