Movies

There is a podcast I watch each week.  The person interviewed this time is a lecturer and expert on Hollywood films.  He has all sorts of statistics showing what has happened in the past and what is happening now in the film industry.  Film makers and distributors make decisions based on his research of trends.
I personally love going to a movie in a movie theatre.  That is a luxury I have forgone in recent times.  There have been a number of reasons for that including the price of tickets and food and the limited releases that had been making it to the big screen.
What I did like was the news of the latest trends.  Apparently several movie studios are abandoning streaming and going for releases in the cinema’s.  That to me is great news and it backs up the surprise I have felt at the number of movies being released to the big screens of late.  For the first time in a long time I have thought, “I would like to go to that.”
Back in the 1920’s movie companies were given a choice.  For tax purposes did they want to be seen as an arts industry or a business.  They chose being seen as a business as their bottom line is to make money.
Back in Hollywoods hey days that happened.  In more recent times the industry has fragmented.  Companies now realize that movie theatres were their cash registers.  The upshot has been a trend away from streaming services to movie theatres again.
That does make sense to me.  For the last few years I have not watched movies I normally would have as they were part of a streaming service I refused to subscribe to.  I could not justify joining a streaming service and pay a monthly amount just to watch one thing.  When faced with a choice I did not see the movie and the company missed revenue it would have received in the past.  That is not a good thing for businesses.  (I do subscribe to one expensive streaming service, but I have been amazed that I can say to them either I pay the same price or I walk away and you get nothing.  Every time I am kept and have even occasionally got more than I was getting).
Another point raised was that during the great depression much was abandoned but not going to the movies.  That was affordable but the reason it thrived was that movies tended to offer hope, and hope was in short supply in tough times.
The same is happening today.  His wife has battled cancer and was given four years to live 24 years ago.  As he says she does not want to go to a depressing movie – life is a battle as it is.  She wants to go to a movie that speaks of hope.
I love hopeful movies.  I will pay money to see them if I can.