PrintHollywood baffled by box office decline
Laura Holson's article in the New York Times, "With Popcorn, DVD's and TiVo, Moviegoers Are Staying Home," overlooked a glaringly obvious reason why people are staying home from the movies — most movies are family—unfriendly. Experience shows that more people attend family—friendly movies, yet Hollywood just doesn't get it. The elitest attitude of directors to refuse allowing their "art" ("movies" to the rest of us) to be cut and distributed in PG or PG—13 versions (in addition to the R versions) is cutting off their noses to spite their faces.
A Hollywood mogul of yore used to say, "It's better to sell four tickets than two tickets." Today's studio bosses have forgotten this sage advice.
How much of a decline in attendance does Hollywood need to experience year after year for it to get the message? (From the article, "...the number of moviegoers has dropped, sliding 4 percent in 2003, 2 percent in 2004 and 8 percent so far in 2005.") We don't want sex and violence movies. Give us something that is interesting that doesn't push the boundaries of decency all the time. (Of course, "decency" is a relative term, especially in Hollywood, so someone from the fly—over states will need to explain it to them.)
Movie studio heads need to cure their misconception that it takes sex to excite people and that it's not just excitement that gets us to the movies. Entertain, inspire and uplift us; don't drag us through the mud.
Mike McLeod 5 27 05
