How Hollyweird can get it's head out of it's forth point of contact

Last month Beth and I had a date night and we did something very rare. We went to the movies. The Muppets. Hey it's not Lawrence Olivier doing Henry V but it's fun stuff from our childhood. And the place was packed with middle aged people with their children and it was fun to watch. As we listened to "It's time to play the music, It's time to light the lights, It's time to meet the Muppets on the Muppet Show tonight!" it was really funny. The middle aged people were singing and moving to the beat and their children were extremely embarrassed. It was one of the better parts of the evening.

But movies are rare and far between for me now. I used to go to two or three movies a month. Now it's more like two to three a year. There are a lot of good issues this article brings up for the decline of Hollywood and I'll add to them at the end.

Top 10 Ways Hollywood Can Win Its Audience Back

by John Nolte

Hollywood is like a child, a spoiled child you can’t help loving but desperately want to see do and be better. Hollywood can be cruel and petulant, small and bigoted, hateful and depraved. But every once in a while you see what it COULD be — the talent, the charm, and the ability to inspire and create joy. So we keep coming back to them in the hope that if and when Hollywood ever grows up, they will be what they could be — what they once were, so many years ago.

Today, our spoiled child is in trouble and with only the best of intentions I’m going to see if I can’t take the sting out of the boo-boo with the best advice I can offer.

1. Hollywood Needs Movie Stars, Not Brands

You can trace most of Hollywood’s problems back to the death of the movie star. At first, the industry was thrilled with this development. No movie star meant no big payday, no ego, and none of the baggage too many stahs carry with them. The industry also found that, at least for a while, they could get away with this. Audiences were still packing theatres to see pre-packaged brands developed from high concepts, comic books, novels, and television shows. Sequels, remakes, and prequels were still sure-fire. Who needs to pay Tom Cruise $30 million to run around with CGI’d dinosaurs when just as many people will pay to see Jeff Goldblum do the same?

This was all well and good until the “brands” ran out. Now Hollywood is down to “The Green Lantern” and board games like “Battleship.”

Movie stars, on the other hand, are the most reliable brands out there. People come to see them and if you have enough of them and if you keep developing them, the inventory is limitless. From the 1920s straight through to right around 1990, if you built it with movie stars, audiences would come. Hollywood didn’t need to rely on “brands” because they built pictures around their stars.

Today we’re down to Sandra Bullock, Will Smith, and Denzel Washington — the only three people I know who can still draw a crowd based solely on their name....

2. Stars Must Stop Insulting the Customers

Class. That’s what the customers are looking for in their stars, class. George Clooney could be a star and was on his way, but then he started insulting the 60-plus percent of customers who dared disagree with his obnoxious politics. Julia Roberts was the biggest star in the world until she did the same. Harrison Ford blew his image in too many ways to count, Russell Crowe can’t stop being a jerk, and Mel Gibson couldn’t control his ugly demons. Tom Hanks was universally beloved as a well-known Democrat by all of us. Not so much, though, after he called WWII a war of terror and racism.

Politically and morally, most of your customers are right-of-center. But the good news is that we don’t care how our stars vote or even if they advocate for this cause or that politician. But when you insult us and trash who we are, our faith and country — that’s crossing a line that’s awfully difficult to return from. Goodwill doesn’t just matter when it comes to the face of your industry; it is everything.

Let me ask you Hollywood leftists this: would you buy Charmin if Mr. Whipple called you an anti-American, crybaby, Marxist hippie loser? Of course not. And yet, your spokespeople do this to over 60% of your customers at least three times a week.

3. Liberal Films Are Fine, Partisan Films Must Stop

What were you thinking making films opposing a War on Terror we were still fighting and still could’ve lost?

Hollywood didn’t even do that during Vietnam.

Do you have any idea how selfish, narcissistic, and treasonous that was? Do you have any idea how your propaganda encouraged the enemy, which means that more of our troops and innocent Iraqis and Afghans died as a result?

