A bleak holiday season start for Hollywood
LOS ANGELES — Hollywood’s holidays are off to a dreadful start: Fewer people went to the movies the last two weekends than during the box-office hush that followed the Sept. 11 attacks 10 years ago.
Domestic revenues tumbled to a 2011 low of about $77 million this weekend, when the star-filled, holiday-themed romance “New Year’s Eve” debuted at No. 1 with a weak $13.7 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Film industry watchers have speculated that audiences are staying away from theaters because, given the present economy, they have lost their appetite for garbage.
it’s ok. War Horse should return sanity to the film industry….. That Spielberg sure has made some damn fine movies in the past 10 years!
Somehow I seem to have been born without that urgency to go see a movie as soon as it comes out. I hardly ever go see a movie in a theater and as a benefit, whenever I do want to see a movie, just about anything on Netflix or the late-night broadcast feature movie is new to me. Another benefit is I don’t bring home bedbugs from the theater.
Somehow though, I manage to have a cultural awareness of every new movie. Clips and reviews are inescapable.
Ive seen 3 movies the weekend they were released. Star Wars episode 1….. almost walked out of the theater.
Lord of the Rings, Return of the king…. dressed as a Rohanin warrior.
and Rum Diary…. also geekily participating in the spirit of the movie.
I think the reason movies suck so badly is because we, as humans are out of new stories. in general… i fear all the tales that can be told, have been told. Now, it’s been that way for a long time. West Side Story, one of the best American musicals of all time is Romeo and Juliet. Even Jesus wasnt the first savior born of a virgin in the middle of winter…. but now i think we have even run out of new ways to tell old stories.
For the most part, movies are made for 18 to 25 year olds. It is the only demographic that is consistently profitable. Unless you have some interest that may overlap with that demographic (eg. dressing as a Rohanin warrior, superheros, farting) you’ll only ever get an occasional crumb.
excuse me, but LARPing and farting are for all ages. 18-25 year olds are more into pie-humping.