As a longtime Daily Bruin contributor and former arts and
entertainment editor, I never clash with the editorial decisions
made in the A&E section. Of course, whenever writers deal in
absolutes, they’re only setting themselves up for
contradiction.
But when I opened last week’s insert to read the annual
In/Out list for the new year, I was more than a little surprised to
see the following pairing for what’s out with 2005 and in
with 2006: “Last Year: Not going to record stores. This year:
Not going to movie theaters.”
The accompanying text first argued that, sure, record stores
will continue to close left and right because of high CD prices,
low iTunes prices and pirating.
However, the four hipper-than-thou minds that run the arts
section insisted that the more “In” argument to make is
that movie theaters will soon do the same because of high ticket
prices, low DVD prices, and, again, those parrot-toting
pirates.
No argument is too intellectual or too vapid for me, and I
always try to understand both sides of any debate. I’ve spent
hours working on everything from whether there will ever be peace
in the Middle East to whether there’s a river on Earth
that’s so wide you can’t see across it. (The answer to
both, it turns out, is the same: Don’t ask.) Again, the
absolute was a giveaway: I’m not going for the
death-of-movie-theaters argument.
Yes, ticket prices are too high, and yes, DVD prices are falling
faster than my future career opportunities at The Bruin, but the
insert made a crucial mistake in comparing record stores to movie
theaters. Generally, people don’t care about the format in
which they listen to music, but they do care about it when they
watch movies.
DVDs are fun, but they can’t and won’t ever replace
the experience of going to a movie theater. In fact, DVDs
aren’t even trying to replace the theaters. Their emphasis on
extra features and unseen footage imply an effort to supplement a
film’s theatrical release, not replace it.
The media emphasis on skyrocketing DVD sales figures is based
more on short-term trends than long-term developments. Overall,
movies still make a lot more in the theaters than they do on DVD,
which suggests that while box-office numbers are certainly
dropping, they’re not disappearing.
Just don’t say that to the technology expert employed at
any cable news network. They’ll always side with DVDs and
home theaters, but how often do you believe anything a pundit says?
Why should technology pundits get any special treatment?
Last week’s insert was right in presenting the
death-of-movie-theaters argument as a hip one. It’s just not
the right one.
Last weekend, I went to a 25th-anniversary screening of
“Raiders of the Lost Ark” at the Aero Theatre in Santa
Monica. People have been able to watch the Indiana Jones trilogy on
DVD since 2003, but the screening was sold out. As I watched, I was
amazed at how good the film looked. The action sequences were much
crisper on a big screen, and Harrison Ford’s one-line jokes,
which always struck me as incredibly corny, suddenly seemed
funny.
By the time the film’s famous last shot showed up, in
which a U.S. Government employee carts a crate containing the Ark
of the Covenant into an endless room filled with ancient artifacts
to be forgotten forever, I couldn’t help but relate the
artifact collection to people’s DVD collections. With so many
immediate choices at their fingertips, people forget what they
have, and they end up in movie theaters.
As a significant threat to movie theaters, the rise in DVD sales
and the sophistication of home entertainment centers seems eerily
similar to the invention of the television in the 1950s. In both
cases, movie theaters seemed less likely to prevail than
“Bewitched” at the Oscars. In both cases, general
opinion took the side that people would rather stay in their houses
than go out. In both cases, movie theaters were seen as a
sitting-duck entertainment form, patiently playing out its last
days before succumbing to the couch potato. The theaters survived
the first time around, and they will do so again.
Film buffs will point out that the movie-theater business took a
hit when TV claimed its spot in the pop-culture lexicon, but it
didn’t disappear altogether. It makes sense to assume that
the same will happen now. People may see a few fewer movies, but
when it comes down to it, you can’t compare watching a movie
at home, no matter how nice the setup, to watching a movie in a
darkened theater on a big screen while eating popcorn with more
chemicals in it than a South Campus lab.
The theaters are taking their hit now, but they won’t
become extinct. They won’t even become endangered. Never
argue in absolutes.
If you’re reading this, Tracer still has a job. E-mail
him at
jtracer@media.ucla.edu.