The golden era of the silver screen

My wife asked me the other day, “Are all your sentences going to start with ‘I heard a great podcast today’?” The way things are going, yes, that’s about right.

I know it sounds a little fishy. In fact, somebody said that to me a few months ago. He said, “I’ve never heard anyone use a podcast as a reference before.”

But it feels just as weird to tell someone around here that I heard it on WNYC’s Soundcheck, or On Point with Tom Ashbrook. Until I can figure out a better thing to say, I’ll keep saying podcast, the way I keep saying, “I heard it on the radio.”

So, I was listening to this great podcast today when I got a revelation. The show was about the future of Hollywood, and once they started to talk about the endless commercials before a movie, the guest, David Denby, said something that I had never thought of before, and why it hadn’t occurred to me is a mystery.

DD: I’m afraid the ads aren’t going to away because there’s a half a billion dollar in aggregate revenue for the theatre chains, and it’s going to go up to a billion, but particularly if it’s a hot movie, and the starting time is 8.15, you’ve got to get there 7.45 to get a good seat.

And all of a sudden it all made sense to me. Over here, people can stumble in at 8.30 because everybody knows there’s going to be at least 15 minutes of ads and trailers and because the seats are numbered.

Although, just because you have to get there early, and sit through ads, doesn’t mean you have to like them.

Especially since flat screen sales are up, and Netflix starts streaming video:

This is a service for Netflix subscribers offered at no extra cost. If you’re on the $18-per-month rental plan, you get 18 hours of streaming video per month. Subscribers to the $6 plan will get 6 hours per month, and so on.
A small browser applet (a one-time installation) will stream movies directly to a subscriber’s browser.

To quote my son who, after he’s gone to bed but not fallen asleep yet, yells: “I can smell popcorn!”

That’d be my wife and I watching mooooovies.

Let's talk! Write a comment below.