Movies Do Poorly Because They Stink?

I think I am beginning to understand why most newspaper stories treat their readers as if they are first-graders. It's because the people they interview for their stories are, at least on an intellectual level.

Summer Fading, Hollywood Sees Fizzle

With the last of the summer blockbusters fading from the multiplex, Hollywood's box office slump has hardened into a reality that is setting the movie industry on edge. The drop in ticket sales from last summer to this summer, the most important moviegoing season, is projected to be 9 percent by Labor Day, and the drop in attendance is expected to be even deeper, 11.5 percent, according to Exhibitor Relations, which tracks the box office.

Multiples theories for the decline abound: a failure of studio marketing, the rising price of gas, the lure of alternate entertainment, even the prevalence of commercials and pesky cellphones inside once-sacrosanct theaters. But many movie executives and industry experts are beginning to conclude that something more fundamental is at work: Too many Hollywood movies these days, they say, just are not good enough.

Did I read that right?

But many movie executives and industry experts are beginning to conclude that something more fundamental is at work: Too many Hollywood movies these days, they say, just are not good enough.

So - let me just make sure I understand. Horribly written stories that have no plot or characters to draw the viewers in will do poorly at the box office?

Too many Hollywood movies these days, they say, just are not good enough.

No. You don't say.

These people are experts?

Listen up, Disney, Miramax, and everybody else: writing. That's what your movies lack. Fix that.

More useful advice than you got out of those masters of the obvious, and I didn't even charge you anything.