Bizarre Winger Theory: Movie tix slumped because Hollywood is too left!

:eyes:

This is just one of many bloggers who are passing along this twaddle.


http://www.city-journal.org/html/15_4_urbanities-conservatives.html

There’s no question Hollywood is reeling. Film attendance is down a wrenching 12 percent from last year, and a May USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll found that nearly half of American adults go to movies less often than they did in 2000. Some pundits have blamed the rising price of tickets, but in constant dollars a ticket costs less than it did 25 years ago. Others believe that it’s all those DVDs that people are buying—except that DVD sales are slumping, too. The most likely explanation is the left-wing politics. “You can date the recent box-office decline from the end of the summer last year, with the intensification of the presidential campaign,” notes conservative film critic and talk-radio host Michael Medved. “It wasn’t just Hollywood’s hostility toward President Bush; it was the naked, raw partisanship.”

If even one in ten Bush voters boycotted Hollywood after hearing the latest Tim Robbins anti-Bush diatribe or seeing yet another big-screen conservative villain (like the Dick Cheney look-alike who nearly destroyed the world in last year’s The Day After Tomorrow), it would add up to 6 million fewer viewers, Medved points out. “This is what many people in the movie industry don’t get: when you express hostility to conservatives, many Americans feel that you’re expressing hostility to them.”

Surveys support Medved’s theory. A Hollywood Reporter poll finds that nearly one in two Americans might shun a film starring an actor whose politics repulsed them. “The politics is definitely having an impact,” observes Govindini Murty, an actress and editor of Libertas, an influential conservative film blog. “Do car companies insult Republicans in their ads?”

The big Hollywood studios are simply running out of ideas.

since the repukes destroyed the economy, I can't afford movies more than a few times a year. It costs me about $50 to take my kids to a movie.

When you have no job, you can't afford things like movie tickets, or the gas to get to the theater!

Hollywood has been on the left since its inception. It ain't hurt it none for that.

Anyone who really believes this horseshit theory displayed in the OP has a variety of deeply serious mental problems that begin from the ass up.

One is people are sick of horrible remakes. Very little original movies.

Why go to the movies when you can wait and watch the movie on DVD on your widescreen plasma TV in HD?

Cheaper to rent it or wait for the movie to show up on HBO.

You can spend that $50 for one night at the movies on probably unlimited movie channels at home for a month. What's the better buy?

eventually equals hindered sales of non-essential items, like DVDs and movies. They're the first to go.

and it's getting stronger every day!:crazy:

At $3 a gallon, I don't really need to go to the movies. I'll just rent.

Add that to the cost of going to a movie, and less expendible income...

and it's just nicer to watch movies at home when you want to watch them without having to wait in line and pay exorbitant parking fees on top of the ticket prices. Actually, the left-wing movies are doing extremely well. Think Farenheit 9/11 and Good Night and Good Luck. I also went to see Penguins and What the Bleep. I'll go out to see those, but I'm not going to go to a theater to watch run of the mill movies.

just like this theory. Let's face it, half the movies that come out now are remakes or sequels. They stink! Did it ever occur to these nuts that people can't afford to go to the movies as much anymore. More jobs cut or outsourced every week. And the tickets are more expensive now.

The Moviegoing Public is clearly holding out for Left Behind sequels!

No, it must be the huuuuuuuugh block of conservative movie goers that are staying home in droves:eyes:

Hey, that supposed block of conservatives didn't seem to effect the latest Harry Potter numbers now, did it? And there is a movie that would most likely be boycotted by those idiots. Yet it had a record breaking intro weekend, gee, imagine that.

No, sorry, but the reason that Hollywood is doing so poorly is because they are putting out a bad, bad product these days. I mean really now, how well are those stale, recycled TV shows going to do as a movie? How many bad movie-based-on-a-comic-book are people going to watch?

I think if Hollywood would start putting out quality, original movies again instead of recycled shit, people would come out in droves. Until then though, why bother:shrug:

the rest of us.

