Posted on 12/28/2005 6:59:55 AM PST by bulldozer
These days, the film industry bemoans decreasing box office sales by crying about illegal downloads of movies. If all the major providers of peer-to-peer software had not been shut down, they might have a point.
Industries who think consumers are slaves to their products usually end up in this boat. The consumer goes elsewhere.
“Brokeback Mountain” has netted a paltry $4.9 million in box office sales, nearly identical to “Memoirs of a Geisha”. Both movies have been out for about two weeks. King Kong has earned twenty times more in only eight days of apish reincarnation.
Here is a wake-up call for Hollywood: Nearly one-fourth of viewers gave Brokeback Mountain an “F”, while 69.4% gave it an A, leaving no middle-ground. We can easily guess who these votes came from on both sides of this tin coin.
Golden Globe elites went into plebian parinirvana over the idea of two married cowboys rustling something more than livestock on the range. Monkeys go “ape” seeing themselves in the mirror, too. A “Gone With The Wind” this is not.
The business model for film distribution is changing rapidly in ways Hollywood is loathe to admit. With cable and satellite, viewers do not need to waste money going out to see movies they do not really want to see, out of sheer boredom. We can more easily surf cable to watch the best of the worst, in far more comfortable surroundings, with our favorite snacks just a few steps away. The box office and DVD rentals merely give us time to figure out what we really want to see.
Hollywood no longer has a monopoly on entertainment. The internet and video games are where celluloid ex-pats now reside.
Consumer dollar-votes are most instructive. The fish now know the difference between a real worm and a fake one with a hook on it. We are no longer addicted to seeing the latest insult to family values just so we can pretend we are hip while complaining about it at lunch.
Shock entertainment will be an increasingly marginal market. Those who wish to be successful in film and television will look to the great box office hits, shows, and the legendary acts for new foundations for the film industry.
David R. Usher is President of the American Coalition for Fathers and Children, Missouri Coalition
I was thinking about this the other night when I wanted to see a movie with my girlfriend. She refuses to watch movies that are dominated by computer-generated special effects. We have already seen "I Walk The Line." What does that leave us?
The only reason to call the BBM guys "cowboys" is so we can make pudding jokes.
The only people I know who watch the Oscars are chicks who want to see who's wearing what.
I always thought BM stood for "bowel movement".
I used to go there as a kid!!!! It was only a dollar than and didn't have the music though.
quote: ... But openly gay stage and screen star Nathan Lane went on the "Today" show Friday and, instead of treating the Ang Lee movie with customary reverence, had a satirical field day at "Brokeback's" expense.
"I wish I could quit you," twanged Lane - who was on the show ostensibly to promote "The Producers" - mocking Gyllenhaal's cowboy confession to his bunkmate. "It's really when [Ledger] said, 'This thing gets hold of us the wrong time, the wrong place, we're dead,'" Lane recalled as Katie Couric and "Today" crew members giggled. "I thought, 'What do you mean, like the A&P? You're in the middle of nowhere! Get a ranch with the guy! Stop torturing these two poor women and get a room! What's the problem?'" ... (Lloyd Grove, NY Daily News)
But those selected cities should be its strongest markets. If you can't sell in San Francisco, where can you?
Well If I lived in Wyoming I would consider it as such
I've put my own comment in there and we'll see if it makes it up there. I'll bet they delete it.
Total manipulation.
Not much...
Did you move out of the area?
Yes MA'AM!!
So you see how well it fits the film.
I do live in Wyoming and I do consider it as such. I doubt Bare Butt Mount'n is going to play in very many theaters here.
I also imagine that the Cowboy theme plays to a favorite gay sex fantasy. It has been done before; remember Midnight Cowboy.
Dr. Scarpetta: Are you in Scranton?
" I always thought BM stood for "bowel movement". "
I've been abbreviating it as such to purposely make that connection. I also refer to "Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith" as "Star Wars ROTS." :^D
Actually I figure this way.
About 30% of Americans are pasionately Christian, the core audience for "The Passion of the Christ" and even "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe." About 3% of Americans are gay, the core audience for "Brokeback Mountain." Both groups probably have allies numbering about 2.5:1 (meaning 75% of Americans approve of Christianity as an organized religion, and maybe about 7-10% of Americans are "gay-friendly".)
By such reckoning, the ratio of sales for The Passion and Narnia to Brokeback Mountain should be about 10:1. The Passion made $373 million; Narnia could come near $300 million. That would leave BM at about $30 million. I don't think its going to make that, let alone cross over into the general public.
(Oh, yes, I know that over 80% of Americans identify themselves as Christians, but many of them vaguely believe in a God, are merely nominal, etc...)
I've been abbreviating it as such to purposely make that connection. I also refer to "Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith" as "Star Wars ROTS." :^D
Yes, BM is the correct abbr.. Succinct and informative. I like it.;^D
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