It is hardly news that for years now the American motion picture industry has been in a slow downward spiral. Though by some accounts attendance was slightly up in 2006 over the previous year, the box-office tracking firm Exhibitors Relations reported that attendance actually declined yet again, reaching its lowest point in 10 years. And though defenders of the industry protest that foreign markets account for 40% of a film’s revenue and that those proceeds are compensating for falling domestic box office, foreign receipts have been down too, and even DVD sales are plateauing. In short, the overall trends remain discouraging.
Even more worrisome than what could be just a cyclical dip is how people are regarding motion pictures and the moviegoing experience. A recent Zogby survey found that 45% of American moviegoers had decreased their attendance over the last five years, with the highest percentage of that decrease in the coveted 18- to 24-year-old bracket; at the same time, 21% of respondents said they never went to the movies. The two most-cited reasons for seeing fewer movies were rising ticket prices and the quality of the films (a perpetual culprit).
Another survey, this one conducted by PA Consulting for the Motion Picture Assn. of America, reached an even more chilling conclusion. Eighty-three percent of its respondents said they were satisfied with the content of the films they saw, but 60% nevertheless expected to spend less of their income on moviegoing in the future, citing dissatisfaction with the moviegoing experience and the emergence of better alternatives for their time and money.
By this reckoning, no matter how much films may improve, their prospects are not likely to — which suggests that something has fundamentally changed in our relationship to the movies. The long, long romance may finally be losing its bloom, and that is why Hollywood should be concerned.
What is happening may be a matter of metaphysics. Virtually from their inception, the movies have been America’s primary popular art, the "Democratic Art," as they were once called, managing to strike the American nerve continuously for decades. During the 1920s, nearly the entire population of the country attended the movies weekly, but even when attendance sank in the 1950s under the assault of television and the industry was virtually on life support, the movies still managed to occupy the center of American life.
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Personally I see the current dilemma of Hollywood the same way as I saw the dilemma that professional sports faced. Attendance was in decline because the experience was no longer worth the price of admission. The solution was to cut ridiculous salaries in order to allow for cheaper ticket prices which turned into higher attendance. This is what I think the movie industry will need to accomplish if they wish to survive. Cut their executive salaries all the way down to the big name actors bloated salaries to lower costs. With the lowered cost they could lower ticket prices and increase revenue.
I think they are pushing movies out wayyyyyyyy too much. Pretty soon they’re gonna run out of plots. Think about it 99% of the movies that come out have to deal with cops or drugs or murder or all 3 in one way or another. In the other % lies some great movies. Movies just seem REPETITIVE.
Let’s not forget the fact that first run movies are NOW being DOWNLOADED by people with P2P clients like Bit Torrent and things like Newsgroups….I think the reason for poor attendance is not that movies are not being watched…they are just not being watched…IN THEATERS! Big Difference.