Posted on 12/24/2005 4:09:09 PM PST by Daralundy
The slump, now three years running, prompts the industry to ask: 'What's wrong with the movies?'
LOS ANGELES - Hollywood's year-ending good news is that moviegoers are opening hearts and pocketbooks for "King Kong" - more than $60 million on its debut weekend and counting.
The bad news is that audiences did not exactly go ape over the rest of 2005's cinema offerings, making this the third straight year of decline in Hollywood ticket sales - the first such stretch of bad news in 40 years. Because of the continued falloff - sales are down 12.6 percent from 2002 - a growing number of analysts wonder if America's movie habits are changing permanently.
"The industry has to consider whether or not American audiences are sending a message about the quality of the movies they are getting - or just the way and the place in which they get them," says Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations, a firm that analyzes box-office trends. "You can bet that producers, writers, directors, and studio heads are all huddling intensely to consider what this means and change their behavior to keep it from continuing."
It could just be a continued shift away from multiplexes toward Blockbuster, Netflix, and other home-viewing options, Mr. Dergarabedian and others say.
In this scenario, consumers are changing their movie-viewing habits because of multiple complaints related to theater-going: soaring ticket costs, high parking and candy-concession prices, and, perhaps, decreased enjoyment of the movie-house experience because of unruly audiences and growing numbers of on-screen ads.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
All true. But where else can ya get a large soda for only $6.50?
Just read your about page........its a great story.
I bet they are looking at it as testing a new business model.
Maybe they'll find that they can cut out the middleman (the theaters) and still make money.
I found Hitch delightful.
Don't know if White Chicks was this year or last but it was absolutely hilarious.
Leo DiCaprio has made some fine movies: Titanic; Romeo and Juliet; Catch Me If You Can; The Aviator.
I'm gonna go see Memoirs of a Geisha and Munich.
"The girl is not nearly hot enough to explain why the supposedly smooth Will Smith gets so flustered around her."
Eva Mendes not hot?
'What's wrong with the movies?'>>
1. They suck.
2. They're too gay friendly. Nobody wants to see Bareback Mountain outside of NY, LA and Frisco.
3. They're generally hostile to Christianity. Exceptions are the moneymakers (LOTR, Narnia, Passion of the Christ).
4. Did I mention they suck?
5. Too many remakes.
6. They laugh at their potential audience. Don't laugh at red staters and then expect the red staters to pay for your product.
7. Too many "stars" who are extremely annoying and who babble about politics too much. Shut up and act already.
8. Too few stars who are really good people in spite of their fame.
9. Too many retread ideas that are really remakes that pretend they aren't.
10. Did I mention they suck?
I agree that it was a nice small movie, but the ending was lame with the other man morphing into a brother-in-law, and you have to envision the movie with someone like Steve Martin in the title role. And there are better than him from other eras. Think about Sexy Rexy doing Pygmalion.
Merry Christmas :')
Thanks:')
They know the kind of movies people want to see. That they don't produce them is beyond me.
Well, I agree about Smith, but not about the old guys. I've never been one for movies that came from my parents generation. Bogart, Garfield, Grant, Cagny etc all leave me cold. I like John Wayne in the few non-westerns he did. As for the westerns, I just never cared for them.
And Merry Christmas to you, Cindydawg.
IMHO,
no originality
too much violence
too much immorality
too high ticket prices
bend over concession stand prices
NETFLIX
movies on demand
too many computer enhanced effects
for starters.
FYI, haven't been in a movie theater since 2002. Why bother?
C'mon. You can't discount Bogey and all his movies. Even the spaghetti Westerns in the Seventies had more going on than the current crop of stuff.
Thanks. You too. I was hoping for another white Christmas. Greedy aren't I? :') Not happening .
You'd think Hollywood would take a hint.
Now, we all loved Mel Gibson's THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST. It was a masterpiece.
Hollywood still thinks we like overly gross films with sex in them and movies with no plot to follow.
And this winter, they are starting to lean political...I'm definitely staying away from the theatre...who could stand to see Brokeback Mountain or Syriana?
What's Syriana about?
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