Over the last two weeks I have taken a look at the notion thrown out there by movie studios that people aren’t going to the theaters like they used to and the various reasons put out by the studios (DVD rentals, DVD sales and the cost to make movies) and the reasons fans have given (a lackluster year for movies). Looking at the statistics in the last few articles, here is what I think I was able to see. The top ten movies of the last year overall have made less money than each of the last five years, but the statistics also show that movie studios have spent less for those movies and that the overall ranking on a scale of 1 to 100 for these same movies was down almost the same percentage compared to the last five years. DVD sales did not seem to affect moviegoers’ decisions to skip movies that should have made more money because it seems that the people that enjoyed the film in theaters actually made an effort to purchase those films, and the films that were expected to do well but did not weren’t a factor in DVD sales. The only place lackluster films did make a dent seems to be DVD rental, where most top theater films did not make the top ten in DVD rental, which actually seems to suggest that most people that wanted to see these films, saw them in theaters and then later purchased them on DVD. So it seems to me, looking at all the data I’ve compiled over the last few weeks, that the only time DVD makes any difference on the box office of a major film, is when people don’t have any urge to see the film, that DVD sales and DVD rental really have no affect on theater sales.

Of course, regardless of the reason that theater sales are down, executives at movie studios that are worried that this is a trend that will lead to the downfall of theatergoing as we know it will try to “save the industry”, at least until the “trend” reverses. Since these ideas are fairly new there really is no data on whether or not they will work, so I will list them here and we will have to see.

Remakes: Over the next year expect to see remakes of classic movies. A few that have been rumored to be coming down the pipe are: a remake of the sixties B-movie classic Death Race 2000, a remake of the film Predator and a whole slate of famous and not so famous films.

Simultaneous direct to video: Studios release films direct to DVD all the time, but recently a Sony executive announced a plan to release films on DVD and in theaters simultaneously.

In conclusion, after the research I have put into the last three articles, I think that this is a fluke year based on the lack of great movies to offset the mediocre ones. I think that as long as there are a few good movies every year to offset the bad ones, movie studios will continue to make money, as long as movie studios don’t overreact and make the situation worse.

This weekend at your local multiplex: (12/02/2005)

Aeon Flux: Action/Sci Fi
Charlize Theron, Frances McDormand, Jonny Lee Miller, Sophie Okonedo
Plot: Based on the original MTV “liquid television” series, Aeon Flux is set one thousand years in the future where a disease has wiped out the entire planet minus one city. Charlize Theron’s character is part of an underground rebellion trying to infiltrate the city where, in the process, she learns that she may not be on the right side of the war.
Buzz: Charlize Theron in an action flick wearing next to nothing. No one is really saying anything else about the film. But is there really anything else to say?

This week on DVD: (11/29/2005)

As always, if you want to drop me a line, shoot me an email at DPlace76@yahoo.com. If you want to check out some of my random ramblings, you can check me out at www.livejournal.com/users/bigdpimpin.