Entertainment – Movies and Their Role in America: The first in a two-part series on the state of entertainment that addresses the development of cinema in the United States amidst a global recession.
In the second century, Ptolemy discovered an imperfection in human perception. When viewing an image, once changed or removed, the retina retains the image for a fraction of a second. This is better known as the “persistence of vision.” In 1896, Thomas Edison presented the United States’ first motion picture screening in New York City using the rapid succession of individual images to form what people perceive as continuous motion.
Less than a quarter century later, Hollywood had become the world’s film capital. During the Great Depression, when a third of the nation’s theatres went out of business, Americans went to the movies to forget about their troubles. During World War II, the film industry contributed to the war effort by boosting morale and reminding Americans that they were united and committed to one singular purpose, the fight of tyranny. After veterans returned home from Vietnam, and even today, it addressed their difficulty in a soldier’s reintegration into society and empathized with the loss of idealism in combat.
For over one century, the movie industry has been one of the nation’s most important mediums for culture and entertainment. And from 1896 until now, the US has been at the forefront as the most prolific movie producers in the world.
Film is rooted in narrative and dramatic tradition in which the art of storytelling is a central concern. It’s a reflection of society that shows where it is presently as well as where it has been. While movies are different things to different people, it serves as a vehicle of sorts. To many, movies are about escapism. People want to get away. They want to be able to feel different even if that just means going to a theatre and watching a story unfold. Movies make us laugh and, sometimes, cry. They also educate. They tell us things we might not know or never could have known. They create controversy and tell difficult stories that inspire, heal, inform and empower us to deal with the unexpected and to imagine other possibilities.
But have they lost their appeal?
Consumer behavior has shifted as consumers attempt to rebound from the global recession and the onslaught of inflation. Higher food and gasoline costs combined with shrinking disposable incomes may be drawing people away from theatres towards less expensive and readily available forms of entertainment such as video-on-demand, the Internet’s user generated content and/or other digital media.
2011 saw yet another small decline for Hollywood. With ticket sales half a billion dollars behind 2010, research shows that 1.28 billion tickets were sold to North American moviegoers down 4.7%. Currently, the national average ticket price is at $7.96, and, as ticket prices continue to rise, filmmakers have been challenged in producing satisfying exhibitions that demonstrate that the price of admission is on par with utility gained despite the numerous other forms of entertainment made available.
Patrick Corcoran, spokesperson for the National Association of Theatre Owners, noted that the increase is “not way out of line,” and that prices are still below what they were in 1970 when inflation is factored in. Then, the average ticket price was $1.55 or $8.71 when adjusted for inflation. In reference to the drop in attendance Corcoran said, “People aren’t staying away because of ticket prices, they are staying away because of the movies.”
The Life of a Movie
Films open on big screens but have historically made the lion’s share of their money on small ones. After a four-month run in theatres, movies are made available on DVD, blu-ray, via video-on-demand and as digital downloads. Another window opens about six months later when films are sold to cable and satellite television companies. Sometimes, they’re sold to broadcast channels at around two to three years after the initial theatrical release.
In 2010, Americans spent $18.5 billion on all of the aforementioned, somewhere around 78% of its peak level, but only $10.6 billion of that was spent on cinema tickets. Social networking has sped up the word of mouth, turning teenagers and young adults into more discerning moviegoers, a phenomenon pushed along by rising prices, and the industry is battling a generational quirk.
In many developed countries, people have begun switching from buying to borrowing. Since 2007, the number of films rented in America has grown by 10% even as aggregate spending on home entertainment steadily declines. The steep decline in DVD sales has more than cancelled out growth in high-definition blu-ray discs and digital downloads. As a result, studios have pruned their output in favor of allocating resources to big budget blockbusters that draw moviegoers to theatres around the world. With movie output falling, truly independent filmmakers, who have lost not just home-entertainment revenues but also outside financing, are struggling even more than usual.
“It all boils down to the quality of the movies,” says Gerry Lopez, chief executive of AMC Entertainment, the nation’s second-largest theatre chain. “We just haven’t had those kind of movies that cut across all quadrants of age, race and income.”
Michael Lynton, Chief Executive of Sony Pictures Entertainment, agreed, “So far there is just nothing terribly compelling about what we’re delivering as an industry.” It’s an unexpected concurrence between two camps that have been at odds over changes in the business.
A positive sign can be taken from the fact that film may once again reign as the most popular form of entertainment around the world if the present decline lies in content quality rather than the medium or distribution model.
To read part-two, click here.