Piracy Not To Blame In Decline of Moviegoers

lucyfersam writes "In a somewhat surprisingly earnest assessment, the NYTimes has an article about the massive decline in movie-going that does not once try to blame piracy and file-sharing programs. It sounds like studios are beginning to understand that they have only themselves to blame." From the article: "Multiples theories for the decline abound: a failure of studio marketing, the rising price of gas, the lure of alternate entertainment, even the prevalence of commercials and pesky cellphones inside once-sacrosanct theaters. But many movie executives and industry experts are beginning to conclude that something more fundamental is at work: too many Hollywood movies these days, they say, just are not good enough."

In Other News...

[NorbMan]

Movie Studios Curb Internet Piracy

Hollywood studios have come up with an effective method of deterring Internet file-sharing of movies: Make movies that no one wants to pirate.

Hollywood bigwigs NOT blaming pirates?

[BlackCobra43]

Quick, someone check for the 4 Horsemen. Repent, sinners! While you still can!

Target market?

[1zenerdiode]

Perhaps because most Hollywood movies are targeted at 13-year-old American girls? Like, Oh My God, how could they, like, not get it?

OMG!!

[hawkeye_82]

Nothing to see here. Please move along

Oh No!! The MPAA has taken over Slashdot.

Duh!

[Anonymous Coward]

Too many Hollywood movies these days, they say, just are not good enough.

Now that Hollywood has stopped sniffing glue, could they maybe call the RIAA and break the news to them?

Re:Movie Theaters are Obsolete

[Your Pal Dave]

Sooo, you couldn't get a date this weekend either?

after all these years,

[meatbridge]

it must be nice for these executives to have finally dislodged their heads from their asses.

Re:A filmmaker's perspective

[Anonymous Coward]

COMING SOON: "I Know What You Did Last Friday The 13th During That Cultist Teenage Chainsaw Massacre Thingy Part VIII"

Would you pay to see this shit?

Will there be boobs?

Sounds like you guys still haven't heard of

[capicu]

Shark Boy and Lavagirl! I mean, come on - 3D! IT'S A 3D MOVIE FOR GOD'S SAKE! That means you get special glasses which YOU GET TO KEEP!! How can you complain about the price when you are getting special glasses FOR FREE?! Check her out: LAVA GIRL [blackfilm.com]
Allow me to recap:
- 3 dimensions (4 if you count the time it takes to watch the movie, upwards of 10 if you factor in certain physics theories)
- SPECIAL GLASSES
- Hot lava girl

Re:Movie Theaters are Obsolete

[CyricZ]

I don't know about you pal, but I'd take a hot date to my home theater over a public cinema any day.

So you can show her your massive collection of authentic Japanese tentacle-rape hentai?

Wait!

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean that people do prefer watching movies at a cinema over watching low quality artefact covered versions on a 15 inch monitor?

Naah!

Re:I can tell you what's wrong for nothing!

[AndersOSU]

Many studios have commissioned market research to investigate the causes of moviegoing behavior - or the lack thereof

So... We're in trouble because we're not creating enough diverse and original material.

Hey I've got a great idea. We should hire a market reseach firm to analyze the public, run some statistics, and figure out exactly what the average American wants. We can then create a movie plot formula that will appeal perfectly to the average American, thus generating hit after hit.

It's sure to work

Re:Movie Theaters are Obsolete

[killmenow]

So you can show her your massive collection of authentic Japanese tentacle-rape hentai?

Of course! Women love artsy foreign movies with subtitles.

Re:The Cost

[jefferson_uk]

I'm not willing to pay the same price to see "Bewitched" that I am willing to pay to see Star Wars Ep III.

Me neither, Star Wars Ep III sucked.

Re:Target market?

[terrymr]

You need two more likes and a ya know in that sentence.

Re:Overpriced food

[cakesy]

I avoid having drinks because the last thing I want is

I should think the last thing you want is to have your head blown of, and your brains scattered about the theatre, in front of your whole family.

