Comments on the Summer movie slump in Hollywood.

Commenting on the summer movie slump (in this article), Friedlander lucidly observed:

“In an ideal world, people would say `OK, we have to think more creatively, we have to think outside the box and come up with new and different things,'” said Steven Friedlander, head of distribution for Warner Independent Pictures, which released “March of the Penguins.”

“But I’m afraid what’s going to happen is, we’re all going to sit in a room and say `We need more penguin movies.'” So I don’t really know what lessons we’re going to take out of all this.”

Yep, Hollywood will most likely think what made “March of the Penguins” is not the fact that it is a high quality product and different from everything else offered but the presence of cute penguins. “People want cute penguins” is most likely the lesson they’ll imagine should be learned. Oh well…

But regarding the general movie slump, I’m glad the general population has decided to “vote with their wallets” by turning away from the uninspired sludge coming out of Hollywood. Granted, maybe the net result is not that people are not watching the sludge but rather waiting for the sludge to come out on DVD or cable but that is still a positive development if less money is spent on Hollywood’s stuff.

In this household, we find few movies so compelling that we just have to see them in theatre. (The two I can name off the top of my head that just have to be seen on a big screen are “Blade Runner” and “The Big Blue”.) The few we decide worthy to be watched, we watch on DVD or on cable. Cable TV is also competing with movies for our time… and often wins.