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With Popcorn, DVD's and TiVo, Moviegoers Are Staying Home
NYT ^ | 5/27/05 | Laura M. Holson

Posted on 05/27/2005 5:15:59 AM PDT by Mikmur

Matthew Khalil goes to the movies about once a month, down from five or six times just a few years ago. Mr. Khalil, a senior at the University of California, Los Angeles, prefers instead to watch old movies and canceled television shows on DVD.

He also spends about 10 hours a week with friends playing the video game Halo 2. And he has to study, which means hours on the Internet and reading at least a book a week.

"If I want to watch a movie I can just rent it on DVD," he said. "I want to do things that conform to my time frame, not someone else's."

Like Mr. Khalil, many Americans are changing how they watch movies - especially young people, the most avid moviegoers. For 13 weekends in a row, box-office receipts have been down compared with a year ago, despite the blockbuster opening of the final "Star Wars" movie. And movie executives are unsure whether the trend will end over the important Memorial Day weekend that officially begins the summer season.

Meanwhile, sales of DVD's and other types of new media continue to surge.

With box-office attendance sliding, so far, for the third consecutive year, many in the industry are starting to ask whether the slump is just part of a cyclical swing driven mostly by a crop of weak movies or whether it reflects a much bigger change in the way Americans look to be entertained - a change that will pose serious new challenges to Hollywood.<\b>

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: dvd; etc; hollyweird; hollywood; liberalactors; msm; trends
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When will these people get it? Us mainstream Americans don't boycott with all the fanfare that the liberals do. We just get the job done. The libs want 15 seconds of fame. They look for loud noise, etc...and then on to the next cause. Us mainstreamers just stop buying the liberal, America hating product. Then we listen to the MSM try to ascertain what is wrong. Ask the French and Germans what is wrong. All the countries that have withstood the U.S. to the face are now suffering......those that have stood by us have seen their economies reviving, even Poland...Yahoo!!
1 posted on 05/27/2005 5:16:00 AM PDT by Mikmur
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To: Mikmur
Uhh...what boycott?

Meanwhile, sales of DVD's and other types of new media continue to surge.

2 posted on 05/27/2005 5:20:18 AM PDT by Wolfie
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To: Mikmur
Besides choosing not to pay for anti-American "entertainment," I'd rather not suffer sticky floors and armrests, cell phones ringing, yakking people, mouth-breathing open-mouth chewing, hat-wearing dolts.
3 posted on 05/27/2005 5:20:25 AM PDT by Gunrunner2
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To: Mikmur

AND...because some (like our family) are not willing to support the income of the liberals in Hollyweird.


4 posted on 05/27/2005 5:21:24 AM PDT by harpu
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To: Mikmur

This is how tiVo were pervade your brain; my husband and I were driving down the road and a man on a motorcycle popped a wheelie and rode for a while, but I was looking somewhere else and I missed it. For some strange reason, I was thinking " damn- rewind so I can see it".... then I was like.... oh this is real life.


5 posted on 05/27/2005 5:22:05 AM PDT by brwnsuga (Proud, Black, Conservative!)
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To: Gunrunner2

I like going to theatres (though not a fan of Hollywierd), and have rarely experienced those problems you mention. Guess it depends on where and when you go. I avoid Saturday nights or anytime the place will be overrun with kids.


6 posted on 05/27/2005 5:22:42 AM PDT by over3Owithabrain
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To: Gunrunner2

" Matthew Khalil goes to the movies about once a month, down from five or six times just a few years ago "

6 times a month ? Holy sheet ! I haven't been 6 times in the past 6 years !


7 posted on 05/27/2005 5:23:04 AM PDT by sushiman
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To: Gunrunner2

Not to mention the crappy choices of movies showing at the theater this holiday weekend. We've TiVoed our share for the weekend and I hope the Hollyweird pocketbooks will start running dry.


8 posted on 05/27/2005 5:23:15 AM PDT by demkicker (We were nuked by 7 RINOS)
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To: Mikmur

Netflixs
52 inch flatscreen tv
dolby surround sound
JBL speakers
Big comfy couch
Fridge on the side w/ microwave on top.

