Why Aren't People Going to The Movies?

There's an article in the New York Times today about the decline in movie attendance. It seems that, over the last 13 weeks, attendance is down compared to the same 13 weeks last year. Not even STAR WARS 3 could turn that trend around and I'm willing to bet that MADAGASCAR and THE LONGEST YARD don't really turn that trend around.

There's lots of talk in the article about how cable, DVDs and video games are pulling audiences away from the movie theatres, along with high prices of tickets, parking and babysitters. The best comment, however, comes from Amy Pascal, identified as the "chairwoman" of Sony Pictures. She says:

"We can give ourselves every excuse for people not showing up - change in population, the demographic, sequels, this and that - but people just want good movies."

It's real easy to dump on Hollywood, for lack of imagination and a plethora of sequels.

Easy, but true.

However, it remains to be seen if the lemming-like, moronic movie-going American public is willing to put their increasingly meager disposable income into better movies. I don't see it.