Yesterday I posted a link to a story saying that TV audiences were up in the US this year (audiences for shows generally are down, but across the board with their many, many channels, the viewership is up). I asked whether the viewership may come from fewer people watching movies on home video (ie DVD/Bluray).
Today comes news that US ticket sales have dropped again in 2010. I appreciate that this is not an either/or proposition, but you’d have to assume that this figures into why there has been a TV viewership increase. Yes, there is a GFC and ticket prices in the US have gone up (increases beyond the additional cost of 3D movie tickets), but I’m wondering whether the quality of cinema is also a consideration. Last week I put together my own Top Ten films of 2010 list and struggled to find movies released last year that I was all that passionate about. Could cinemas reliance on tent-pole films and excessive market research be killing audiences love of cinema?
When I first got online in 1999, I used to hang around a lot of film message boards. Over the past decade, I’m finding that the same passion that drove discussion is no longer there when talking film, but it sure does exist when people talk television nowadays.
Crikey is committed to hosting lively discussions. Help us keep the conversation useful, interesting and welcoming. We aim to publish comments quickly in the interest of promoting robust conversation, but we’re a small team and we deploy filters to protect against legal risk. Occasionally your comment may be held up while we review, but we’re working as fast as we can to keep the conversation rolling.
The Crikey comment section is members-only content. Please subscribe to leave a comment.
The Crikey comment section is members-only content. Please login to leave a comment.