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Will the recession change movies?
posted by
Michael Zoldessy
on
March 2, 2009 at 7:35 am
An article suggests that the state of the economy could affect the types of films studios are releasing.
Analysts say the recession also is likely to affect the types of movies being made by Hollywood, how they’re made and what will succeed.
Based on recent successes, there’s evidence to suggest studios will continue to focus on comedies and action films.
Read more at CNN.
Comments (16)
I’m curious to see the numbers for the Jonas Brothers 3D Concert Experience film – I don’t think alot of folk are willing to pony up to the Disney tix price of 15 bucks.
The Jonas Bros. 3D concert film didn’t exactly set the world on fire on it’s opening weekend. It did only $12,700,000 to take 2nd place behind ‘Madera Goes to Jail" which hit #1 for a 2nd week after droping 60% from it’s opening weekend figure of $41,000,000 and going down to $16,500,000 this weekend. This was a rather lackluster weekend overall for theatrtes nationwide.
When you figure that the theatre average for Jonas was $9,992 at an average ticket price of about $13.50 that amounts to only about 740 patrons per theatre for the entire weekend. With each theatre probably averaging 4 shows a day, or 12 shows for the weekend, the show average would only be about 62 people per show.
Not many ponied up, did they.
for the 11am show (on Friday the 27th) there were five people (including me) and mind you there was a 9am before that. I don’t know the numbers but I’d be curious to know how the AMC pre-noon cheapest tix are selling – I’d think more would want to be the least amount of money on movies now.
Recession or not, I can’t see the crap coming from Hollywood these days getting any worse!
For those who are interested, there is currently a festival of Depression-Era films at the Film Forum in New York City called “Bread Lines and Champagne”. Some of the featured films include, KING KONG, 42ND STREET, LITTLE CAESAR, SCARFACE and MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN.
Sounds cool, Love movies-hate going! What a great first sentence to your post. I could see worse stuff coming from Hollywood these days with the recession.
Hey—speaking of older films, do you think that they’ll show more of the older classics now that we have a near-depression type recession? Just curious.
Pictures this year have been first rate.Great for the movie industry.
For those who love to go to the movies see these Pictures…..
1. SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
2. MILK
3.DOUBT
4.BENJAMIN BUTTONS
5.VALKRY
6.CHE
7.FROZEN RIVER
8. THE READER
9.LET THE RIGHT ONE IN
10.IVE LOVED YOU SO LONG
11. WALSH WITH BASHIR
12. RACHEL GETTING MARRIED
13.THE WRESTLER
14.FROST/NIXON
15.GOMMARRAH
16.REVOLUTIONARY ROAD
17.DEFIENCE
IT DOES NOT GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS…….
In New York City since January there’s probably been nearly forty new movies released…all going away in one or two weeks. There are still long lines for “Slumdog Millionaire”, “Milk” and “The Wrestler”…all indies…what’s that tell you? “Let The Right One In' has played at Angelika in the villiage since the fall. I haven’t seen more than ten mainstream movies out of the 92 films I saw last year. Action movies will continue to be successful to teenagers because their attention spans are limited to only putting the cell phone and i-pods down for so long… All the above mentioned films by Long Island Movies are superior, well-written films to talk about and feel something out of. All extremly successful as well. Studios take note.
It is safe to say that one person’s good movie is another’s dud. That said, I find it interesting that the above list has so many old subjects. I mean “Milk” an old politican, “Che” even his Tee shirts are dated, “Doubt” more bad priests, knock the church movie (how original), “Valkrie” not another Hitler movie, and “Frost/Nixon” a movie about an interview (now that’s exciting!).
“Enchanted” was, well a lot more enchanting than the above list. But to each their own. By the way, it is possible to watch a movie on your iPod and talk on your cell phone at the same time.
Ever since the recession began in late 2007, attendance at my local theater has gone up even as traffic at the malls has slowed down and consumers are no longer spending money on dvds….just today, Blockbuster’s stock crashed as it seeked a firm for Chapter 11 restructuring as it faces competition from video on demand and Netflix.
longislandmovies, I’ve seen the following movies on your list and have found them very good:
Slumdog Millionaire
Waltz With Bashir
Defiance
Milk
Frozen River
Gran Turino
However, as much as I enjoyed all of the above-mentioned films, imho, NOTHING beats some of the older classics, such as :
West Side Story
Lawrence of Arabia
Midnight Cowboy
Dr. Zhivago
Sound of Music
Wizard of Oz
2001: A Space Odyssey
True Grit
oh…to name afew.
However, imho, as much as I enjoyed all of the
Oh, and some of the Charlie Chaplin movies and the old James Bond movies, too, are wonderful.
Not to mention the first three star wars movies that came out in the late 1970’s/early 80’s, as well as E.T. and Close Encounters and Jaws.
Movie cinemas i don’t think will be in a recession , everyone know how the economy is right now , i don’t think its going to hurt the movie cinema business that bad , there may be some to go out of business and more to start up again. cause its about the only place these days where you can go have some entertainment for a good price , of course at the right theater where the price is right. like reasonable admission prices and consession prices . that is what Americans are wanting these days a bargain where you can go have a fun time with the family. but my self they probley be making more action movies and comedies and alot of computer anamation for the kiddies , i think thats whats going to draw more people in.
Kirk, if you think “DOUBT” was about bad priests then you either badly misunderstood the film or never saw it. “FROST/NIXON” is fascinating piece of American history and as close as we will get to an American president going on trial. Old politician “MILK” is the Martin Luther King of the Gay Rights movement and “CHE” may be the most misunderstood politician in recent history and even this latest film fails to show many aspects of him after four and half hours. “VALKYRIE” was about Hitler’s henchmen trying to do away with him. I cannot recall a single previous film on that subject.
I think you will find most movies are about “old subjects”, I mean that JONAS BROTHERS concert SO already happened. As for that great movie, “ENCHANTED”, it was released in 2007 but I have my DOUBTS it was a true story.
I suppose then that the films made of recent are contenders for a future Recession Era Festival movies – Frost/Nixon, Che, Slumdog Millionaire etc etc etc. I would like to see a movie about the current banking industry’s woes…would that be a comedy or action? lol