You have blood on your hands. Making those films was an act of evil, and if you don’t think openly fighting on the side of terrorists has hurt you at the box office, you’re out of your mind.
Last number I saw, Hollywood’s approval rating is lower than George W. Bush’s when he left office, 33%. And you deserve it.

Your industry is packed with immature, ungrateful, moral illiterates, and I suggest you get them under control, because they tarnish the industry as a whole.

Oh, and while you’re at it, maybe you could stop championing and defending that hellbound fugitive
who drugged and anally raped a thirteen year-old girl.

The good news is that there’s nothing at all wrong with making political films. Just don’t make partisan films. All your liberal films have failed over the past 15 years because they’ve been heavy-handed and preachy. So…

Study! Learn! Hollywood has a rich history of political offerings that not only made money but also made a difference. Put your art first, your theme second, and your politics last.

4. Keep Politics Out of Children’s Movies
You loaded up “The Muppets,” “Cars 2,” and “Happy Feet 2″ with political sucker punching and left a ton of money on the table as soon as word got out.

These are our children. Hands off.

Ain't that the facts. The evil character in The Muppets was a rich oilman named Tex Richman who wanted the land under the Muppet Theater for, you guessed it, oil production. Please, give us a break with that.

5. Stop Marketing Exclusively to Teens

“The Help” made nearly $170M because it was an outstanding film, and it made a ton of profit because the draw was the story not some overpriced star surrounded by $150 million in special effects. “The King’s Speech” made $140 million for the exact same reasons....Adults do want to go to the movies. We just want to see grownup movies.

Good point. One of the biggest reasons I don't go to movies is they suck. Forgive me but I saw the previews for the Sherlock Holmes movie with Jude Law in the title role strapped down to a bed naked. But Conan Doyle's signature character was a genius not a sex symbol. And the overkill with the special effects doesn't help. Might I refer to the excellent film called The Matrix. It was the first with serious CGI in it and it actually complemented a good plot, script, character development, etc. I say that again, it complemented it, it was not the focus of the movie.

6. Go Back To Storytelling Basics, Crack the Code of the Classics
By “classics,” I don’t just mean the four-star Oscar winners, but also films that — critical acclaim or not — have stood the test of time. There’s a reason people still watch “Casablanca” and, yes, “Road House.” There’s a reason we all have “The Wizard of Oz” and “Rambo” in our home video collections.

What makes them so popular? What makes them timeless? What makes them beloved by each generation? I’ll give you the first two answers:

1. Stars.
2. Universal themes...
...10. The Lousy Theatre Experience

Talkers, cell phones, ticket and concession prices. You’ve got to fix this.

Right now, unless you’re the one doing the obnoxious talking, going to the theatre is a stressful and miserable experience.

Moreover, you’re charging us too much for tickets, and the theatres are absolutely gouging us for food and drink.

Presentation and follow-through is everything, and yet you let these incompetent theatre owners ruin the presentation part of a product you spent years and millions to develop and deliver.

Let me piggy back on that. Last year Beth and I went to see The King's Speech (again, good story, excellent actors, plot, etc...see a pattern here)as a matinee. Two adult discount tickets, two drinks and a popcorn. Thirty-two dollars. I'm often called thrifty, conservative with money, etc. No, I'm cheap. This is my money we're talking about. And I'm not going to waste it a two hour leftist propaganda rant (Avatar anyone) when I can watch my DVD of Patton or any John Wayne movie.

Good article to read and it's worth a few minutes. Hopefully the morons who run HOllywood get their heads out of their asses and save the industry from themselves. I don't have a warm and fuzzy on that. Remember Mel Gibson early last decade wanting to do a movie based on the end of Jesus Christ. All the experts wanted no part of it and Gibson did it himself. Over 600 million in box office based on a 30 million cost of production.

Gee guys, you really knew what you were doing then and you don't know what you are doing now.