More about the Movies

Regarding the last post:

John - I don't get to see many movies either, especially in theaters. The last movie that I saw inside a theater was Star Wars, and that was because my kids took me for my birthday.

And I mean Star Wars... the first one.

I saw lots of movies when I was a kid. I guess I spent part of most Saturdays at the Olympic, the Avon, or the Town Theater. I saw a lot of Vincent Price movies, Jerry Lewis, Bob Hope, Bible movies usually starring Charlton Heston, the Pink Panther, even saw Flower Drum Song. Also some of those Disney films. And I'll bet you did too, John.

Most adults don't go to theaters anymore for their movies. Movie attendance in the US in the mid-1930s was 3.9 billion. In 2005, it was down to 1.4 billion, despite nearly a tripling of the US population. That translates to a drop from 32 movie tickets per year per person down to fewer than 5.

Television, high ticket prices, and a bad movie-going experience in general (endless pre-movie commercials, patrons with cell-phones, and obnoxious, talkative audiences among the most-often cited features that spoil the theater-going experience.)

But would we know this from television? Early morning "news" shows, daytime and late night talk shows all parade out the "stars" of the latest flick for the customary, routine interview. Each Monday, the hit movies of the weekend are reported with all the excitement usually reserved for the football scores.

When a movie has a controversial theme, like Brokeback Mountain or the Passion of the Christ is released, it is treated like a real news event, full of drama and commentary about its effects on everyday life.

It's all bull. Even the most popular of these movies is being viewed, in the theater, by a handful of the population.

Of course, as these films make it to DVD, or pay-TV, or even to the commercial soaked cable channels, millions more folks will see them.

But will they make any real social impact????? It's unlikely.

I continue to find that I'm a slow learner. For all I knew about the huge publicity machines that run motion pictures, I actually thought that they had importance to our daily lives, if based only on the amount of TV airtime taken up by interviews of actors, reviewers, and the stupid, stupid award shows.

I been learned. :)