Hollywood strike underlines bleak outlook for movie business - International Herald TribuneMaybe because of a number of factors?LOS ANGELES: As Hollywood digs in for a second week of a strike, the screenwriters might want to send a few angry picketers over to Will Smith's place. Or Steven Spielberg's.
And maybe the studio executives should think about joining them on the line.
As it turns out, the pot of money that the producers and writers are fighting over may have already been pocketed by the entertainment industry's biggest talent.
That is the conclusion of a surprisingly bleak new assessment of financial dynamics in the movie industry titled "Do Movies Make Money?" The researchers' answer: not any more.
Lousy stories?
High prices in the theaters?
Actors who, um, can't ACT?
A growing feeling that the folks in in Hollywood don't have a clue when it comes to flyover country?
Tell you what, Hollywood. Try dropping ticket prices by half at the theaters. That alone will boost your viewing dramatically. Dump half of the 'stars' you depend on. Bring in new talent - a LOT of new talent. Try appealing to old-fashioned values like patriotism, and make the military unambiguious GOOD guys for a change. Make movies for flyover country - you'll be surprised at how much you'll earn.
But if you keep spending megabucks on anti-American blockbusters in order to garner overseas praise, don't be terribly shocked if your decline continues. There's nobody forcing us to watch what you put out - and the numbers show that very clearly.
You really might want to pay attention to them....
J.
Comments (4)
Apparently the conflict is about residual payments on the "new" market - the internet. Living within the LA radio broadcast area, I'm at least exposed to the interviews with this person and that. I don't help personally - I don't go to movies, and don't expect to be viewing them online. It seems to me that they could agree in principle at least on some % numbers - that way, if the numbers turned out to be either way, nobody would get hurt. If I understand it, the biggies don't want to commit because they have no experience with what's seen as the future money flow, so are hesitant to promise $$. The writers see big bucks from the online advertising and want a slice of the pie.
Having been reduced to watching replays of old stuff almost exclusively, I don't have much sympathy for the writers - they can't seem to write anything decent, but I guess they write what the biggies want. Hollywood really needs a total overhaul...
Posted by suek | November 12, 2007 12:32 PM
Posted on November 12, 2007 12:32
Comments here will make you feel better...we're not alone!
http://comments.breitbart.com/071109152054vnv6fviw/
Posted by suek | November 12, 2007 7:53 PM
Posted on November 12, 2007 19:53
Message to Hollywood - Stop preaching. Preachy movies, even if you *agree* with the message, are just pedantic when done by the H-wood.
Also, they could stop doing 'remakes' and movies from television series that didn't go anywhere. And stop recycling stories...
I have a few bookshelves full of great stories that are cinematically appealing. Just about anything by Fred Saberhagen, Larry Niven, Alan Dean Foster, David Drake... tons 'o stories. But those will never get made into a movie as they are not: remakes, recycled, rehashed, pedantic, dull, preachy. Which means that the first generation of on-line producers will have a goldmine and H-wood will start to die a quiet death unless it re-invents the 'Grade B' movie concept. It won't.
Let the curtain fall, it has been dead for a few years now.
Posted by ajacksonian | November 12, 2007 10:03 PM
Posted on November 12, 2007 22:03
Hollywood itself needs a remake...
Posted by suek | November 13, 2007 11:26 AM
Posted on November 13, 2007 11:26