[opendtv] Re: In Blockbuster Era, No Room at the Box Office for the Middlebrow
- From: "Manfredi (US), Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 28 Nov 2019 03:12:31 +0000
Monty Solomon posted:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/23/business/media/in-blockbuster-era-no-room-at-the-box-office-for-the-middlebrow.html
Midbudget films are being ignored by audiences, who increasingly go to
theaters
only to see big franchise movies.
Because they don't go to theaters, except those few occasions when there's some
kiddie show. Any midbudget film will be only for streaming.
This trend is obvious to anyone who actually goes to the movie theater. Light
stuff, such as the Batman franchise, or cartoons, draw crowds of families. For
other movies, even good ones, we are frequently in almost empty theaters.
Granted, we go to later shows, such as 10:00 or 10:30 PM, but before streaming
became the norm, the theaters were still rather packed, at this time on
weekends.
Another victim of this has been the theaters that concentrated on foreign films
or other unusual fare. They fairly well vanished from the scene.
So I wouldn't say that people only want to see blockbuster silliness for kids.
It's that this is the only movies they will venture out to the theater to
watch. The rest, they happily stream at home. Our local Regal has stopped
staffing the box office. If you buy a ticket there, instead of online, you go
to the one or two kids manning concession stands. And they have also cut back
on their cleaning staff, so that you find all the snacks the pigs left behind,
from the previous showing, uncleaned, always. (Amazing what slobs people are,
honestly.) And this is a nice multiplex, with stadium style seating and all the
rest.
Bert
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