A CULTURAL SIGN – AT 9:36 A.M. ET:  There's only so much garbage that "Hollywood" can throw at the American public before the American public realizes it's garbage.  Some won't care, but many will.  The public is sending "Hollywood" a message this summer.  From Hollywood Reporter:

The number of people going to the movies dipped noticeably in North America this summer, putting increased pressure on the final four months of 2012 to bolster the bottom line.

According to preliminary estimates, 533.5 million tickets were sold this summer, down 4 percent from last year and the worst turnout since 1993. The lowest attendance before now came in summer 2010, when there were 534.4 tickets sold.

Total summer revenues also slipped. Initial estimates show the domestic box office generating $4.278 in billion in sales, down roughly 3 percent from last summer's record $4.4 billion.

Final revenue and attendance figures will be released this week.

COMMENT:  The "film industry" has become a joke.  Once run by moviemakers and now run by talent agencies, it's just a tedious, boring business that has contempt for its customers – the audience – and produces increasingly mediocre "films" directed at the lowest common denominator.  

There was a time when American audiences flocked to, and loved, movies like "Gone With the Wind," "Casablanca," "Rear Window" and "Singin' in the Rain."  And yet, today's "film industry" laughs at those audiences.  Why, weren't they just hicks?  The flyover people?  Bigots?  Racists? 

No, they weren't.  In the mid-1930s, David O. Selznick previewed "A Tale of Two Cities" before an audience of sailors who may have had an average education at the 8th-grade level.  They cheered.  If someone suggested "A Tale of Two Cities" as a feature film today, they'd be laughed out of the room, even though the average educational level in America is one year of college. 

The best work being done in Hollywood today is actually being done in television, in part because people in television, especially those working on successful series, work hard, work regularly, and practice their craft every day.  In the feature business a writer can make enough from one script deal – whether produced or not – to live well for three years or more, and never write a word during that lavish time.  The results show.   Believe me, I've been there, done that.

September 4, 2012