Movie industry
I like movies...good movies that is. So far this year the box office take has been down from the same week of last year I don't know how many times. We even set a record for most consecutive weeks the box office was down from last years take. Does this surprise anyone?
Movies like Stealth, The Island, Dukes of Hazzard, Are we there yet, Constantine, Guess who, Bewitched, The Ring Two, Kingdom of Heaven, XXX: State of the Union, Elektra, Son of the Mask and on and on. They have good names in them with good effects but the stories, for the most part, are rather nonexistent. They are there with the big budgets and some good actors and actresses but little to no story and lose money. Take Stealth, the reviews I have read about it gave it 1/2 out of 5 stars. It has earned less than 25% of its production cost back. But who do they blame it on? Us. They say that we are going out and downloading the movies instead of paying nearly $10 per person to get into a theater plus the current price of gas near my house is $2.299/gallon. More examples, Dukes of Hazzard was reviewed and given 1 of 5 stars, Bewitched 1 out of 5 stars and the list goes on and on.
Most of the movies listed above have not made a profit. Once again, they say its us the computer savy people who are killing the movie industry. We find a way to download the movie and watch it, bypassing paying them the 'reasonable' price to see it in the theater. I have dismissed more movies this year as 'renters' than ever before. Why can't they just make a good movie? Do they have to keep making remakes of previous movies?
As many of my friends know I am a Star Wars and Lord of the Rings fan. So far, Episode III has made over $800 Million worldwide this year. I consider the movie very good (don't ask how many times I saw in in the theater). Lord of the Rings were released in December which is usually a bad time of year to release such a large movie but it worked. Do you know why? Putting aside the geek factor, they were fantastic movies.
If you don't read slashdot.org then maybe you should. From time to time they have stories on there which are not covered by mainstream media (but you do have to overlook some of the comments from obviously disturbed people). The FBI and other agencies can coordinate multinational investigations into websites which allegedly offer movies for download. They can spend large sums of tax dollars to thwart this injustice on America, yet drug trafficing is at an all time high. Meth labs are being found everywhere. Alabama just passed a state law that requires sudosomething stuff to be put behind the counter to help curtail this epidemic (the jury is still out on this one). Why not spend the money on something like that which hurts everyone rather than shutting down a website in europe which will pop back up in another country in a few days.
Maybe I'm being too negative... maybe I just have expectations which are too high. I'm looking forward to Serenity (yes i know i mentioned it yesterday) and The Chronicles of Narnia later this year. I know that Serenity will be good, its by Joss Wheden. Narnia should be good, I have not read the books but they are well loved by many. But beyond that, I don't know for sure. I do know that as long as the movies are as lack luster as this year has been so far the box office will continue to see declining sales (at least from me for sure).
So, what have we learned today: 1) big budget films aren't always good, 2) movies need better plots 3) MPAA sucks 4) its quite possible that i'm too negative and 5) Serenity is going to rock!
Movies like Stealth, The Island, Dukes of Hazzard, Are we there yet, Constantine, Guess who, Bewitched, The Ring Two, Kingdom of Heaven, XXX: State of the Union, Elektra, Son of the Mask and on and on. They have good names in them with good effects but the stories, for the most part, are rather nonexistent. They are there with the big budgets and some good actors and actresses but little to no story and lose money. Take Stealth, the reviews I have read about it gave it 1/2 out of 5 stars. It has earned less than 25% of its production cost back. But who do they blame it on? Us. They say that we are going out and downloading the movies instead of paying nearly $10 per person to get into a theater plus the current price of gas near my house is $2.299/gallon. More examples, Dukes of Hazzard was reviewed and given 1 of 5 stars, Bewitched 1 out of 5 stars and the list goes on and on.
Most of the movies listed above have not made a profit. Once again, they say its us the computer savy people who are killing the movie industry. We find a way to download the movie and watch it, bypassing paying them the 'reasonable' price to see it in the theater. I have dismissed more movies this year as 'renters' than ever before. Why can't they just make a good movie? Do they have to keep making remakes of previous movies?
As many of my friends know I am a Star Wars and Lord of the Rings fan. So far, Episode III has made over $800 Million worldwide this year. I consider the movie very good (don't ask how many times I saw in in the theater). Lord of the Rings were released in December which is usually a bad time of year to release such a large movie but it worked. Do you know why? Putting aside the geek factor, they were fantastic movies.
If you don't read slashdot.org then maybe you should. From time to time they have stories on there which are not covered by mainstream media (but you do have to overlook some of the comments from obviously disturbed people). The FBI and other agencies can coordinate multinational investigations into websites which allegedly offer movies for download. They can spend large sums of tax dollars to thwart this injustice on America, yet drug trafficing is at an all time high. Meth labs are being found everywhere. Alabama just passed a state law that requires sudosomething stuff to be put behind the counter to help curtail this epidemic (the jury is still out on this one). Why not spend the money on something like that which hurts everyone rather than shutting down a website in europe which will pop back up in another country in a few days.
Maybe I'm being too negative... maybe I just have expectations which are too high. I'm looking forward to Serenity (yes i know i mentioned it yesterday) and The Chronicles of Narnia later this year. I know that Serenity will be good, its by Joss Wheden. Narnia should be good, I have not read the books but they are well loved by many. But beyond that, I don't know for sure. I do know that as long as the movies are as lack luster as this year has been so far the box office will continue to see declining sales (at least from me for sure).
So, what have we learned today: 1) big budget films aren't always good, 2) movies need better plots 3) MPAA sucks 4) its quite possible that i'm too negative and 5) Serenity is going to rock!
posted by Brian Wright at 2:15 PM
1 Comments:
I think you hit the nail on the head. I don't even worry about the DLing if the people paid to look at movies say they suck. Yea I got copies of shows that I like. But I also have DVD's of those same shows. The music I have DLed has made me go out and buy cd's of artist that I do like. You make good shit and I will buy it. Make bad and I will stay away.
Lord Panzer
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