Waxing Hysterical: Box Office Slump? Totally the internet's fault

You are wrong on this one. I know someone who has seen War of the Worlds and have been told it is fantastic. They're not previewing the film because they don't need to (and concerns about piracy.) This sort of speculation is the downside of internet musings. If you don't believe me, wait until the movie opens next Wednesday.

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Of course, they're carefully ignoring the fact that it works both ways. If they stopped making lousy films, we'd stop saying lousy things about them.

Quite a number of the reviews I write are positive, and I'd imagine that's true of others as well.

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i'd really like to know the demographics and readership of film-related blogging. it seems a bit hyperbolic (not to mention paranoid) to argue:

"Now at midnight on Friday evening, you're dead or alive. However long it took to make the movie, by Friday night, except for Academy[-Award-type] movies, your fate gets cast."

sounds like a way too easy excuse to me. but what to i know: i'm part of the problem!

cel

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Chuck hit the nail on the head. Essentially the studios are complaining that, "Now because of the internet, people can find out how awful out movies are before we can sucker them into buying a ticket!"

If they started making better movies, their tune could be, "Now because of the internet, the great buzz about our movies is spreading so much faster, and we don't even have to spend any money to spread it!"

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Totally the internet's fault? Okay, that's only a fraction of the problem. Sure I can see other people's reviews at the click of a button rather than waiting a few days to read similar reviews in the paper. Speaking from personal experience, it's the cost of the tickets for worthless movies that keep me away. At almost $10 for 2 hours of "entertainment," the movie has got to be something that I've been waiting months for. Boycott outrageous prices for subpar movies - just rent it.

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To quote one of my favorite movies of all time, "He's Mugatu, Derek. He could wrap crap up in tin foil and sell it to the Queen of England as earrings!" Not an exact quote, but you get the idea. People are tired of paying 8, or more if you get snacks, hard earned dollars to see subpar, absolute crap movies.

I do understand their reasoning, however. I frequent IRC (an online, text based chat program) alot these days. Alot of the chat in the main channel has been about Star Wars and what upcoming movies are going to be hot etc. I had seen Batman Begins for the first time on the day it was released, and immediatly came home to chat with my fellow peers about it. Alot of us had the same reaction: We thought that, while it had some flaws, overall it was a decent movie. And of course, there were those of us that thought the movie sucked, and others that loved it.

Rather than turning potential audience away though based on a less-than-spectacular review, it actually made people want to see it more so they could argue with us and create their own opinions. *shrug* There were many times I've seen movies and told everyone to avoid them. Did people listen? No. They still went to see it anyways.

It seems to me that rather than trying to come up with viable solutions for the movie theatres and produce their own opinions, they'd rather sit back and blame someone else. I guess that's the American way of life, right?

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Jordan hit the nail on the head. If the studios were producing good material, the studios wouldn't have to advertise. The internet community would do if for them. Instead they serve us crap then complain when we share that information with others.

That being said, just because someone says that a movie is bad, doesn't mean I won't go see it. Many things factor into whether I go to the movies - like getting dressed. I would much rather sit in my jammies in front of my 55 inch Phillips with surround sound and munch on left over Chinese food than crowd in with the unwashed masses who always seem to include a screaming toddler, someone with a cell phone they forgot to turn off and an obnoxious jerk who talks through the whole movie.

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I haven't seen Crash yet, but there seems to be a lesson with the success of that film - good writing, appeal to the intelligence of the audience, keep production costs down. Hollywood keeps on forgetting this simple lesson time after time.

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Price goes up, quality goes down, and it's our fault they aren't selling more tickets?
That is great logic.

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Damn internet geeks, you are sinking potential classics like "Alexander" with your ill-informed messageboard antics! If only people would see a film and just shut up!

Uh, unless they liked it. Then it's cool if they want to tell everyone.

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