Monday, March 06, 2006

Hollywood, The Oscars & The Movie Theatre: A Rant

Dear Hollywood,

I love the Oscars. I really enjoyed last night's show! Great fashion, music, not overly long, pretty people in pretty clothes. And Reese won! Who doesn't love Reese? (I guess the people who didn't win aren't feeling the love. Oh well.)

And I totally agree with you about movie piracy! Stealing is bad.

But PLEASE stop the "you must all go to the movie theatre" mantra. Cause it's starting to bug me.

First, you are being a bit elitist. And while George (love ya, George! From Facts of Life on!) gave a wonderful defense of Hollywood not being "mainstream", let me tell you....

It is elitist when you say, go to the movies, but to SEE some of the nominated movies I have to drive over an hour. Dudes, you don't get that the only way many of us will see the movies is thanks to DVD, because our local theatres don't play them. I'm just guessing here -- but I think more people are seeing films when you consider DVD. And that, IMHO, is a good thing.

Second, I firmly believe that everyone deserves to get paid for what they do. And paid fairly. At the market rate. It's totally unrealistic to expect a star to say, hey, it's OK, you're offering me $50 million but I'll take $5 Million. But Hollywood, you're making millions. Individuals are making millions. You've got presenters whose swag from ONE NIGHT -- let's not count the other parties or Sundance -- totals more than double what I make in a year.

Hollywood, stop telling me that my money is better spent going to the theatre instead of waiting for the DVD. Go crunch your numbers to find a way to pay people fairly (and I mean all people, don't start paying a screenwriter or "regular" actor or one of the crew less so you can keep paying the star more!) yet bring the cost of the movie theatre experience down to a price where going to theatre regularly is affordable.

Third, the theatre experience. There's the other people (like the attempted groper who sat next to me the last time in the theatre... ) And then there's the people who are eating all sorts of smelly things. And the people who bring little kids to adult movies, and then the kids cry the whole time. And the tall people who sit in front of me. Or the person behind me who thinks it's appropriate to put their smelly feet on the seat-back right next to me. I love seeing a movie on a big screen; really, I do. But unfortunately, the overall experience of viewing in a theatre is often something less than great.

So Hollywood: smooches. I still love ya. I love the Oscars.

But PLEASE stop giving me grief about loving you on DVD instead of in the theatre.

Call me! We'll do lunch.

Liz B.

2 comments:

Brian Farrey said...

As usual, Liz totally rocks.

Now can we turn our attention to the "journalists" who think it's news to talk about how the ratings were down 10% from last year?

Let's see--none of the best picture noms was a commercial success nor a breakaway hit. Critical hit, absolutely. But the majority of the people who own TVs did not see them....

...and that's because they have such awful distribution. Don't whine that the ratings went down when anyone who doesn't live in a major metropolis (yes, they own TVs too) can't see the stupid movies that are nominated.

NOW, let's do the math: people who like movies + movies they can't possibly see=people don't care about movies they can't see. Unseen movies + Oscars = no one watches about movies they don't care about because they haven't seen.

Sorry, Liz, didn't mean to take up precious space here. But this toasts my muffin. We'll be hearing about how Stewart was an obviously poor choice because the ratings went down. Cut the guy some slack, stop being elitist, and go make good movies that EVERYONE can see.

Voix said...

Well said, Liz. I only watch the Oscars for the fashion and comedy, anyway. When George was giving his little speech, I was refilling my wine glass and feeling rather disinterested in his opinion. Isn't that awful of me?