But maybe, just maybe, I have seen to many movies...

Movies, cars, software...

[dpbsmith]

Theatre attendance declining because U.S. studios don't make good movies? What other shocking revelations await?

Next, they'll be saying that U.S. auto manufacturers are declining because they don't make good cars.

Thanks heavens there's at least one area in which the U.S. still leads. Thanks heavens Microsoft still makes the world's best software.

A couple of reasons.

[kaoshin]

The internet and rise of computers have turned too many people into hermits, and not to sound like a "player hater", but today it seems like more and more relationships are mainly bedroom oriented. This of course also results in many people being reluctant to start relationships to begin with. The whole drug thing has also really kept going strong despite the "war on drugs" which generally keeps people either on the couch or in the fridge. I think it is safe to say that one contributing factor to the decline in movie theatre revenues is that there are fewer dates being brought to them, and that much of the general population is degenerating to the point where movies do not provide their stimulation as much as drugs, alcohol, sex, internet, video games.
There are also home movies. I have opted out of going to the movies several times, because it was a long movie and I didn't want to have to go that long without smoking. What ever happened to intermissions!!! I understand that it would be rude of me to want to smoke in doors, but at least have a heart and give the smokers a little break.

Re:Movie Theaters are Obsolete

[EmperorKagato]

What? You never been with women who are into tentacle-rape hentai?

Re:OMG!!

[maxwell demon]

Oh No!! The MPAA has taken over Slashdot.

Does that mean all submitters of dupes now must fear legal actions due to illegal copying?

Re:Target market?

[eMartin]

Oh come on...

A movie just came out that was made specifically for slashdotters!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405422 [imdb.com]

Re:Movie Theaters are Obsolete

[Stiletto]

One of the last times I went to the movies, there was this 14-or-so-year-old brat behind me who wouldn't stop yacking on her cell phone. Throughout the first 5 minutes or so of the movie. I gave her a dirty look a few times and then told her to take her coversation outside the theater. Well this little soccer-mom-spawn just gave me the finger and kept on yacking.

So I calmly yanked the phone from her hand and told whatever dumb shit on the other end that she was haning up now, and threw the phone as hard as I could down onto the floor in front of the screen. Well this little bitch threw a shit-fit ranting all on about how her daddy was gonna sue me and all sorts of nonsense while the rest of the theater just applauded. I then went and got a manager and he threw her and her friends out of the theater.

All an all a satisfying night, and I only missed a few minutes of the beginning of the movie.

Unfortunately, given the state of the parenting these days, she probably went home and bawled to daddy and he bought his princess another cell phone.

Re:Movie Theaters are Obsolete

[lbmouse]

I don't know about you pal, but I'd just take a hot date .

Re:Movie Theaters are Obsolete

[kidcharles]

Recently I was sitting in a theater next to some young girl who had a fluorescent mini-lightsaber who kept pulling it out and waving it around. Her mom was sitting next to her and made a few half-hearted attempts to get her to put it away. I almost took it out of her hands and stabbed her in the eye with it but then the voices in my head subsided.

Re:Movie Theaters are Obsolete

[Anonymous Coward]

I know what you mean. I thought I would take my elderly mother out to a nice movie. I believe it was called Rocky Horror something. The people in the audience behaved atrociously.

Re:Movie Theaters are Obsolete

[valintin]

Yeah, that way she could meet your parents and help your mom with the dishes.

Re:Movie Theaters are Obsolete

[Frank T. Lofaro Jr.]

Get a cell phone jammer. :)

Re:Movie Theaters are Obsolete

[Idealius]

I have a vivid memory of going to see a movie with my uncle at a very young age. I remember for whatever reason I was wearing a winter coat in Summer, and my uncle parked at this little stop 'n shop before we went to the movie. We went in and they sold those huge bags of popcorn.

We came up with the idea to pretend I was a fat kid and put the popcorn in my coat.

