How about those Oscar Awards, eh? Or did you even notice?
When I was a lad back in the 1400s — no, seriously, 1950s-60s I mean, watching the Academy Awards, the Oscars, each year was a big deal of sorts in our household. It was fun to see movie stars/starlets/actors/actresses and see which films and actors were honored. From what I heard about Sunday’s televised broadcast, it was one of the lowest rated ever, though it was up in viewership several points over last year.
(One of the films that failed to whip “Slumdog Millionaire” for Best Picture was “Frost/Nixon.” I have not seen either film, but I DID “come of age” or reach maturity during the days of Nixon’s vice presidency and later presidency. So one of these days I expect to rent “Frost/Nixon” and see just what they’ve done with the guy. A quick Google on “Nixon” turns up entries about “Richard Nixon,” but oddly enough, the top entries are for Nixon watches??)
Conventional wisdom is that the film industry flourishes during recessions and hard-times because people use films to escape the hardships of job loss, economic loss, etc. If contemporary America is any indication, that might be changing. At least box office receipts and Oscar ceremonies don’t seem to be doing all that well. Perhaps that’s due to so many online and DVD film options in our time.
Do you prefer going out to a movie theater, or do you instead rent a lot of DVDs? Leave a comment for this totally informal, unscientific “survey” of America’s viewing habits and let us know!