Pumped-up Films With Nothing to Show
             The article "Opening weekend becoming be-all, end-all for movies" by Kenneth Turan argues that modern movie producers are more interested in generating revenue than making quality content for movies. Large advertising campaigns, marketing research, and speculative producers are making movies more and more like one hit wonders of the 80s.
             Specifically, Turan wants to bring light to the tactics of movie producers to the general public, in hopes of letting producers realize that the people does will not stand for movies with little or no content. In his article, good movies and bad movies are compared to stock market prices. Shrek and Momento were classified as stable movies that were consistent through several weeks during the summer. Movies such as Tomb Raider, The Fast and the Furious, Cats & Dogs, and Jurasssic Park III were viewed as dot com bombs that did well their first weekend, but then dropped in sales by as much as 40 - 60 percent by the end of the second weekend.
             How do so many movies do so well during the first weekend and drop in sales by so much the second weekend? According to Turan, movie producers are to blame. His emphasis is on how producers are more interested in revenue than content. Not to say that times have changed, simply that the revenue pool was not that big a few decades ago making present tactics impossible to execute in the past. Even if the movie is bad and does not do well in its second week out, producers know full well they will cover costs and produce revenue during the first weekend if the film is precisely advertised. Therefore, producers need a huge marketing capital with to work with in order to make the movie appear to be well worth the money spent by movie-goers. Their main goal is to make "people pay money before they have any idea of what they're paying for." I think that if you follow the ticket sales of the theaters, anyone will see the ...