As little matter as the box office figures are in the news (read Epstein's latest column on Slate from Monday), I am curious to see how Star Wars measures up compared to the last two prequels (Attack of the Clones had a significant drop from The Phantom Menace). I would rather see the actual attendance numbers, though, and would even more curiously like to see concession figures compared, because as a movie theater employee and champion of projected entertainment versus home viewing, I am concerned with theatres' ability to keep in business with changes that favor a person's decision to stay home. Concession prices, along with pre-show ads and poor auditorium manners, continue to affect the minds of moviegoers. I anticipate much criticism in the next couple days.
"A sinister cabal of superior writers."
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
nice job from the seats FC, thanks!
2 - Cerulean
I think I understand your points. I'm one of those who is feeling led to stay home, and I'm a movie fan. I think your writing could be clearer.
3 - Nancy
I have stopped going to movies totally in the past few years, for precisely those reasons: I'm fed up with relentless and ubiquitous advertising, outrageously inflated prices for cheap junk food that isn't good for me anyway, and I resent contributing to the obscene levels of income raked in by so-called entertainers, their various hangers-on, and the industries that surround them, none of it justifiable. Fortunately for these parties, I and those like me are few and far between, so they're in no danger of going broke, except from their own excesses. I can only hope that I am the tip of an emerging iceburg which will eventually return both marketing levels and prices back to more reasonable limits.
4 - Eric Berlin
What else did Paltrow have to say?
5 - Cerulean
That's a good question Eric.
Actually, Nancy, the attendance at theaters in the past year has been bad. I think they've reached a turning point. They had a lot of bad movies this year and they finally turned off a critical mass of potential customers. It's a shame. Movies were such a joy when I was growing up. I never thought they might not exist as such one day. This would be a purely man made situation.
6 - Eric Berlin
I'm full of good questions.