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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Advertisement Email Story to a Friend May 28, 2006 Block bustED A new season of big summer movies? Or will America say: Ho-hum By BILL VARBLE Mail Tribune Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to contemplate the failure of the summer-season blockbusters to live up to expectations and to shed some light on what the shortfall means. First it was "Mission: Impossible III," the Tom Cruise action spectacular that missed its opening-weekend target May 5-7 by about $20 million. Every "blockbuster" to open since has followed suit, with the exception of the much-hyped "The Da Vinci Code." Welcome to summer blockbuster season at the theater. Coming soon to a multiplex near you: gazillion-dollar movies and myriad marketing tie-ins based on old movies, old TV shows and old comic books. All at a time when no one even wants to sit in a theater anymore. That's according to two recent studies. One, produced in May by the respected Pew Research Center, says only 21 percent of movie lovers choose to leave home when they want to watch a show. Fifty-eight percent say it's because there's nothing worth seeing at the theaters. Advertisement The second, by Massachusetts-based research firm Invoke Solutions, found in a survey of 200 subjects between 18 and 64 that a third attended fewer movies now than in the past. High prices, unruly crowds rude people, cell phones, babies and talkers and a lack of quality films were the factors most often cited as hampering participants' enjoyment of movies and keeping them from going more often. Only 23 percent said they were "very satisfied" with the quality of the movies they saw in 2005. "That's certainly a low number," says Joanne Manley, Invoke Solution's marking director. "I think there has to be some concern." That's not news to Kristos, 61, a movie buff and retired real estate investor who lives in Ashland and says he sees as many as 100 movies a year in theaters and probably that many at home. "A lot of action and computer graphics content, if it doesn't touch me emotionally, it's like drinking light beer — not very satisfying," he says. "They're doing a lot of recycling. More often than not the movies are disappointing." The spread of home theater systems could be affecting movie attendance, too. About half the people in the Invoke Solutions survey said they had some kind of home theater system, which was defined as a DVD player and an audio-video receiver processing soundtracks for delivery to an array of speakers. There's nothing like a powerful sub-woofer to bring some of that blockbuster action home. Then there's the revolution in TV monitors, where bigger is better. Widescreen TVs with a 16:9 ration are more like movie screens than the old 4:3 aspect tubes. And they're coming in ever larger screens with flat panels and plasma and LCD technologies. And in less than three years the whole industry will go digital. And some have argued there's even something of a TV renaissance going on, what with cable programs like "The Sopranos" and "Deadwood" challenging or matching Hollywood standards in writing, acting and production values. So why do people still line up for summer blockbusters? "I was asking myself that question," says Austin Huntley, 20, of Eagle Point, as he waits for MI III in the courtyard at Tinseltown in Medford on a sunny afternoon. "I think the only reason is that I saw the first two, so I guess I have to see how it comes out. "They have great action scenes. That's what I like about them, almost like a new James Bond." He enjoys both action pictures and thoughtful dramas, and variety is the spice. "It depends how I feel. After a good action film I feel as if then I want to go to the other," he says. "After that, I feel like a good action film." He's put off by the run-up in ticket prices. "It's extreme. Sometimes I'll wait a few weeks and go to White City to a cheaper multiplex and save." And concessions? "That's even worse." What would make the experience better? "They should have sale tickets once in a while," Huntley says, "like Mount Ashland does." That sounds a bit like an idea surfaced in the Invoke Solutions survey and generated some interest: a VIP movie pass that would be good for a number of shows. It might offer such perks as admission discounts, skipping lines, preferred parking and premium seating. "It addressed costs," Manley says. "But it certainly wasn't a case of this is the answer." In the end, in blockbuster season as at any other time, people will go to the movies, and some pictures will do well, and others won't. And sometimes you can have your cake and eat it too. As Kristos points out, "The Da Vinci Code" not only has Tom Hanks, it has Ron Howard directing. "He always gives me that emotional hit." After all, there's nothing like a big room with an excited crowd and the smell of popcorn. "My sweetheart has a 17-year-old son who loves those movies," Kristos says. "We get our testosterone fix. I enjoy them because they're a ride. They affect me viscerally, but they don't stay with me." Not that there's anything wrong with that. "Afterward," he says, "we have good conversations." "I just hope," Huntley says, "I get what I pay for." Reach reporter Bill Varble at 776-4478 or e-mail [email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. 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