They don't give a crap about politics in their entertainment. They just want a good show.

I love going to movies and would go every week if there was at least one good movie to go to.

There isn't.

Way way too many. There needs to be more original and socially relavent movies by major movie makers.

As far as a conservative similarity to villians in some films, too bad but they are evil, and the conduct of those in power who pretend to be true conservatives as they lie, hand out money to rich people and plunge our country into the dark ages is indeed QUITE EVIL.

1- not many good movies. Sure, you get the occasional decent film like Good Night and Good Luck, or Harry Potter, but for the most part its crap.

2- poor manners by other viewers. If you have to talk on your cell phone, or comment to your buddy every 2 minutes, TAKE IT OUTSIDE. I'm not going to pay $8 to watch a movie if I cant even hear whats going on.

3- $14 for popcorn and a soda? WTF???

4- the theater is not a babysitter. Do not let your pre-teen kids hang around there unattended.

At my local theater on the weekends you have to wade through a massive throng of teeny-boppers to get to the ticket line. For the most part, they're not troublemakers but they are boisterous young people so the noise level is often intolerable. Their parents just drop them off for several hours. I try to go at "off" times whenever possible.

I do love seeing movies at the cinema but don't go as often as I could, mostly for the reasons you cite.

but too often they are too busy engaged in conversations, showing off, and flirting DURING THE MOVIES.

One of the 50 worst film critics of all time...

I only went to see two movies this year with those being "Revenge of the Sith" and "Rent".

I'm shocked how many big budget movies have scripts that literally could have been written in the span it takes to drink a pitcher of beer.

The suits don't understand story drives everything.

Actors bring a lot to a good movie, and anyone even an exec, can see what they contribute, but they can't breathe life into a steaming pile of shit.

Case in point: suits attributed the success of WHITE MEN CAN'T JUMP to the chemistry between Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson, so they slapped together MONEY TRAIN, spent little time on the script, and expected the chemistry to carry the movie. It didn't.

Even big budget movies like the second Star Wars trilogy have excruciatingly bad scripts that could have been fixed for less money than it took to put Jar Jar Binks on screen in FX.

Medved words are like the steam coming off of fresh dogshit on a cold day--they warn you to step around him to avoid getting him stuck on your shoe.

Didn't Wingers try to boycott these movies and the latest set all time box office records. It is not about politics it is about lousy movies.

Medved is a cockhead who should stick to his dumbass movie reviews and get out of political commentating.

Why should I shell out $9 for a ticket (plus take out a small loan to pay for popcorn and a soda :P) when I can download any movie in a few hours and watch it at home on my PC or burn it to disk and watch on my home theater?

For me, it's a matter of time. I used to go to the movies two or three times a week when I worked the early morning at LL Bean and had all the free time in the world. But I haven't seen a movie in the theater since Revenge of the Sith because I just don't have time. My work eliminated my free time, and I have better things to do with that time. Of course, now that my job has moved to Texas without me, I appear to once again have lots of free time on my horizon...

One in two AMericans might shun a film with an actor because of politics - but I bet a lot of them are folks who would shun a Bruce WIllis or Schwarzenegger film.



Personally, I wouldn't let an actor's politics keep me away from the film, unless the person was around the bend offensive and nutzo like Mel GIbson.

some cable operators have the On Demand feature as part of the cable package.

The best year on record is 2002 when seven movies topped $200M. In 2001, 2003 and 2004 there were six. So far in 2005 there have been six, with two major blockbusters left: The Chronicles of Narnia and King Kong. Kong will easily pass $250M and Narnia will probably pass $200M. That would make eight super-blockbusters this year, the most ever.

makes movies for 13 & 14 year olds.

to "stars", and the movies are mediocre pieces of drivel or humongo-blockbuster CGI fakey movies..

Theatres charge too much for tickets, "theatre food" costs too much..Theatres are freezing cold, sound too loud, and commericals & trailers are insulting

Frankly, there are better made-for-tv movies that I can watch in my nightgown from my couch..

