Box Office Decline

The recent decline in movie theater attendance has several causes. One such cause is the matter of cost. Carol Moore an owner of four theaters outside of Kalamazoo, MI argues that, "When gas price rise, people are watching their money, so we can't let ticket prices get out of reach." Drawing the connection between finances and fun is an important link in the decline of theater attendance. As Ms. Moore argues transportation expenses eclipse disposable income expenses such as movie going. OTX, a Los Angeles based research company states in Sharon Waxman's October 8, 2005 Time York Times article ". . . sixty-eight percent [of the people interviewed] said they had attended fewer movies because it had become too expensive. That reason [the issue of cost] was citied far more than other factors like the decline in quality or a preference for waiting for the DVD." Within our struggling economy it is not unreasonable to imagine that money once used for entertainment being placed into some more appropriate areas such as transportation. It would follow to say that when such methods of entertainment become Ð''too expensive' those methods are replaced by cost effective alternatives. In addition Waxman argues that young men are going to the theater less often. Her assertion is supported by OTX online research and Senior Vice President of OTX media and entertainment. Vincent Bruzzese was quoted as saying, "The digital environment has really captured the hearts and minds of everyone, and particularly younger males. They are staying home at an incredible rate now" (Waxman). Another compelling cause for the decline of theater attendance is convenience. With the raising number of households with DVD players the audience has the opportunity to take their own entertainment experiences. According to Digital Entertainment, DVD sales and rentals is earns over twenty billion dollars a year compared to the nine billion earned by the box-office revenue. The reason for this vast difference ranges from the above stated causes of cost and convenience to other causes such as privacy, control and time management. OTX similarly produces a compelling claim that there is a significant portion of the final and most compelling reason for the decline in movie theater attendance which may not be as readily apparent is movie content. It seems that all of the above problems are overlooked to a degree when Hollywood offers a movie which is interesting, insightful and unique. Content itself however can not be overlooked when provided with fair to low movie costs and a clean theater. The reason