Going...Going...Gone

The movie business is dying. No one wants to say it, but everyone here knows it or at least suspects it. We're going the way of the music business and newspaper business. We may be able to hold on a bit longer, but the writing is on the wall.

Why?

Because we're making shitty movies and charging too much. No one will admit it because those in power are no longer movie people. They are lawyers and corporate yes-men and accountants and marketing folks. They pull up pie charts and graphs pointing out statistics that say the price point is right and GI Joe makes money and Adventureland and Jesse James do not. "But they are wrong...somehow...they are wrong," to quote Jose Yero.

Two years ago, Michael Clayton was nominated for an Oscar. It is a good film, but not a great film. Michael Clayton should be an AVERAGE hollywood movie. Instead, it was one of the best of the year. That is a testament to the exceedingly low quality of movies today.

Every time a movie like Transformers or GI Joe comes out, the movie business loses audience members. They justify the loss because loser fan boys go to the films multiple times. But what they don't realize, is that they're losing audience members FOR GOOD. Adults don't just not see Transformers, they get out of the habit of going to the movies.

The movie business is like the drug dealing business. We make money off the habit. Off word of mouth - like junkies whispering to each other "Michael Mann's got the good sheeeet."

Just listen to people. Ask any adult - why don't you go to the movies? They will say "nothing interests me," or "it costs too much," or "I don't have time" or all three. It's not that they don't like movies - they love movies. Everyone loves movies except for weirdos. But they don't go because we don't give them a reason to go.

"If you build it, they will come." Great movies build goodwill. Bad movies shatter it. The box office numbers don't capture this. I spend the same amount of money seeing Jesse James as I do seeing The Informant. But after watching Jesse James, I got out and re-watch Chopper and rent 15 Westerns and watch Deadwood and Fight Club. After the Informant, I get depressed and blog about it and don't go to any movies for a month. The Box Office numbers don't capture this data. To the numbers, the experience is equal. To the movie business, one is death and the other is life.

How Do I Know I Am Right? Cable TV. Supposedly no one watched THE WIRE or DEADWOOD per the standards of normal TV. Yet, HBO is flush. I bet HBO is the strongest financially that it's ever been, despite these "bombs." How do I know? Because other cable channels are copying them. Showtime, FX, USA, are all striving to make high quality original programming. And succeeding where the rest of the market is failing. Why did I just watch the entire three season of Deadwood - spending about $40 in rental fees? Because I'm dying to watch some good shit. Cause I'm a goddamn drama-addict. And because it's fucking awesome.

Every week, the box office boasts and articles talk about the biggest box office in history and all this nonsense. If that's the case, why are companies cutting back and making fewer and fewer movies? Why do they spend $10 a person for marketing to get folks to spend $15 in the theater?

The news business is dying because the coverage went to shit and opened the door to bloggers. People got out of the habit of paying for newspapers and watching the news. And it spiraled from there. I can get better information for free than by paying for it. The coverage needs to be so good, educated people are compelled to read it. Same thing for movies. They need to be so damn good, people HAVE to watch. The way I feel going to the movies now is that some marketing douche-bag tricked me into going. That's how I feel afterward. A marketing douche-bag or a bought critic or a cynical filmmaker.

That people don't even talk about the quality of movies is what concerns me. Michael Clayton is not as good as an average WIRE episode. It's like GM trying to get people to "buy American." Make better fucking cars and people will buy them, you fat retards.

Make better movies, people will go. Problem is, no one knows how to do it anymore. And yes, this means we will die.