Hollywood Hurting

The movie business is feeling the heat:

Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Plunging DVD sales threaten to reduce profit for studio owners Time Warner Inc.,Walt Disney Co.,Viacom Inc. and News Corp., and may force them to write down the value of movies, analysts said.

Fourth-quarter shipments fell 32 percent in the U.S. and Canada to 453.6 million DVDs, according to Los Angeles-based Digital Entertainment Group. The drop is the biggest since the industry-funded researcher started keeping track in 1997.

The decline is being fueled by viewer shifts toward rental services such as Netflix Inc., the U.S. recession and technology that makes it easier to stream Web videos to televisions.

It doesn't take a genius to see what's happening. If it's in print, on video, or on CD, it's on the web in a flash, sometimes even before the media is released to stores. The three big media industries of film, music, and print are taking it on the chin because people can find it faster and cheaper on their computers.

As for film, we have to take off our blinders when it comes to theatre owners. Whenever movie grosses are posted online, people cry foul about overpriced movie stars and greedy producers. That may be true, but it shouldn't be forgotten that theatres take half of all ticket money. The $6.00 bag of popcorn and $5.25 cup of Coke are pure gravy.

When you go to the movies and spend an arm and a leg, remember that it's the theatre taking the majority of your cash, not the movie studios. Half-price Tuesday and cheap matinees are a thing of the past. When a movie is presented in 3D, the theatre charges an extra three dollars for the funny glasses. Even more insipid are the new "VIP" theatres, where the cost of a single ticket reaches $17 and more. The studio has no say whether a movie goes in that "VIP" theatre or not. It's purely the theatre owner's decision, where he decides which new release he's going to gouge you on from week to week.

Movies used to be fairly inexpensive fun. Now they're a critical spending decision. Not one theatre in my area has held a discount special during these supposed hard times. If you're a 16-year-old high school student and want to take someone on a date, you stand to spend $40.00 for a flick and some popcorn. In the "VIP," it's more like $60.00. That's approaching live-theatre-with-an-English-accent prices.

Whenever I hear theatre owners whining about online rentals and bootlegs, one thought comes to mind: "Get bent."