NO HOORAYS FOR HOLLYWOOD - AT 6:57 P.M. ET:  The financial reports out of Hollywood, always presented breathlessly, are simply another indication of the decline of our popular culture.  From the Washington Post:

If 2009 is remembered for anything in American cinema, it might be as the year grown-ups and Hollywood finally agreed to call it quits.

This is the year when such slick, star-driven, adult-oriented movies as "State of Play," "Duplicity," "The International" and "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" underperformed at the box office. And when talking-toy movies like "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" and "G.I. Joe" raked in millions.

Suddenly, movies for grown-ups are in the cross hairs. "I'm caught up all in it," Spike Lee said recently with a rueful laugh, noting that the sequel to his 2006 thriller "Inside Man" is hanging in the balance. "I'm waiting on Universal," he said.

COMMENT:  Hardly a news story.  Hollywood has been driving adults out of movie theaters for more than a generation, and the exclusion campaign has worked.  So-called "youth-oriented" films became the craze in the late sixties, and the definition of "youth" seems to be getting younger every year.

Hollywood's executive suites are filled with a management type best described by writer Larry Gelbart as "a fetus in a three-piece suit."  Not the best judge of grown-up movies.

How do you get mature adults into movie theaters?  With well-made films containing great plots, strong characters and good writing, films that are entertaining.  Not too many around. 

Hollywood today is a highly educated industry.  Isn't it interesting that, as the level of education has gone up, the quality of the films has gone down?   We kind of see that in journalism, too, don't we? 

August 22, 2009