Blog Post: Why Is The Public Staying Away From Movies?

It's the season for Movie awards: The Golden Globes will be airing January 15 and the Oscars on February 26. But all is not going well in Hollywood!

Renowned film critic, Richard Corliss, offers an article in the latest issue of Time magazine that addresses the decline in movie-going in the past few years. Box office in North America was down 4.9% in 2011, with the fewest tickets sold since 1992. Some film companies could recoup profits from DVD sales and rentals but more people are downloading and streaming movies now. (I am still not sure what "streaming" is!).

Corliss makes these general observations as reasons why people are not going to movies:

1. Movies are seasonal entertainment. May to August works great but not so much the other months of the year.

2. Young men have gone AWOL. Young males (to whom far too many films target as their chief demographic audience) are staying home playing video games or involved in social media. Corliss sites the failure of films like "The Green Lantern" and "Cowboys and Aliens" to the lack of young men attending. Personally, I think they were just bad movies!

3. Stars do not guarantee a hit. Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts couldn't save "Larry Crowne". Johnny Depp couldn't save that Hunter Thompson movie either. However, if a sequel has a star, it can do well, depending on the franchise.

4. Sequels are sagging.  They aren't making as much money as predicted and let's face it...just how often can we see another "Paranormal Activity" or "Transformers"?

5. Cartoons are crashing. Animated films used to have an almost guaranteed profit. But "Cars 2" and "Mars Needs Moms" didn't cut it.

Back in my twenties,  I went to the movie theatres weekly and saw between 50-80 movies a year. That was in the late 1960's and through the seventies. There were not only some great movies, but the prices were reasonable, there were Revival and Art houses (the only place to see foreign films then) and you could even see a double feature. I remember seeing "Lawrence of Arabia" and "The Pink Panther" in one sitting. Yes, it was a rather odd double feature and yes, it seemed like I was there all day, but the movies were worth it. Not all movies were, but many were.

I would say there are many reasons why people aren't going to the movies these days. (I only go once or twice a year now!). The biggest reason I don't go is simple: many movies are just not that good. I don't want to invest $9.50 or more to see something that will be on Cinemax in six months. It has to be something special to get me out of the house. Currently, I would probably make an effort to actually go see "The Artist", "My Week With Marilyn", "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy" or "The Iron Lady"" (I'd see Meryl Streep do anything) but beyond that, I'm not seeing much out there that will hold my interest for two hours.

Like many others, I can wait for movies to be rentable or on TV. I don't have to see things right away. It's not that important to me. This means that movie theatres don't get my money, but I'm guessing that the studio gets a portion of the dollars I spend to rent from Redbox or Blockbuster. Yes, I'm cheap. But I'm also on a fixed income since I'm retired. I don't want to waste money on something I won't enjoy or appreciate.

I love movies. I am disappointed that so many movies fall short these days. Even movies that I've seen recently (as rentals) like "Midnight in Paris" and "The Help" were terrific films, but flawed in one way or another. Yes, they were both pleasant surprises for me but are they another "Casablanca" or "Citzen Kane"? I don't think so. Will they survive the test of time? I don't know that either. Maybe they will.

To me, all great films have to come from a great script. Too many movies today have scripts that are constructed by committee and are intended to pander to a particular star, expectation or demographic. Two of the best written movies I've ever seen were "The Usual Suspects" and "The Social Network". Great writing in both cases. If you don't have a solid script, a movie just won't work all that well. Of course, there's more to a successful film than that, but you can't win a race unless you know where the starting line is and a good script is the starting line.

I could go on and on about films. I do watch a fair share of them. I have an extensive DVD library (which will probably be obsolete in about ten minutes!) and I read everything I can about films, actors and flimmaking. I even have a Masters degree in film. I would love to see films improve and I'd like to be excited about a film again. I'd love an "Event" movie like "Star Wars" to roll around again. I'm game for anything when it comes to a movie. I enjoy all genres, foreign films, animated films and documentaries. I want to like movies more than I do now...I just hope they will give me a reason to do that!