Hollywood: Like Detroit, But Stupider

I am a movie critic. While the gig isn't exactly up there with astronaut or bounty hunter in the what-kids-want-to-be-when-they-grow-up department, it is easier than those jobs. It also comes with glamorous perks like being paraphrased in advertisements and receiving e-mailed threats from teen girls who disagree with your opinion of Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience. But one fringe benefit overshadows all others: Every time you see a movie, the crowd is especially well behaved. Why? Because you don't have to watch movies with normal people. You get to watch them from comfortable chairs in small screening rooms filled with your peers, most of whom are too old to make a sound other than the occasional gurgle. This is excellent, because if you're like a growing number of Americans, paying to see a movie in the theater makes about as much sense as paying for music or pornography or anything else our ancestors couldn't get for free.

I recently asked BoingBoing.net co-founder Mark Frauenfelder what he thought of April's Swedish-court ruling against ThePirateBay.org, the Google of illegal file sharing (unless you count actual Google, which does pretty much the same thing, just not as loudly). He believes a search engine that directs users to illegal content should not be penalized as if it were the actual host of said content. "Pointing to something shouldn't be against the law," he said. I think that's stretching it, but didn't say so, because I like the guy. But the other point Frauenfelder made has been echoed by pretty much everyone I've spoken to on the subject: Movie studios must change the way they do business if they want to avoid the same fate as the music industry, which now is doing about as well as the oral-storytelling industry was at the middle of the 15th century.

According to the National Association of Theater Owners, Americans bought 1.363 billion movie tickets last year (almost none of them for "Speed Racer"). That is nearly a quarter-billion fewer tickets than were sold in 2002. Want more fun numbers? From 1992 to 2002, tickets sales declined from one year to the next only twice. In the six years since, it's happened four times -- and a disappointing summer season is offering no hope for a trend reversal. Wednesday on the New York Times' Carpetbagger blog, Michael Cieply noted that last weekend's box office haul was slightly smaller than the same weekend's a year ago, writing, "The box office, after surging all year, is finally flattening out just as the big summer movies arrive." In the movie business, this is called "bad news."

So where are all the moviegoers going? Nowhere. They're at home, downloading illegal bootlegs and laughing (out loud!) about it. I can't say I blame them. Movie purists in the media love to prattle on about the joy of seeing a film on the big screen. But those people have no idea what they're talking about, because they see movies the same way I do -- comfortably. On the few occasions when I've seen a movie with the paying public, the experience struck me as a cross between being a groundling at Shakespeare's Globe and being Faye Dunaway at the end of "Bonnie and Clyde." Crowds are boorish, theaters are filthy, and the car commercials before the previews make me 10 times as averse to buying a car as the ones on TV do. That people actually pay to be subjected to these conditions -- especially considering that the average U.S. ticket price has increased by 53 percent since 1998 -- is remarkable.

Frauenfelder suggests that film executives must concede an end to the boom times and turn their attention to creating models for a leaner and meaner industry. "They won't be able to make money on the level that they're used to because of the technology that is out there," he says. "Unless they can learn to provide something that is more like a live performance, or sell a physical experience that can't be copied and use a movie as a way to market it, they might be in trouble. That's the reality."

Frauenfelder lives in Los Angeles, which makes me feel bad for him, but also puts him in close proximity to the ArcLight Cinemas in Hollywood and Sherman Oaks, which charge premium prices for a premium experience that includes reserved seating, advanced sound systems and a grown-up friendly lobby with full bar and table-service restaurant.

I don't get reserved seating or the chance to enjoy wine and tapas before a screening (though I will down the occasional sidewalk-cart gyro and Red Bull just before going in), but I can see how the paying public might be interested in a theater experience that is more like mine. The idea makes so much sense, it's almost certain to be embraced by the film industry as warmly as forward thinking was embraced by the music, print, automobile and finance industries a few years ago.

Comments

[ailbhe]

So true, I love seeing movies on the big screen but rarely go to the cinema, can't bear the thought of sitting next to or in front of some loudmouth idiot who will ruin my enjoyment. I always avoid the back row for that reason and try to get in late where I can pick a seat that doesn't have anybody else nearby.
Some people seem to go there for the purpose of annoying other people. The movie industry should invest in bouncers to menacingly stare out everybody going in and throw out disruptive elements.

Did you see that the Pirate party won a seat in the Swedish European election? They want to get rid of copyrights and have a free internet. That is the future.

[cntower]

the movie theaters need to join in the
revitalization of the industry....

Lower prices will mean more attendance,
and lower concession prices will mean more purchases.....

the multiplexes are now like record companies- a middleman-
unnecessary, unnecessarily overpriced,
and unless they change their business model, we will all
continue to enjoy watching great films at home,
while not missing the annoying multiplex evening...

