Over the last few years movie attendance is down, way down, and Hollywood is starting to worry. They point to piracy and people more willing to wait for a DVD release then to see the film in the theater. I propose other reasons for tinsel towns slipping attendance and lost revenue–maybe someone will actually listen.
The first reason is simply that there aren’t any movies that people are willing to spend money on. The general crop of movies lately sucks. There aren’t any blockbusters action picks like an Independence Day or dramas like a Forrest Gump. Occasionally a film of that caliber comes along but they are few and far between and more often then not only seen in art houses–if at all. Of course there are a few exceptions. Star Wars earned over 370 million dollars this summer–but that is because it carried the name Star Wars. Cinderella Man, hyped as the year’s first great Oscar contender, flopped earning just under 60 million dollars. It is as if the taste of Hollywood and the general moviegoer have become out of sync over the last few years.
Theaters themselves are also to blame for poor attendance. I don’t know about you, but when I go to the movies and spend my six dollars to rent my chosen seat for two hours of time, I do not want to be inundated with advertisements for twenty minutes prior to the start of the film. Trailers are one thing; I welcome them as they are sometimes more interesting then the movie. But a Coke commercial followed by a recruiting ad for the Army? Come on, if I wanted to see those I would have just stayed home. The worst offender of this is Regal Cinemas. They actually have a “pre show” before the trailers they call the “Twenty.” It’s twenty minutes of crap–TV show commercials and “behind the scenes” looks at musical acts, all filled with advertising of course. For this reason I avoid Regal Cinemas if at all possible. If I had it my way, there would be no pre-show advertising. This, however, may lead to another nail in Hollywood’s proverbial coffin.
If you have seen a big budget action movie over the last few years, you may have noticed the ridiculous amount of product placement therein. Minority Report, iRobot, and this year’s The Island are big offenders. Each film features low angled, panning shots of a particular car–a car that in each case happened to be recently released to the market. For instance, in The Island–a so-so social commentary on bioethics staring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson–there are shots of the Dodge Charger, Dodge Magnum, and the Cadillac Cien concept. The Island also contains focused shots on bottles of Aquafina water, Miller beer and Reebok sneakers. I don’t think Hollywood will ever stoop as low as The Truman Show parodied, where the actor takes a moment to talk about the benefits of a certain product–though you never know. If they continue to loose money from ticket sales, they will continue to look for sources of revenue from other arenas, one of which will be product placement.
No matter what their choice of remedy, Hollywood needs to do something to curtail it’s slipping returns at the box office. I for one enjoy seeing a film on the big screen with speakers at every possible angle. Though if the films continue to be of poorer quality and they continue to be filled with ads both prior too and during, I just might start waiting for DVD as well.