Dukes of Hazzard
Bewitched
The Island
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The Fantastic Four

i had paid movie ticket prices for this piece of crap. another thing, they need to stop putting pretty faces on the screen who can't act!!!! jessica alba, cute as she can be, needs to be on revlon ads in magazines. not movies. it further ruins what little is there.

these movie execs must be the dumbest bastards alive. if they can't figure out by now that mass marketing doesn't work, then they can keep putting pretty faces without talent and mediocre, unimaginative scripts out there and keep complaining why they are not making as much money. serves them right. i'll just rent or watch it on cable.

I mean come on, for every "Million Dollar Baby" or "Walk The Line", there are at least ten or fifteen "Dukes Of Hazzard" remakes / TV show movies, that kind of bullshit..

"Good Night and Good Luck", "Capote", "The Constant Gardener", "Cinderella Man", "Pride and Prejudice" and "Rent" have been worth seeing. I'm looking forward to seeing "Memoirs of a Geisha" also All of these movies had a great ensemble cast with an interesting story. I believe that the arts truly do give us an intuitive reflection of our society. The past five years I haven't seen much new in music, art, or the movies. Perhaps that atmosphere reflects the collective retreating we've been doing to the familiar. I hope that the movies of the past few months will become more the norm than the exception.

I went one time last year. Won't go again. It's just not as nice as watching a movie in the comfort of my home, with my friends. Popcorn is much cheaper, too. :)

The $$$$ and the cost of gas and, yes, movies are getting worse. I would rather "lose" $3.25 on a DVD rental than $7.50 at the theater. Our tickets aren't expensive in this small town, but $7.50 is a lot to me.

No need to buy those DVDs, and no need to use gas to rent them.

What gets me is that their still harping on that not worth mentioning POS Day After Tommorrow. It was fake manufactured controversy to prop up interest in an awful movie...produced by 20th Century Fox, owned by Rupert Murdoch. Is it really a Cheney basher?:eyes: People didn't see it because it was a bigger disaster than the one it was depicting.

When I was a kid, an adult ticket to a movie was maybe $1.50...and that was in the mid-80's, not too long ago. Now it's more like $10. I just rent 'em when they come out for $4 or so. If I'm really broke, I'll just d/l it & burn it for about $.30, the cost of a blank DVD-R.

Used to be you could pay $15-20 for a ticket and see a show every week. Now with the megamusicals popping at $75-$100 a seat it's a "once a year" treat.

Same thing will happen with movies. In fact...I'd gladly pay $10-15 to see a movie with excellent screen-size, sound and comfy seats. A couple of places in Florida had made these "movie palaces" where you could pay a premium and sit at a booth with a table in the balcony where you could actually get cooked appetizers and drinks. The movie theatres will have to severely upgrade their service and technology to get the prices they want. I'll go to see a *big* movie that needs surround sound, or a horror movie or comedy that works better with an audience or something I *really* want to see. Otherwise it goes on the Netflix list. I probably venture out to maybe 2-3 movies in an entire year.

...in the most basic sense - that is, Hollywood is "radical" left-wing if you think crazy ideas like helping people, not worshipping money,not wanting to exterminate entire races/classes/types of people, and generally wanting everyone to get along in the world, are "radical" left-wing. Which to your average freeper, of course, they are.

Action movie heroes, though certainly militaristic (for obvious reasons - wouldn't be much action if they weren't), are generally sceptical of the motives of "the man" and their commanding officers, and generally look out for "the little guy" rather than the big-money interests. Crazy liberal action heroes! Perhaps if any freepers care to think back to a time before Dimson's cult of personality made them lose their minds, they might remember that this is why they liked those guys - from Rambo to John McClane - in the first place.

Anyway, can you imagine a neocon action movie? Hey, let's root for the Galactic Empire - we need to send a "strong message" to those rebel insurgents and their elitist pinko Jedi supporters! Let's hope OCP stops Robocop from breaking his programming - he's not a man, he's a product! And why shouldn't Weyland-Yutani bring a parasitic, genocidal alien species to earth and give it to the Weapons Division? It'll be great for the economy! That Ellen Ripley is the biggest traitor since Cindy Sheehan!

