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The Digital Scapegoat

For the most part, I try to keep Geek in the City out of the social and / or political arena. I have my viewpoints and people who know me know what those points are. To me, politics is a very personal issue and I leave it at that. That is not to say that I don't get involved in the process, but I long ago decided that I would do my best to keep this site politically neutral. And while I am not certain if the recent Supreme Court rulings on file sharing and Hollywood's reaction count as a hotbed of political intrigue I felt like I should warn folks who only come here to read about the social minutia of Dungeons and Dragons and how to pick up on hot Geek Girls... This one is going to get a little preachy.

Hollywood doesn't get it.

As reported by Variety Magazine the theater box office receipts continue their 18-week slump, and that ticket sales are at their lowest point in almost 15 years. Variety goes on to report that tickets sales this year pale to the sales of 2004 (which in and of itself were low). Films like Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Batman Begins, Bewitched, Herbie: Reloaded, Land of the Dead, and the just released War of the Worlds have no chance in raising the sales from the 2004 hits like Spiderman 2, Fahrenheit 9/11, The Incredibles, and The Passion of the Christ. This may be true, but one must honestly look at the situation to understand the truth. Spiderman 2 had the benefit of having a very successful and critically well-received first film to say nothing of the massive merchandise tie-in and public relations campaign. Sony invested huge amounts of money into its flagship franchise, and unlike many other Hollywood studios, allowed its filmmakers large amounts of creative control. Amazing what plot, acting, and directing can do for a film isn’t it? Moving to Fahrenheit 9/11, you have to wonder if the film would have been such a moneymaker if it had not been released during a highly charged presidential election year. Would it have made as many headlines had it been released in 2003 or 2005? Not to take anything away from Michael Moore, but I highly doubt it. The Passion of the Christ falls into that very rare category of lightning in a bottle movie. The film is very well made, of that there is no doubt and I applaud any filmmaker that risks it all to bring their vision to life; however, had it been released during an era of more religious and social calm I am doubtful it would have generated the buzz and revenue that it ultimately did. Finally, like Spiderman 2, The Incredibles is the perfect example of the type of film you get when story and characters take center stage and not CGI explosions and catchy ones liners only shooting for the big opening weekend.

The opening weekend is a dangerous goal.

Ever since Independence Day, (thanks Devlin and Emmerich) Hollywood has had this preternatural obsession with opening weekend numbers. They all want to claim that their film is the 500-pound gorilla that no one can topple. The fact is that this is an empty goal, it’s like eating a Snickers bar for energy and nutrition; sure, it tastes good and gives you a buzz, but it will ultimately leave you tired and shaky. There will also come a time when the industry will reach a critical mass on opening weekend numbers. You can’t keep adding days in the week and then claim you had a record-breaking opening weekend, but the powers that be will keep trying, as is evidenced by the fact that the three summer tent pole films all opened on 12:01 Wednesday morning. (Star Wars, Batman Begins, and War of the Worlds). Hollywood spin-doctors are their own worst enemy, like the snake eating its own tail these men and women are the first to cry doom and failure if a summer film doesn’t break the 100 million mark in its first opening weekend. You tell the public enough that films are going to be a financial failure and you are all but asking people to stay home, to wait for the DVD, which will be out in a few months anyway. It is strange that some people in Hollywood are claiming that Batman Begins is a potential failure financially because it hasn’t blow away the box office, even though, by Warner Brothers own admission, it has surpassed their own expectations financially, to say nothing of the critical success it has received. So, what is Hollywood’s answer to the lagging ticket sales and lack of theater going interest?

Digital file sharing.

Look, I myself am a struggling moviemaker and all around creative type. I do know what it is like to have something taken from you without permission, something that you poured your heart and soul. However, that doesn’t make me believe for one instant that online file sharing and digital piracy is the main reason for lagging ticket sales. Clearly, the Supreme Court doesn’t feel the same way as me and many real film critics as the 9 on high decreed that services like Limewire are directly responsible for the actions and intent of people who use their service and / or product. While I don’t want to drag this into a 2nd Amendment argument, I have to wonder how groups like the NRA would react if the Supreme Court decided that manufactures like Smith and Wesson could be held accountable for the actions taken by people who bought their weapons. Sorry, I’ll end that little tangent and get back to the movies…

Attention Hollywood doomsayers:

You can not complain about Revenge of the Sith being online within 12 minutes of the film opening, bitching about piracy killing the industry and then a page later boast that Episode III broke all weekend box office records. Idiots. You can’t go before Congress and the Supreme Court and state that one of Americas major export products is being threatened (which our movies are, don’t kid yourselves folks) and then boast that Episode III is well on the way to being the biggest moneymaker of the entire Star Wars saga. (No, that does not take into account inflation ‘ya nitpickers).

