Teenagers Lose Interest In Going To The Movies
from the why-bother? dept
While the movie industry is likely to blame the drop in theater revenue this summer on things like file sharing, it appears that most teens aren't going to see movies because the movies aren't very good - and they have other options for their time. Many kids find videogames to be a lot more compelling, and would rather spend their time playing them, than spending $10 on a movie. Which, of course, brings up the issue of price: the price of a movie keeps going up, and they're adding more and more commercials (often telling people who have already paid that they shouldn't pirate movies). Meanwhile, the price of DVDs keeps dropping, and the additional features make it worthwhile for many to just wait until the DVD comes out. That doesn't mean they won't go to the movies at all. After all, it is still a social experience. But, if they're going to spend so much money, they want to make sure the movie is good. And, thanks to the internet if a movie is bad, word spread quickly. Once again, it comes down to an issue of the industry not having much respect for its customers, and its customers are finally voting with their dollars to go elsewhere if the product has no quality.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in thread ]
"lack of consistent quality this summer"
[ link to this | view in thread ]
No Subject Given
I used to go to the movies A LOT - up to about a year ago I was going at least once a week, often to 2 films at a time.... Then the prices went up to $10 a film.
Excuse me, but you can *buy* a DVD for $7-20 and loan it to all your friends, or rent 30-odd a month from Netflix for $20 and watch it with a houseful of people!
I went to see T3 at the weekend (matinee so I paid $7) and it was pretty bad, the first trip to the cinema for me since Harry Potter 1 I think, probably the last as well, until Star Wars 3.
Of course the MPAA will be blaming fileshares and DVD copiers, but we really know the truth - the movies just aren't worth $10 (plus popcorn/soda) per person to see!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Pirated Movies?
In the time it takes to download a movie I can drive up to Blockbuster, rent a movie, drive home, and watch it. And I think the rental probably costs less than the blank DVDs I would need to burn it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Pirated Movies?
I've gotten them to fit on a regular old CD. The quality is terrible, and the downloads take upwards of 12 hours, but if you're extremely dedicated, or bored, it's very possible to do it.
Is it worth while?
Honestly, I would rather wait until block buster or in demand cable has it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Pirated Movies?
Furthermore, although the file types associated with pirated movies can be read by most DVD players you don't need to burn them to a burnable DVD, you can just burn them to ordinary CDRs (usually about 2 or 3).
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Pirated Movies?
The tech level I'm talking about isn't too high end. I'm assuming the level to be about equal to your average teenager's cobbled together Quake-station with a decent video card and dsl.
If you know where to look (not just shooting blindly on KaZaa) you can download a pirated movie usually the day it is released, sometimes up to a week before and it'll take you about a half hour. Again, the quality of the pirated film depends on knowing where to look. Lots of people try to pirate movies, but only a small chunk do a quality job of it, usually by doing a direct video transfer of the film itself.
[ link to this | view in thread ]