On Sticky Floors and Stale Popcorn

So I've been reading about what a difficult summer it's been for Hollywood studios and their big block busters crashing and burning for a few weeks now.
It seems the latest one looking to crash and burn is "Elysium".

REPORT: MATT DAMON'S 'ELYSIUM' IN TROUBLE

One way to get a handle on how a film will do at the box office its opening weekend is the Thursday midnight screenings. Early reports show that Elysium made $1.6 million, which Variety called "modest. This is better than the outright box office disappointments "After Earth" and "Oblivion," but nowhere near the blockbuster Sony had hoped for.
Two weeks ago, the box office disappointment "Pacific Rim" opened to $3.6 million on the Thursday night before its release."Man of Steel" enjoyed a $9 million Thursday night haul.
Sony is predicting a $35 million opening, which is considered lowball for this kind of big-budget summer sci-fi tentpole.That kind of prediction shows a lack of faith in the film's box office prospects and a studio terrified of bad publicity should they shoot higher and miss.

In Sony's defense, though, "Elysium" is not a franchise or sequel, and as of late original films have been faltering.
"Elysium" cost Sony in excess of $100 million to produce. With promotional costs, that is likely closer to $175 million. In order to break even, Sony will have to clear at least $400 million worldwide.
"Elysium" received okay reviews, but the film's overt left-wing (and some would say, hypocritical) political message has already made it a punch-line among conservatives -- who make up about half the audience Sony had hoped would buy tickets.~snip~

I've read all kinds of reasons for why this one will under perform, mostly about it's left leaning preaching about the "haves" and the "have nots", which if you really think about it has been pretty standard fare for a while.
Personally I haven't seen a movie in quite a few years that I was ready to rush right out and see in a theater on opening day.
I never really cared for the indoor movie experience being old enough to have gone to drive-ins, first with my family and then as a date alternative and then for a while with my own family.
Drive-ins were great, instead of having to pack into the theater shoulder to shoulder and sharing armrests with who knows who, we could park a car, push the seat back or pull lawn chairs from the trunk eat snacks from home and enjoy a movie with some personal space.
But I digress, the thing that keeps me from going to an indoor theater now is if I wait a few months (weeks in some cases) I can stream a movie to my TV through Amazon or my cable/satellite provider and watch what I want from the comfort of my own couch. And much cheaper also.
Add to that the ability to pause for a bathroom break so I don't have to miss any dialog or action and I can't see any reason to over pay for a ticket, soda and popcorn in a crowded theater.

Technology has made going out to movie a non-event, a hassle and a colossal waste of money.
That's why the box office is dying.
Nowadays, in the Obama economy, people need to make decisions on how to spend their entertainment dollars and if the studios continue to offer dreck at the box office then where is the incentive for people to pay more to watch it?
  

Hanoi Jane to Veterans, Because,"SHUT UP!"

Jane Fonda, the Dennis Rodman of her day, again poking her thumb in the eye of America since 1972.

Jane Fonda tells veterans boycotting her movie 'The Butler' to 'get a life'

LOS ANGELES –  When Jane Fonda was cast as former First Lady Nancy Reagan in Lee Daniels’ forthcoming film “The Butler,” some Reagan fans were not pleased. Now, with the biographical due to hit theaters in October, a movement to boycott the movie is gaining some momentum.
Larry Reyes, a Navy veteran and founder of the “Boycott Hanoi Jane Playing Nancy Reagan” Facebook page has been particularly vocal about the casting decision, given Fonda’s past frolicking with the enemy during the Vietnam War.~snip~

Yeah I remember the outrage over this, my dad was career Army, recently retired, and he and his friends were pretty angry over the fact that she wasn't brought up on charges of aiding and giving comfort to the enemy. But then again she claims  it was all a big mistake.
Just in case anyone doesn't know.

In North Vietnam, Fonda was photographed seated on an anti-aircraft battery; the controversial photo outraged a number of Americans. In her 2005 autobiography, she writes that she was manipulated into sitting on the battery; she had been horrified at the implications of the pictures and regretted they were taken. In a recent entry at her official website, Fonda explained:
It happened on my last day in Hanoi. I was exhausted and an emotional wreck after the 2-week visit ... The translator told me that the soldiers wanted to sing me a song. He translated as they sung. It was a song about the day 'Uncle Ho' declared their country's independence in Hanoi's Ba Dinh Square. I heard these words: "All men are created equal; they are given certain rights; among these are life, Liberty and Happiness." These are the words Ho pronounced at the historic ceremony. I began to cry and clap. These young men should not be our enemy. They celebrate the same words Americans do. The soldiers asked me to sing for them in return ... I memorized a song called Day Ma Di, written by anti-war South Vietnamese students. I knew I was slaughtering it, but everyone seemed delighted that I was making the attempt. I finished. Everyone was laughing and clapping, including me ... Here is my best, honest recollection of what happened: someone (I don't remember who) led me towards the gun, and I sat down, still laughing, still applauding. It all had nothing to do with where I was sitting. I hardly even thought about where I was sitting. The cameras flashed ... It is possible that it was a set up, that the Vietnamese had it all planned. I will never know. But if they did I can't blame them. The buck stops here. If I was used, I allowed it to happen ... a two-minute lapse of sanity that will haunt me forever ... But the photo exists, delivering its message regardless of what I was doing or feeling. I carry this heavy in my heart. I have apologized numerous times for any pain I may have caused servicemen and their families because of this photograph. It was never my intention to cause harm.

 Like, just being there couldn't have possibly been used for propaganda.
What gets to me about this whole thing is that basically she's telling "right-wingers" that there ain't enough of us to make any difference for the receipts of this movie so we all should just "get a life".
Hanoi Jane has never suffered any consequences for her actions over the years because she basically got cover from the immoral degenerates that rule hollywood.

That's why they've been able to systematically tear down our culture, Jane Fonda was one of the first to thumb her nose at the people of America and suffered nothing for it, so why shouldn't the degenerates in hollywood believe they would be held accountable for their actions?

The very last movie I ever saw with Jane Fonda in it was Cat Ballou, I haven't watched anything with Jane in it since then and I have no intention of breaking that boycott.....ever.