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Who Goes To the Movies These Days?


desertedmovietheater.jpgEarlier this year, a Rasmussen study found that 56% of us rarely go to movies. An additional 32% of us say we only “occasionally” go. Doing the math, that’s a whopping 88% of us who either rarely or just occasionally go to the local movie theater.

That’s not to say that the 88% are holed up in a tireless VW van somewhere. No, many of those people say they watch movies, but they do so at home (41% watch a movie at home at least once a week).

To me, this begs the question, “why are so many folks avoiding the multiplex?” Rasmussen didn’t ask that question. But it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to theorize that it may have a lot to do with $8-12 tickets and high-priced popcorn, not to mention DVD release schedules bring “new” movies home fast and faster. But outside of these fairly obvious reasons (and the simple fact that Netflix delivers), I’m willing to conjecture that another significant component has to do with the “I’ve-been-burned-too-many-times” factor. Almost everyone I know has a story along that line that goes something like this:

I was looking for a motion picture to go watch, saw that [insert movie title here] was rated PG-13. The film starred a couple of actors I really like so I went. Little did I know, I was going to get bombarded with [insert bad content here]. I wish I had stayed home.


There’s no way to count the number of films whose titles could be entered in the space between the brackets above. Recent PG-13 flicks such as Pitch Perfect, Rock of Ages, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Think Like a Man and The Back-up Plan would certainly qualify. I could go on and on if I began to list all the movies that the MPAA deemed acceptable for teenagers on up that in reality should have carried an R rating (and weren’t acceptable for anyone!).

This past weekend, the latest 007 flick opened to a whopping $88.4 million take at the box office. That’s a lot of money! But when you think of the population of the United States, it’s not a lot of people. Roughly it represents 10 million individuals. Put another way, in our country alone, roughly 300 million people did not buy a ticket to see Skyfall.

When it comes to movies and money my wish is simple. Movies that uplift and inspire, I want to do well. And those that don’t, I’d like to do poorly—just as I never root for the success of gambling parlors or porn shops. It doesn’t work that way a lot of the time though. But sometimes it does. For that reason, I was not disappointed to see Cloud Atlas, which reportedly cost $100 million to make, open to a meager $9 million. What committed believer wants to see a film that “preaches” reincarnation do well?! Not to mention the film’s graphic sex, nudity, language and violence!

On the flip side, there are films released that I really want to succeed. But with 88% of people rarely or occasionally going to movies, they often get left in the dust. That’s unfortunate. I wanted the film Unconditional to do well. It didn’t. I also liked Chasing Mavericks and Won’t Back Down. Both opened to mostly empty theaters. Again, why is that? I think it’s because the 88% just doesn’t pay much attention these days. To get a film on the radar for them, it takes some doing. An ad in the daily newspaper just doesn’t cut it.

Along this line, let me ask you: What does it take to get you into a theater these days? Just how many films do you see on average per month at your local cineplex? At home on TV or on DVD? Lastly, tell me your I’ve-been-burned-by-a-movie-I-thought-would-be-family-friendly story.