Studios like to drag up the big green corpse of The Hulk as an example. They claim that digital file sharing is what killed the film, not the terrible pacing, not the crappy acting, not the boring ass plot, and certainly not the horrendously bad looking CGI Hulk. Is it true that The Hulk appeared online weeks before its release? Absolutely it did! Geeks the world over began to review the film and stated that the limitation in quality of a bootlegged film aside, The Hulk was crap and they were glad they didn’t drop 10 bucks to find out. It was quality, not piracy that gamma bombed The Hulk into oblivion. (It should be noted that in the end, The Hulk made a profit, just not a big enough for Hollywood to be happy). Case in point, one of the most downloaded and illegally sold films was The Return of the King, a film regarded as one of the most successful films of all time. How can this be if file sharing and piracy are killing the ticket sales? Again, it comes back to quality. Stop making crap and we digitally savvy will start buying tickets again (after we watch the bootlegged copy we grabbed a few days prior). See, people hate feeling ripped off, and while everyone can’t stand to watch crap, it feels a little less painful when it only cost us 2 bucks on a street corner or 8 hours of download time from a bit torrent site. Hollywood’s reason for lagging ticket sales just don’t ad up. Films that are well made will always turn a profit, they may not all have massive opening weekend numbers, but they stick around the multiplexes long after the Van Helsings of the world are at the two buck theater pubs.

The real reason for poor ticket sales?

Well, there are a few reasons in my non-humble opinion. The first, as I have rambled about consistently above is the lack of quality in modern Hollywood fare. For every Incredibles that Disney releases we get 5 films in the vein of Herbie: Reloaded or Bewitched. For all my complaining of the typical filmgoer, flocking to the lowest common denominator, crap is still crap. It is returning ticket sales that make a film turn a profit in the modern era. The masses may flock to crap on opening weekend, but they sure as hell aren’t coming back. Hollywood’s answer to lagging ticket sales is quick turn around in the DVD market, a reaction that I believe to be a poor marking choice. If you make a film that the general public is only mildly interested in, a film that then receives lukewarm reviews, quickly releasing the film to DVD is not the best way to maintain theater sales. Consumers have gotten so used to DVD hitting the shelves within 3-6 months of the films opening day that most chose to watch the film at home. Even if people purchase the DVD, they have often saved money. With the average theater ticket cost at $9, to say nothing of some popcorn and soda, it is simply economically smarter for someone to drop $14.95 when the film arrives on sale at their local department store.

Speaking of theaters, many of Hollywood’s problems can be squarely placed in the lap of theater companies like Regal Cinema. Going to the movies no longer feels like an enjoyable social night, with very few exceptions a night at the movies feels more akin to a Scientology pitch. You sit there and stare at one lame advertisement after another, to say nothing of the insidious The Twenty, one of the worst concepts ever devised… Hell, I find myself missing that annoying Pepsi girl when I am forced to sit through endless wanking about TNT’s next upcoming western epic. Sure, I could time my arrival to occur after such commercials (which is all they really are), but if I want a good seat and being a movie snob I do, then I have to suffer through said programming. Unfortunately, I don’t see an end to such things in the modern multiplex. With ticket sales dropping, groups like Regal Cinema will have little choice but to increase their concession prices and promote more consumer items before the screenings. Although, I am curious what would happen if companies like Regal took a chance and altered some of their practices. Drop the advertising, ask for locally produced films to screen on one of their smaller screens, or maybe offer a 21 and older only night (no, not for drinking, but so that adults, the group that is going to the theaters the least, can enjoy a film without screaming kids).

I just don’t see that happening.

I’m sure in time the pendulum will swing the other way. Ticket sales will see an increase, but only after Hollywood hits rock bottom and film companies began to face real financial failure. Ticket sales will increase when Hollywood again places substance over style and pitches their films on the quality of film and not on the leading actor or how real a certain CGI monster looks. It is upsetting that by the time Hollywood reaches that point; they will have litigated cutting age technology into the ground and made small budget filmmakers who love the digital arena into social outsiders. In the meantime, keep going to the theaters, but make an effort to seek out small and locally owned screens; like the The Roseway Theatre or the The Hollywood Theatre in Portland. Trust me, you’ll feel better, spend less money, and actually look forward to a night at the movies again.

Whew.

/End of line.