After the end of the summer box office, the most lucrative for Hollywood, I stopped following its performance as much, because I figured movies of higher quality were certainly going to start to come out given the approaching awards season.
Think again. It's the middle of November and, although I have never been so absent from movie theaters as I've been this year in at least two decades, I know I haven't missed much. The movies offered up by the movie capital of the world have been, to put it gently, subpar. Even compared to the usual overblown and overrated blockbusters.
This past weekend, overall receipts were down 15 percent from the same weekend last year. That's a lot of money people, and it could turn 2005 into the absolute worst year on record for Hollywood.
The big question is, will the studio moguls learn anything from it? Unlikely. There is already talk of considering this year like a bump on the road, and wait and see for 2006's performance before deciding if there really is anything to worry about. That will translate into more of the same for the audience next year, and probably the one after that, since it does take at least a couple of years for a picture to go from concept to projection booth.
I wonder how many bad years in a row it will take for movies to become enthralling again. And to think that it isn't long ago that I've seen one of the most beautiful and overwhelming pictures ever, The Hours, by Stephen Daldry.
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