[Diddle E. Squat]

A couple of months old, but I couldn't find the article in a search. Interesting stats about the attendance decline in the 60's.

[dogbyte12]

I agree that family fare does better, but often R rated movies are vanity projects, while the family movies are designed to just make money, which they do.

There were some great movies in the early 70's which were edgier. Edgy isn't bad, if it is intelligent as well. I am thinking of the great Gene Hackman movies like the Conversation, and the French Connection, and movies such as The Godfather, and Apocolypse Now. There is a place for adult movies like these. You can only see Bambi so many times ya know.

[CIB-173RDABN]

One of the things that made movies good in the 30s and 40s is that there were restrictions on what could be said or shown. Sometimes it is more powerful to imply something then to show all of the bodily mechanics involved.

My wife and I would go to a movie every week, and sometimes two, but as it became evident they were no longer making movies for me (or my generation) we slowly stopped. I have not been inside a movie theater in close to ten years.

Television followed the movies. As someone who could once tell you when and where every program was on, I am reduced to watching the history channel.

It is not all bad, it give me more time to spend reading on the FreeRepublic.

[goodnesswins]

The movie makers better do something ....3 (THREE) theatres have closed down here in the past year (major metro area near Seattle)

[jpl]

The author neglects to mention one absolutely critical point in this excellent piece. The shift in cinematic mores some forty years ago was the logical end result of the successful infiltration of Hollywood by the communists. The infiltration had actually started years earlier (in the aftermath of World War II), but took a while to complete because of the staunch opposition of men like Ronald Reagan.

[Mr. Thorne]

I'll cast a vote for "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," and "Count of Monte Cristo."

Went to see "Greek" over Labor Day, laughed our behinds off. My wife, the Latin Bomb, is of Puerto Rican extraction, and with a simple switch of language, baby, I was THERE.

Scene from "Greek": Mother of the bride greets the fiance with "would you like something to eat?"

He replies, "No, we ate on the way."

Mother again, "Fine, I'll make you something!"

That IS my mother-in-law, folks.

Now as for the Count, actually took the 11 year old to that one. He a) loved the intrigue and the swordplay, and b) got the lesson at the end.

Then I ruined his world by telling him there was a book...

= )

[Tokhtamish]

What undermines the argument that nudity led to the box office slump of the 70's to me is the fact that the big budget family musicals of that era, "Star", "Hello Dolly", "Paint Your Wagon", "Oliver", etc were mostly flops as well. Disney movies did very poorly during those years. Nobody was lining up to see "The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again".

[monkey]

What happened between 1960 (when 22% of the population went to the movies every week)

That seems awfully high.