My parents used to recall the depression days. Back then, theaters did pretty well, because people often went to the movies for a little comedy, a little adventure, a little inspiration. It took them away from their day-to-day woes. They’d come up with money somehow, no matter what.
Times are hard now, too, but according to this article, people are not lining up for a movie these days. I have to wonder if it’s because today’s movies are so depressingly anti-American, anti-family, and literally anti-inspiration in that they do everything they can to avoid religious themes for most of these movies.
I’ll tell you the truth. I haven’t been to a movie theater for over a year. The last time I went, the movie was disappointing, it was overly loud, my feet stuck to the floor, there was gum on the arm of my seat, cell phone ringtones sounded in all the wrong places, and someone’s kids were running amuck up and down the aisles. Boy, was I glad to get out of there. I don’t think I’ll be back.
That is the VERY reason the movie industry is killing itself--they are losing the "flyover country" audience that makes up the vast majority of moviegoers. Besides this issue, don't forget the high cost of tickets and the movie studios claiming most of the profits from a movie during the first few weekends (which in turn forces the price of concessions through the roof in the theater as the theater tries to recoup the cost of the first few weeks of the run of the movie). Small wonder why companies like RedBox and NetFlix do very well, and even Blockbuster finally found a way to reverse their financial down spiral by getting into the automated vending machine movie rental business.