Hell, let's give Sauron a chance - sure, he might want to usher in a new age of darkness across all Middle Earth, but I bet he has strong "values" policies! Those elves look like French commie fags to me!

n/t

And overpriced. And you have to sit in the theatre surrounded by people who's parents never taught them any manners so they talk and answer their cell phones throughout the movie.

And let's not even mention that 1) someone was shot to death two weeks ago at the movie theatre closest to my house (after YEARS of unresolved problems with unruly teenagers that they constantly let into adult movies), and 2) the last time I went to see a movie, Pride & Prejudice (which was actually quite good), my experience was marred by the man next to me snoring loudly throughout the movie.

Hmmm...maybe I'll just rent next time.

they will tell you it's because of something done by liberals.

Screw them. They are biased and not worth spending more than a few seconds on.

remade films?

An original idea would be nice once in awhile.

That's the number one reason. Number two, very closely behind, is the economy.

I've been in the movie biz and know lots of people in it. They know these two things are the reason and never ever have they ever considered it had anything whatsoever to do with politics. Ever. Never.

www.peerflix.com is an internet DVD swap house. 99 cents and a first class stamp and you swap a DVD.

Let's face it. Lot's of us have DVDs that we have seen once, and know we won't see again, and are not part of a collection. So you list them with PEERFLIX, and you get an email telling you to send a DVD to somebody. You get credits for the ones you send. You pick the DVD you want from a list of what is available, and that person sends it to you. PEERFLIX charges 99 cents for each DVD you order for their services. And you own the DVD you get.

1) People are buying home theaters in droves. Anyone can set up a totally enjoyable home experience for not too much money. AMericans seem less interested in being out amongst their peers at theaters and such, and less tolerant of lines, etc.

2) Movies have gotten extremely expensive. You can wait a bit and spend a few bux (even less if you get Netflix, etc) and see it at home. Hmmm... family of 4 at the theater can cost 40 bux, renting it at home.. 4 bux or less.

3) The majority of films are geared toward 14 year olds.

4) When film studios became more and more corporatized, Hollywood began to blow. Even with my training in screenwriting, I gave up the notion once I saw that movies are pretty much created by committee in studio conference rooms. Hollywood would much rather adapt a book, remake a tv show, or come up with something a "suit" thought would sell. None of which make for good films.

I miss the days of good films... they are few and far between. Hollywood killed Hollywood, it's not the liberals. The film corps are run by conseratives, by and large.

I can't afford to go to a lot of movies. The last one I saw at the theater was Farenheit 911.

I have digital cable-who needs theaters?

way of influencing culture for political purposes. Just look how they managed to paint the media as being "liberal". When you own the media, you can call it and everyone you don't like what you want...

were made. I'd be hard pressed to name 5 good films made this year. I know it's all subjective, but I can't be the only one who feels this way.

My husband and I can spend $30 a month and receive approximately
20 movies from Netflix...OR we can spend $30 for tickets and snacks so we can see a single movie in the theaters...

Hmmmmmmmmm...yep, it MUST be the politics of them Hollywood libruls' that are keeping us away from the theaters... :sarcasm:

...

If they would come down on the tix & concessions, more people would go.

First, they just aren't making them like they used to. Most of the movies coming out these days aren't worth watching.

Second, who can afford to go out and pay $10 per person for a movie ticket, plus upwards of $10 for popcorn or candy and a drink? Do that for two or more people and you could be blowing your entire entertainment budget for the month in one night. Better to rent a DVD or watch something on cable. You'll be saving a significant amount of money

Third, theaters are such a nuisiance. Ringing cell phones and people who are too rude to leave in order to talk on them, gabbing people who can't shut up during the movie, obnoxious kids who do whatever they want because they have no parental supervision. Screw that--who needs the bother.