DURING my younger years, watching movies in cinemas is a favorite activity among the many. It’s a past time of sorts and a great way to relieve stress and is a perfect bonding moment for sweethearts, for families and barkadas.
Some movie fanatics would even go to Metro Manila and troop to movie houses because of their screenings that are a week advanced than in the provinces. Watching a movie then earlier gives one a little bragging rights to others and that is how watching movies have been a big deal.
Movie outfits, actors and actresses and cinemas were raking money then due to the popularity of the movie industry. Some would even save money just to watch their favorite characters in big screens. SRO or Standing Room Only was coined to describe a jam-packed movie house due to the great number of movie watchers.
Whether movies are made by international or local film companies, it doesn't matter as long as movie goers enjoy the story, the actors and the characters they portray.
Just recently, a well-known icon in the movie world who is also a film maker and producer expressed alarm over the industry's “dire situation”. This came after movie screenings are often met with low box-office sales. It seems that a major entertainment business is becoming a dying enterprise.
Perhaps, there are a number of factors that affect the movie industry and the business of it and among those is the popularity of the online or internet platform. People can watch live online and in big LED television sets that mimics cinema screens right at the comfort of their homes.
Movies in high-definition, high-resolution formats can also be downloaded and can be watched infinitely. This can make flexible the time to watch for some busy people.
With the rise of the malls, many cinema houses outside these malls stopped their operations, thus discouraging some movie goers who are not going into shopping from watching movies.
The cost of producing movies is also a factor that makes the input far greater than the output, meaning the sales of industry. Movie outfits have to shell out pay for artists, for venues, for props and other expenses. Sadly, the profit from the screening is not that rewarding.
There are many movies these days that I find their stories irrelevant and uninteresting. In other words, these movies do not match the taste of the majority, thus the latter wouldn't watch them. Watching horror and fantasy movies often just would not sell.
The economy also play a big role in the movie industry. It’s much cheaper for people to have an internet, go online and watch movies rather than spend some money to go to movie houses, purchase movie tickets and buy some snacks.
I find myself lucky for the movie-watching experiences I had then.
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