Remind me again why I need to spend $10 for a ticket and $20 for snacks to see a movie at the theatre.


9 posted on 05/27/2005 5:23:46 AM PDT by Xenophobic Alien ("Blessed are the cheesemakers")
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To: brwnsuga
>>I was thinking " damn- rewind so I can see it".... <<


Yeah,. . . I've had a few moments in my life like that. Moments I'd like to live over and over and over again. . .and, no, I won't talk about them.

;-)
10 posted on 05/27/2005 5:24:13 AM PDT by Gunrunner2
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To: Mikmur

I just don't want to spend all that cash for a movie I can't watch and won't sit through despite "glowing" reviews from critics.

I'd rather spend $4 for a DVD rental. If the movie stinks, I can just zap it off and take it back.

On the other hand, even that is too much trouble for a completely and utterly stinky film. ~Like, "Monster in Law." I wouldn't get that one in any event!


11 posted on 05/27/2005 5:25:40 AM PDT by OpusatFR (I live in a swamp and reuse, recycle, refurbish, grow my own, ride a bike and vote gop)
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To: Xenophobic Alien
Hey. . .I have a 57 inch flatscreen, a soft leather recliner chair and had the room wired with "surround sound." Wife unit wouldn't let me get the chair with the built-in fridge.

Like you, no need to go anywhere to see a movie as a movie. And we get to pause the movie for the occasional potty-break.
12 posted on 05/27/2005 5:27:44 AM PDT by Gunrunner2
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To: over3Owithabrain

I guess so. . .but many times the disruptions are from the adults as well as the children.


13 posted on 05/27/2005 5:28:23 AM PDT by Gunrunner2
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To: Mikmur

I ventured out last year for "The Passion" and "The Incredibles." Both were easily worth the price of admission. Make a great movie, and I'll go.


14 posted on 05/27/2005 5:30:16 AM PDT by Aquinasfan (Isaiah 22:22, Rev 3:7, Mat 16:19)
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To: brwnsuga
For some strange reason, I was thinking " damn- rewind so I can see it".... then I was like.... oh this is real life.

Doing home improvement work, I've found myself reaching for the "undo" button. Doh!

15 posted on 05/27/2005 5:31:32 AM PDT by Aquinasfan (Isaiah 22:22, Rev 3:7, Mat 16:19)
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To: brwnsuga

LOL...sometimes I wish life DID have a fast-forward/ rewind button.


16 posted on 05/27/2005 5:31:47 AM PDT by SerpentDove (Qwertyuiop!)
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To: sushiman

Movies I have seen in the past 20 years in a theatre

Passion
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Star Wars 2
Veggitales Jonah


17 posted on 05/27/2005 5:32:24 AM PDT by AppyPappy (If You're Not A Part Of The Solution, There's Good Money To Be Made In Prolonging The Problem.)
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To: Gunrunner2

Right, and wouldn't it have been a thought to include a consideration on how possibly the high taxation is disincenting movie theater owners too?

A night at the movies can be pretty expensive and let's face it, we get better writing these days from 60 second commercials than we do for 30 minute TV shows or heaven forfend, 1.75 hour movies. Hence we get TV based on "reality" shows to cover for bad writing and we get screen plays that either blast the "bad" guys to bits or teach us all how to "share" (except with conservatives, who of course are the evil trolls living under a bridge with the magic bucket of money that would save humanity).


18 posted on 05/27/2005 5:34:45 AM PDT by saveliberty (Liberal= in need of therapy, but would rather ruin lives of those less fortunate to feel good)
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To: Gunrunner2

"Yeah,. . . I've had a few moments in my life like that. Moments I'd like to live over and over and over again. . .and, no, I won't talk about them."

Me too, and some moments I would like to delete from my memory... ;-)


19 posted on 05/27/2005 5:34:55 AM PDT by brwnsuga (Proud, Black, Conservative!)
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To: Gunrunner2

Yes and you pay big bucks for the privilege


20 posted on 05/27/2005 5:36:31 AM PDT by sgtbono2002
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