Post by CrawlingKaos on Jun 30, 2005 21:34:03 GMT -5
Hree's an interesting article on the slump at the box office that I found to be cool but ultimately anyone can tell you the same thing. Don't know why the big Hollywood guys haven't figured this stuff out for themselves.
Editorial: Horror story / Why the movies don't enchant us anymore
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Hollywood's almighty box office is down for the 18th week with no relief in sight. The final installment of "Star Wars" was supposed to turn Tinseltown's fortunes around -- it didn't.
"Batman Begins," the current box office king, is pulling down very good, but not great, numbers. The hoped-for spillover effect that occurs when people trying to get into a sold-out show have to settle for some other film hasn't materialized. Anyone wishing to see "Batman Begins" or "Crash" or "Land of the Dead" need only circle the time in the paper and buy a ticket. The theater isn't likely to have more than a few dozen people in it.
Hollywood is in a full-blown panic going into the July 4th weekend. A weak holiday could mean a weak year overall. The prestige films that dominate in fall may win the bulk of the Oscars, but they make much less money than summer movies geared to kids.
Theories about the drop-off at the box office run the gamut from the obvious -- too many DVDs, computer games and big-screen TVs competing for viewers -- to the painful: too many unoriginal and contrived movies that aren't worth the price of admission.
Ever since "The Exorcist" and "Jaws" taught screen executives to be conscious of the box office, especially in a movie's first weeks, Hollywood has looked to a never-ending string of blockbusters to keep chugging along. The cost of films has crept up exponentially as the industry's biggest stars demand $25 million to $30 million before a single frame is shot. Special effects and labor cost a lot of money, too.
But as the cost of making movies has swelled, studios have begun to rely more heavily on sure things to cut their economic exposure. Sequels, remakes and lowest-common-denominator filmmaking has replaced daring, originality and vision. An industry that tries to foist remakes of "Bewitched" and "Charlie's Angels" on what it believes to be a credulous public deserves to be humiliated. Why would anyone pay $8.75 for what he or she can get free on TV Land?
We suspect that the answer to Hollywood's crisis is a simple one. Instead of shoveling more slickly produced, but aesthetically brain-dead, blockbusters our way, it should use a fraction of those big budgets to pay writers and lesser-name actors to do dramas and comedies for adults on a human scale.
Instead of blowing $75 million on a sequel, why not invest the money in films as cheap and compelling as "Dog Day Afternoon," "Sideways" and "Annie Hall?" There are great scripts gathering dust all over Hollywood and expressive unknown faces waiting to be discovered. We're tired of Tom Cruise, aliens and hype. Surprise us and maybe we'll come back to the movies in droves.