Totally worked, the bag cost less than 3 dollars at the time.

Screw theatre food prices. The popcorn only tastes good with the butter, and the butter makes you sick anyway. I think it's a conspiracy to get you to buy a drink, and use the drink to wash down the engine oil + salt cache you're consuming.

stop!

[gosand]

What? You never been with women who are into tentacle-rape hentai?

I think you could have stopped after the first 6 words.

Re:It isn't just movies

[Jackie_Chan_Fan]

God, you are smart. (seriously)

You should come work for the videogame industry and put a curb to the same fucking thing thats happening in gaming.

Actually its probably too late.

Re:kids

[cayenne8]

"In fact, when you're married, you'll find you always have a date waiting for you at home!"

Unfortunately....it is also the same chick there all the time...

:-(

Re:Movie Theaters are Obsolete

[Arcane_Rhino]

By removing your anterior from your posterior, and stop trying to "protect" them from "naughty" words...

One day you will have children and realize that everything isn't about morality or "protection." It may be that you just don't want your four-year old son asking your boss, when you are at his house for a picnic, "Papa, does this man have a twat?"

Damn, was that embarrassing.

Re:Movie Theaters are Obsolete

[drooling-dog]

I don't know about you pal, but I'd take a hot date to my home theater over a public cinema any day.

Why not install your home theater system in the bedroom? That way you'd never even have to leave your room, let alone the house, and you could have your sex right there while the Star Trek episodes are still playing. What woman could pass that up?

Re:Movie Theaters are Obsolete

[j-turkey]

Try not to use the word 'boobies' during this conversation.

Ooooooooooooh, so that's where I've been going wrong.

Re:Movie Theaters are Obsolete

[budgenator]

You have too little imagination, my boy as well as take thing too litterally. Woman generally enjoy the effort to play along with a fetish fantasy more than the fullfillmit of the actual fantasty. tentacle-rape hentai, some loose ropes and some swimming pool noodles might lead to something that interests you more.

Re:Movie Theaters are Obsolete

[Theaetetus]

I guess the guy just has so much money to blow with his 9x6 screen that he has to do his calculations with AutoCad.

Screen - $500
HD Projector - $1500
AutoCAD at work - $free

Getting to laugh as idiots and pedants completely miss the point - priceless.

Re:Your kung-fu is obsolete

[David Gould]

  BWAHAHAHA! You actually PAY for the watered-down soda and stale popcorn? Sheesh, my girlfriend and I usually hit the local grocer/wallmart/meijer, put some bin candy in a bag, buy water/soda, and sneak it into the theater.

Better yet: if you try it, you might find that you're capable of surviving for two hours without ingesting any junk food at all.

stfukthxbi

[Lord Bitman]

Everyone who mentioned the cost of popcorn or drinks when saying why they dont go to movies can go fuck themselves.

I dont play video games because cheetos cost so much.

Try not eating for five minutes and maybe the fat wont press against your brain so much.

This is not a troll. This is an OPINION.

Re:Movie Theaters are Obsolete

[espressojim]

Never underestimate the power of the swimming pool noodle.

Perhaps you'll come across as the savior of man, the flying spaghetti monster [venganza.org].

Re:Movie Theaters are Obsolete

[geekoid]

"A movie is not the best place for a first date. "
I disagree. Me and my date can talk about the movie during the movie! when were not talking on the phone, that is.

Re:Movie Theaters are Obsolete

[MightyYar]

" don't have one of those fancy pants folding phones; it's a solid unit with buttons on the front, and even in a case the button can get accidentally pushed, including the power button. Now the phone has a keypad lock functionality, but it's a software lock, so it doesn't work when the phone is off." Leave it in the car? Ask the manager to hold it? I mean... surely us thinking monkeys on Slashdot can help you come up with a solution? Ooooo! Oooooo! Take the battery out. Nevermind, Slashdot - I have your back on this one.