At The Movies
It's Oscar Eve. Well, that used to be a much bigger deal for me than it is this year, or really the past two years. Sure, there'll still be the annual party and Oscar Pool, but the excitement is beginning to wain with one big reason why.
I haven't seen all the major nominated films. I've probalby got about 75% of them covered, but I used to see over 100 movies in theaters every year. Many years I would have even seen the 5 nominated documentaries and foreign films. This year, I'm still missing one of the Best Picture nominees. Unheard of!
So, why am I not going to the movies as much as I used to? This is one of the big questions people in Hollywood are asking. Not just about me, but the marketplace as a whole. There's plenty of reporting about falling box office dollars from year to year, but I think the most telling figure is the falling ticket sales. Ticket prices continue to go up, but if overall box office revenue continues to fall, that means fewer people are going to movie theaters.
The press covering Hollywood is quick to say that people aren't going to the movies because of all the other options available to them. DVD, home theaters, and the Internets have all been accused of keeping people from the multiplex, and all along I've been suggesting something else entirely. Finally, the good folks at Newsweek got it.
In case the link attempt didn't work, the answer is TV is good! That's right, the boob tube is churing out better / more original product than the movie studio boobs. The intrigue of Lost, the excitment of Heroes, the laughs of Earl, The Office and How I Met Your Mother have been keeping me away from the cinema. Add a DVR to the mix and I'm watching better stuff on Saturday nights than the Godzilla-plex can offer.
I paid nearly $20 for the wife and I to see Babel. Let's just say if Babel wins Best Picture tommorow night, I'm gonna be pissed! For my Jackson, we were both bored and totally unimpressed for over 2hrs. With TV, we don't take that chance. If the show sucks we turn the channel and find something else. I don't even watch most of those 'acclaimed' shows like Grey's Anatomy, House, 24, CSI, etc. so TV is even better than I claim it to be.
I saw Bobby back in December and last week was Children of Men. Both movies were good, but both were pretty ruined by the fuckers sitting next to us talking. Chances are, if you go to a movie today and a cell phone doesn't ring during the film, there'll be people behind you talking. While Bobby played out with more celebrity cameos than a sweeps week episode of the Love Boat, I got treated to four women old enough to know better but too young to be excused for it try to one-up each other as to who could pull the celeb' name out of their brain faster. "Ooo, that's Demi Moore!" - "Isn't that Sharon Stone?" - "That's the guy who's dating Demi" - "No, they're married now." - "Are you sure?" - "What's his name?". It took me staring at them and shouting "Jesus Christ!" for them to shut up, though I'm surprised they didn't call me on the fact that Jesus Christ was not in the movie.
So, why would I want to go to the movies even if the quality of the films improves? The movie studios and theaters need to start working on these problems - make better and more interesting movies and start expecting people to act with some degree of respect for others when they go out.
Meanwhile, I'll be watching my network tv favorites and catching up on movies from Netflix, even if it means not winning the Oscar Pool.
I haven't seen all the major nominated films. I've probalby got about 75% of them covered, but I used to see over 100 movies in theaters every year. Many years I would have even seen the 5 nominated documentaries and foreign films. This year, I'm still missing one of the Best Picture nominees. Unheard of!
So, why am I not going to the movies as much as I used to? This is one of the big questions people in Hollywood are asking. Not just about me, but the marketplace as a whole. There's plenty of reporting about falling box office dollars from year to year, but I think the most telling figure is the falling ticket sales. Ticket prices continue to go up, but if overall box office revenue continues to fall, that means fewer people are going to movie theaters.
The press covering Hollywood is quick to say that people aren't going to the movies because of all the other options available to them. DVD, home theaters, and the Internets have all been accused of keeping people from the multiplex, and all along I've been suggesting something else entirely. Finally, the good folks at Newsweek got it.
In case the link attempt didn't work, the answer is TV is good! That's right, the boob tube is churing out better / more original product than the movie studio boobs. The intrigue of Lost, the excitment of Heroes, the laughs of Earl, The Office and How I Met Your Mother have been keeping me away from the cinema. Add a DVR to the mix and I'm watching better stuff on Saturday nights than the Godzilla-plex can offer.
I paid nearly $20 for the wife and I to see Babel. Let's just say if Babel wins Best Picture tommorow night, I'm gonna be pissed! For my Jackson, we were both bored and totally unimpressed for over 2hrs. With TV, we don't take that chance. If the show sucks we turn the channel and find something else. I don't even watch most of those 'acclaimed' shows like Grey's Anatomy, House, 24, CSI, etc. so TV is even better than I claim it to be.
I saw Bobby back in December and last week was Children of Men. Both movies were good, but both were pretty ruined by the fuckers sitting next to us talking. Chances are, if you go to a movie today and a cell phone doesn't ring during the film, there'll be people behind you talking. While Bobby played out with more celebrity cameos than a sweeps week episode of the Love Boat, I got treated to four women old enough to know better but too young to be excused for it try to one-up each other as to who could pull the celeb' name out of their brain faster. "Ooo, that's Demi Moore!" - "Isn't that Sharon Stone?" - "That's the guy who's dating Demi" - "No, they're married now." - "Are you sure?" - "What's his name?". It took me staring at them and shouting "Jesus Christ!" for them to shut up, though I'm surprised they didn't call me on the fact that Jesus Christ was not in the movie.
So, why would I want to go to the movies even if the quality of the films improves? The movie studios and theaters need to start working on these problems - make better and more interesting movies and start expecting people to act with some degree of respect for others when they go out.
Meanwhile, I'll be watching my network tv favorites and catching up on movies from Netflix, even if it means not winning the Oscar Pool.
posted by Pino at 12:12 PM
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