Is Hollywood in a decline? Sort of.
 

There's a lot of talk in the newspapers recently about a Hollywood decline. Most of the articles I've read seem to implicate DVDs and the advent of the Home theater as primary causes of slumping ticket sales (-7% from last year). But then those articles get to the good stuff...

They point out the movies that have underperformed (this last 4th of July weekend)

Herbie Fully Loaded
Bewitched
Rebound

Really? You don't say?

Could the fact that these terrible, irrerevrant pieces of crap are being manufactured out of Hollywood studios even possibly be causing a decline in ticket sales? Hmmmm? It seems War of the Worlds had a spectacular opening weekend, raking in 112 million domestically (not as much as Spider-man 2 made in the same last year, but Spider-Man wasn't a psuedo-horror flick. It was a hotly anticipated sequel to a budding franchise that came out far better than its predecessor on almost every level).

My point is, read the reviews of the movies being made and it becomes painfully obvious. Nobody wants to watch Lindsey Lohan get hit on by a volkswagon bug. Seriously.

If you make some good movies, you will fill the theaters. Also, someone get the memo out to the media, a decline for one year is not, in any way shape or form, a trend. It's a snapshot. Quit trying to create a ruckus to make money.

Id just like to point out that part of this reason for a decline in Movie Theatre Ticket sales is the advent of the Internet, particularily High Speed cable Internet.

A guy who works at my local blockbuster even confessed to downloading "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" the night after the movie came out.

So the blame on slumping ticket sales shouldnt be placed on the advent of the DVD but the advent of the Internet.

i've been saying this for years, Hollywood has lost all connection to reality. they operate in a vacuum of logic and reason, fueled by cocane, crack and methamphetamines. they don't release movies into theaters, they brutaly assualt our eyes for two hours. they've even stopped bothering to write new horrible stories to shove down our throats, instead opting to recycle existing shit to throw at us (Bewitched, Herbie Fully Loaded, The Honeymooners, ect, ect, ad nausem).

the only option i see us being left with is drop Fuel-Air Explosives on Hollywood in a pre-emptive strike, stopping them before someone can pitch "Son of the Son of the Mask". it is the only way.

Hollywood isn't really to blame for the shit they release. You have to look no further than the people who made these recyecled movies moneymakers just a few years ago. As soon as a few of these movies started to make money, there was bound to be more. As a buisness, that's what Hollywood does.

And I don't know if the internet has affected ticket sales all that much. You can download movies from it, but if it isn't about to be released on DVD, the only version of the movie you can download is the one where the guy is sitting in back with the camera. If that satisfys you as a movie going expierence, then, well...enjoy.

The internet hasn't affected sales any. People will still see it in a theater because it's just better. The atmosphere, the huge screen, the ultimate surround sound...there are some who might not, but then, they probably wouldn't have gone to see it to begin with anyways.

It is, quite literally, the horrible movies. These things underperform because not even kids are interested in them. Woo, would I rather go see some movie that looks boring or sit at home and play video games with my friends. That's what one kid said to me, and it seems like he was right.

To have Dan Glockman do PR and say that the internet is to blame for everything ESPECIALLY when Star Wars raked in 50 million dollars is laughable. That's money we'll never use or see regularly, but it's supposedly because of the internet.

The internet is a nice convenient scapegoat. But the truth is that I have no interest in a lot of movies being made nowadays. I would think that with a few million people in the US who have their own agenda, it wouldn't be hard to figure out that they might not all like the same thing regardless of who makes it.

Hey, I liked these movies (this decade only):

Bewitched
Herbie: Fully Loaded
The Honeymooners
The New Dawn of the Dead (hilarious movie btw)
The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl
Sky High
Soul Plane
How High
Meet the Fockers
Son of the Mask
Anything and Everything by Micheal Bay
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
Ocean's Twelve
Spy Kids I, II, III
Barbershop I, II
Panic Room
Sum of All Fears
Bruce Almigthy
Elf
Anchorman
Matrix II, Matrix III
New York Minute
and every movie every made involving a single mother and her two teenage daughters. [/sarcasm]

If people stop going to bad movies, they'll stop making as many bad movies. It's starting to work. The Stepford Wives cost 90 million to make and only pulled in 60 million. Hollywood needs a few more gut shots like that, and maybe we'll miss the debut of Soul Plane II.

I remember walking out of Sin City this past February and thinking to myself "I wonder if there are any other great movies coming out this summer?" So I checked the internet. To my dismay, I came to the conclusion that Sin City was going to be the best movie released this year.

Of course, I already knew that - This year went off to one of the worst starts I could think of (Hide and Seek, Alone in the Dark, etc.), and was simply an omen of things to come. There have always been bad movies, but this year is especially bad.

I also agree with Shiney in that films are in decline due in part to greater competition in our own homes as well. Why spend nine dollars to see a bad movie when you've already plunked down forty dollars for Guild Wars as it is?

Oh, and here's a list of the films I'm going to see for the remainder of this year:

- Layer Cake

And unfortunately, that movie is only going to be released on DVD around here - so unless another film completely blindsides me with awesomeness that's it for this year.

And remember, as Jay Sherman once said, "If the movie stinks... Just Don't Go!"

Actually, Batman Begins was an awesome movie. And dammit Arlia, I liked How High. Probably cause I had been drinking, but...

Most of the others were crap, though.

A good start. Here's hoping executives don't just go "What's happening? The formula worked the last three times!"
"Maybe we just need more weed jokes and dick jokes. And one-liners. People love those."
"MAKE IT HAPPEN!"

(Alternatively: "more guns and explosions" or "more back-to-front narration and distorted images" or "more 'prank flash' shock moments and teenage boobs, " depending on the genre.)

Batman Begins was very good and I'm sure Sin City will be as well. That's about what rouses my interest... in the mainstream category. Jim Jarmusch, for example, is working on or maybe even has already finished a new movie, and damn if I'm not going to watch that one... but good luck finding that one on the movie magazine covers.