All the slights about 'kids these days' with their TV, YouTube, Pokémon Go, and short attention spans seem pretty unfounded. I see tons of kids lining up to see Cirque du Soleil, or Wicked, or Penn & Teller. All of those shows are just as long as the circus, and much more expensive.
If I had to guess I would say that our standards for 'awe-inspiring' have changed. Dancing elephants are a lot less exotic when you can watch them in 1080p with David Attenborough narrating. The human acrobatics are nice, but not as thrilling as Cirque du Soleil or the X-Games. Add in the nagging feeling that watching animals perform is unsavory at best, and it's no wonder that the business was unsustainable.
First (not really, but gotta start somewhere) it was books, then it was comics, then it was television, then it was computers, then it was smartphones, then it'll be VR, and then it'll be...
If I had to guess I would say that our standards for 'awe-inspiring' have changed. Dancing elephants are a lot less exotic when you can watch them in 1080p with David Attenborough narrating. The human acrobatics are nice, but not as thrilling as Cirque du Soleil or the X-Games. Add in the nagging feeling that watching animals perform is unsavory at best, and it's no wonder that the business was unsustainable.