[BlackJAC]

Define "revitalization."

[rjmiller]

You couldn't be more wrong in your conclusion. Study after study has shown that the people that download the most movies are the same people that spend the most money on seeing movies. We aren't going to see less movies than we used to, we're just supplementing our theater outings with EVEN MORE MOVIES that we wouldn't have paid to see anyway.

The real problem is that the average Americans (who have never heard of bittorrent) are going to see fewer films. My guess is that good, mature films don't get any marketing and so tend to barely make a profit (see "Doubt" and "Frost/Nixon"), while every explosion-filled monstrosity gets months of tv trailers. Compound that with the 2 month theater-to-DVD turnover rate (causing my father to endlessly repeat "I'll just rent it in a couple months instead of paying $20 to see it now"), and it's as if Hollywood is just begging us to finally pull the trigger and end the pain.

[BlackJAC]

You forget that moviemaking is as much a for-profit industry as any other. The blockbusters set the studios' bottom lines for the year, allowing them to take the risk on stuff like DOUBT and FROST/NIXON. George Clooney got to do GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK because he did all the OCEAN'S movies. Realistically, nobody knows what's going to succeed and what's going to tank.

[goodgravy]

we've got a big TV. we've got blue ray. we don't download from the internet. we buy them, usually thru amazon, for a lot cheaper than we can go to the actual movie house and see it. there are exceptions...big screen special effect extravaganzas that just don't translate to the home theater; real IMAX or on a day it's so hot we want some good commercial air conditioning for an hour or two.

but i have to say the main things that keeps me away from the theater are the pre-movie advertisements and rude inconsiderate people who text, phone, talk and otherwise bum my stone.

[LiberalBuzz]

We don't go for some simple reasons.

COST. Lord-a-mighty but going to see a movie has gotten just too expensive for a product that almost always comes across as a made for TV movie with somewhat better acting. Usually.

THE PEOPLE. Not to brag like I am a perfect dresser, or anything but don't other people take showers, use deoderant, SHUT UP, dress like people with a little class...you know...PANTS, shoes, & at least a clean T-shirt? I see guys going in who are wearing Jebus shoes and look like their feet haven't been washed in days, cargo shorts with the same look and belching and passing gas like they were at a frat party.

CELL PHONES.

TEXTING with the return text tone?

TALKING.

AND WHAT IS UP WITH TEN TO FIFTEEN MINUTES OF ADS?

And you have to ask why sales are down? They are lucky they are even showing up most of the time.

[BlackJAC]

Let me see if I got this straight: Napsterites are pirating movies because nothing gels with their personal standards of taste, which come from beyond the Citgo sign to begin with and would therefore classify them as a niche market and consequently not be worth the requisite expenditures to pander to them?

[AContrario]

You nailed it.

Since I bought a home projector, let me tell you I rediscover the pleasure
of watching a film without d***ks munching popcorns and offended when
you ask them to keep it quiet because the film has already started.

Once in a while, I go to the local imax or small cinema boutiques but I only
do it for GREAT films, no matter if they are new or 50 years old.

[LLNYRN]

With New York theater prices as they are, and movie audiences acting like every public environment is their home, I have critieria for going to the movies now.
*It has to be a director whose work I really respect.
*I don't pay to watch dramas on the big screen. Especially if the plot's a TV one.
*Don't mind paying for "REAL" IMAX
*It has to be at a theater and/or a time when the theater is practically empty.
*I make it a point now of telling a manager about a horrid experience. And hope to get a pass out of it.
"STAR TREK" has been the ONLY film I've paid to see TWICE in the last decade. And I had a great experience at both.
I'm guilty of a few of those internet misdeeds.
But for me, I can no longer pay for going to a movie only to see people in the audience acting the fool.

[BlackJAC]

Nobody knows a director from a hole in the wall when it comes to the finished product. Anybody who claims otherwise is a poseur.

[kendraro]

Most movies we watch now we say at the end "boy, I'm glad we didn't pay for that!" Maybe if they would stop insulting our intelligence with such bad writing! Plot loopholes you can drive a truck through! When something is really good we do go see it on the big screen, but it's rare. They need to adapt because the internet is not going anywhere.

[BlackJAC]

How exactly does the Internet account for a studio honcho's standard operating procedure of greenlighting whatever the Marketing Department's focus groups--which tend to be made up of unemployed losers and failed writers--say is good?

[thebirdstheword]

i don't think it's a coincidence that my three favorite films of the last 10 years are foreign-

city of god
kung fu hustle
shaun of the dead

there is actually a nice reference in one of the first scenes of kung fu hustle to the death of the film industry.

american films have become crap. all focus groups and marketing schemes.

[BlackJAC]

Then write a better one.