Posted on 03/17/2006 4:52:43 AM PST by abb
In a loud corner of the Bally's hotel convention floor, a dozen beefy, bare-chested men wearing chicken masks and black Lycra tights leapt from a wrestling ring onto the exhibition floor. It was a welcome distraction at the annual ShoWest convention this week, where the aim is to whip up enthusiasm among movie theater owners for the coming summer blockbusters.
Theater owners and studios fret about smaller audiences, like this one for a 7 p.m. show of "The Hills Have Eyes" in Las Vegas on Monday. Readers Forum: Movies
Deftly stepping to avoid a flying wrestler (part of the promotion for the June release of a new Jack Black movie, "Nacho Libre"), Frank J. Rimkus, the chief executive of Galaxy Theaters, based in Sherman Oaks, Calif., mused on the subject preoccupying most convention attendees, namely, the future of American moviegoing.
"There is a general recognition that the world of entertainment is opening up in ways that we can't imagine today, we are launching into a whole new era," he said. He added, with a note of self-confession: "We are trying to understand what the public wants. And Galaxy does not yet have a handle on it."
The slide in American moviegoing was an open wound at the ShoWest convention, and was addressed with unusual directness by John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theater Owners, and Dan Glickman, chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America, in their speeches here.
The decline in attendance for three consecutive years "is a trend that must be reversed," Mr. Glickman declared in his address Tuesday; he still called himself "bullish about the moviegoing experience." A former secretary of agriculture, Mr. Glickman suggested that the film industry undertake something similar to the "Got Milk" campaign that promoted the dairy industry as a whole.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Apuzzo has poked a big hole in Michael Medved's claim that Hollywood's economics are working against it---they aren't. You can make MUCH, MUCH more money making a G-rated hit or a Christian film like "Passion," but you can still make LOTS of money and have your liberal ideology too if you keep the budget down.
Conservatives need to re-think the notion that Hollywood is committing suicide. We've been saying that for 30 years, and it ain't happenin', for good reason as Apuzzo shows.
They really don't care. Hollyweird makes plenty of money in foreign markets, on DVDs, merchandising, etc. They're not really losin' any money. That is why ya don't see much in the way of patriotic movies from that den of perversion and subversion. It won't sell in their REAL market.
Too bad. I'd like to see Hollyweird go belly up.
Let me get this straight. The movie industry's "stars" regularly assail President Bush, Republicans, anyone or anything resembling a conservative. They financially back liberal wacko candidates, they make movies with the intent on poking a stick in the eye of middle America. They insist on forcing such "entertainment" as Brokeback Mountain and other vulgur dreck and then they throw wild academy parties patting themselves on the back for their activities, and they wonder WHY there is declining movie attendance?
Yeah, let's hear more from George Clooney, Michael Moore, Julia Roberts and other luminaries about evil President Bush and evil American Republicans.
Their inability to make the connection is astounding.
""...We are trying to understand what the public wants. And Galaxy does not yet have a handle on it." "
Hmmmm.....where to begin?
1. Stop talking down to us. It is consummately annoying to watch a movie dealing with subjects one works in day-to-day and the facts are completely missing, or blown out of proportion, or just plain wrong.
2. Entertain us. I go to movies to escape the gritty reality of life that isn't behind a gated community, not to be "enlightened" by people whose ideas are shaped by propaganda and fantasy.
3. Respect my values. Rubbing your intolerence toward my values tests my charity. Your charity toward me is non-existent.
So much...so little time....
Just my two cents here....too many comedy filmmakers overdo slapstick and airheaded behavior; it's funny for a little while, but not as a steady diet. Sitting through one of today's comedies is the equivalent of a "Three Stooges" marathon; after a couple episodes it gets old.
the aim is to whip up enthusiasm among movie theater owners for the coming summer blockbusters.
Yeah, that's gonna do it, all right.
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LOL!!! Well...yeah...
Yeah, but I bet she still cashed the check(s).
". . .undertake something similar to the "Got Milk" campaign. . . ."
After paying around nine bucks a ticket, the question is, "Get milked?"
Not long ago, CBS was wondering where all the young male viewers have gone. Anyone with young male family members could have told them that they were in front of the TVs playing video games. CBS was not in their attention span at all.
Similarly, the older citizens of this nation were the main movie fans, and they in turn, took their children to movies. Since Hollywood has alienated a lot of this group, they have cut back their attendance, and are no longer motivated to take children to the movies with them. More damaging, the next generation of potential movie goers is not going to the movies either. They too, are tending to playing video games and spending more time on computers. It will take a lot of creativity to pry this group away from their games and computers and get them to the movies.
Combine all this then, with the poor quality of movies that Hollywood is producing, with a lack of courage and creativity, and you get an understanding of the true sense of why Hollywood continues to decline, and why it may simply become extinct. JMO however.
After I clean up on the first Retief move, I'll start make a Bolo movie - Bolo: For Honor of the Regiment. Sort of an anti-Terminator movie.
If I had the bucks they would be yours. Just don't screw it up like they did "Starship Troopers."
If I had the money I would Bankroll ya!!!
Fake pro wrestlers? The mind boggles at the thought...
Why are theater owners blaming everything BUT the movie on the screen?
Left wing manure does not put posteriors in the seats.
That is one book just aching to be made into a movie--and I thought that when I first read it well over 20 years ago.
I forgot to add one other thing. In advertising, it is imperative to keep attracting new customers. Thus when Coke or Bud advertise, it is to keep their present customers, and because there is always a new generation coming of age, they need to get their loyalty too. Hollywood has ignored this principle. They have both alienated their present core group, and they have failed to attract the next generation. Idiots in charge bring idiot results.
I read that, and I agree with it. But there's one point he didn't address - there will be fewer and fewer movies for the "big" stars, who command $10M-$20M per picture if the entire movie budget is $10M or so and the gross is only expected to be a small multiple of that.
So, the story will have to be the most important aspect if there are few or no stars in the credits.
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