Movies

Ebert on why the box office is down.

The movies stink, man. I know the studios think to themselves, we can only make 5-10 really good movies a year and the rest we have to rely on tricking the audience to go see. How stupid and cynical is that? Once you hold that belief, it becomes a self fulfilling prophesy. Also - I know there is an anti-trust thing with the theaters being owned by the studios, but it seems to me no longer applicable. If I were super rich, I'd buy a studio and a theater chain, merge it, keep popcorn prices and ticket prices reasonable, and commit to making only quality movies with budgets under 50 mil. I know people think this is a preposterous goal - but I actually think the competition is so low - it could actually be accomplished. HBO essentially does it on TV and succeeds. It'd be like the Devil Rays or the OKC Thunder of the movie world.