The Seven Per Cent Dissolution

Tongues are clucking in Tinseltown with the growing concern over the decline in box office receipts in American movie houses. It even reached the critical point where "Nightline" saw fit to feature the issue on Monday night, as though it were almost as significant as the lead item, a brief investigation into Koranic passages that some are blaming for terrorist justification. Not quite the sublime to the ridiculous; more like the maniacal to the mundane.

Producers are fretting over the decline of film viewership, which is down approximately seven per cent from last year, after incremental rises from time immemorial, or at least the '50s. Now everyone is wringing their hands trying to figure out why--as though the problem is significant to anyone who does not work directly in the Industry or own stock in entertainment conglomerates. Here are some of the explanations, with a few of thoughts of my own:

1. Movies are lousy. Well, that never stopped anyone from going. This year's summer films are as accomplished as any in recent years, with "War of the Worlds," "Batman" "Revenge of the Sith," and even "The Fantastic Four" providing typically satisying popcorn thrills. The latter film, incidentally, should be benefitting by an amazingly aggressive marketing tie-in campaign with SBC Communications and Cingular wireless. Every commercial for the latter two seems to include some mention of the movie. Nothing subliminal here. This is the exact inversion of the recent surge of product placement as a subtle way to finance films. Now the movie is placed in the product.

2. Speaking of ads, there was bound to be a reaction against the barrage of pitches forced on moviegoers who arrive at the purported hour of showing only to be fed a "preshow" of commercials for soft drinks, autos and of course, more cellphones. I suppose the soft drink ads are subliminal invites for folks to go out and purchase the overpriced supersized drinks in the lobby and, incidentally, the Jupiter-sized tubs of popcorn. I find myself increasingly aggravated by cinema ads because I can't zap them or fast forward or anything. My antipathy may be shared by other discriminating filmgoers as well. At special theaters like the ultrapretentious ArcLight in Hollywood you pay up to $14 not to have ads. (Just imagine, as a kid I could pay fifty cents at the Midway for no commercials, a cartoon and a double feature. Shit, they really were the good old days.)

3. The growth of large-screen TVs is coinciding with a smaller window between film releases and their DVD debuts, so many folks don't even bother to spend the higher ticket prices, parking fees and babysitter pay when their patience will enable them to forego everything but a Netflix monthly fee four months after a film's opening. And home-zapped popcorn is a hell of a better deal.

4. Films are not benefitting by repeat business. The popcorn movies usually rake in the receipts from all the teenagers who have nothing better to do during the summer than watch Hayden Christensen turn into James Earl Jones over and over. Except that particular experience is not as much fun as seeing the Empire overthrown or Spiderman win the girl. Yet it's not so much the nature of this year's blockbusters that's less enticing. The vicarious experience of action and adventure has become much more accessible to teens through the sophistication of video games and the interactive and time-consuming thrills they provide. Putting aside the video game Easter Eggs like the sex scenes in "Grand Theft Auto" (which Hillary, trying to play Republican, is lobbying against, to her shame), this is a phenomenon that Hollywood hasn't been able to counter. And how long before virtual reality helmets take video games to an even deeper level of addictive immersion?

5. Hollywood is also not factoring in the time teens and Gen Ys seem to spend on their cellphones, as the need for connectivity seems to surge ahead. No cellphones in the theater deprives the masses of their communications fix. It won't be long before filmmakers take the cue from TV producers and start creating product to be viewed on the tiny cellphone screens, to win back this population segment.

The industry needs a totally new approach to the luring of audiences, and I mean either make 3D comfortable and efficient, or put aside the blockbuster mentality forever and return to the creation of good low-budget, low-risk adult movies that will appeal to the forgotten segment of the population. Maybe total box office receipts will be down, but profit margins will increase. With all the alternative amusements available to the public, raising the prices of movies does not seem like a logical route toward increasing demand.