Figures. Magic Man CHRIS DODD Leads Movie Industry to Worst Ticket Sales in 16 Years
Posted by Jim Hoft on Saturday, December 31, 2011, 9:01 AM
Magic Man Chris Dodd Moves On From Mortgage Crisis to Overseeing Movie Industry’s Worst Ticket Sales in 16 Years
Chris Dodd, he’s got that magic touch.
Former Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) is known for his contribution to the 2008 mortgage crisis. The former head of the powerful banking committee in the Senate, consistently resisted attempts by the Bush Administration to closely regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Dodd also got preferential treatment from Countrywide on two mortgages. Christopher Dodd received thousands of dollars in contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over the years.
Well, no need to feel sorry for this scandal-plagued politician, the former Senator Dodd moved on to greener pastures. After the 2010 elections Chris Dodd quickly landed on his feet by becoming chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America. And, he brought that magic touch with him. The movie industry sold 1.28 billion tickets in North America in 2011, according to Hollywood.com, the lowest since 1995.
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bg commented:
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more dirty little secrets
bit more here..
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greenfairie commented:
MPAA is just a lobbying organization that rates movies on the side, i.e. if you bribe us we’ll knock that R down to PG-13.
Bet ya that Dodd is one of those guys who wants SOPA passed.
RedBeard commented:
What’s next for the MPAA? Hiring Tony Soprano and Paulie Walnuts to enforce the decency rules?
vityas commented:
That they make crap movies doesn’t have anything to do with it.
Multitude commented:
My wife’s a die-hard film connoisseur. Watching movies is her favorite past time. We had been talking a few weeks ago about the upcoming holiday “film season,” which traditionally kicks off at Thanksgiving with a movie that Friday with the whole family. There’s usually a list of the must-see films, ranked down from there. Rankings are operational: A = Must watch in the theater, B = Prefer to Watch but if we catch it on DVD, that’s ok. C = DVD or Streaming is fine. D = I might watch if I’m locked in a room for 48 hours with nothing else to do. F = Wouldn’t even watch it then.
Last year, I noticed some skepticism on the list. The As and Bs which showed up were slim. “Bad year for movies” was the rationale.
This year, there was no list. She had one film she wanted to watch over Thanksgiving pretty much said the rest of it was at best C quality. The killer quote was “I’m not paying 25 bucks a person for crap.”
Theaters have aggressively pushed their prices on the “movie experience” to the point that only outliers justify the expense, while alternatives like DVD, larger home screens and nicer home theaters, obnoxious current generations of Me-Centric teenagers with their addictions to texting during the movie, etc. have all pushed the value of the theater movie well below the price as the price has raced upward. Combined with this years production of Meh films — crap one would be indifferent to at best — and you have the beginnings of the end for a movie theater buggy whip industry.
John Fembup commented:
In Dodd’s mind the solution is probably
1. Rush to get Hollywood types out on the campaign trail, in support of #OWS and to claim, like Michael Moore, they are all part of the 99%.
2. Raise ticket prices
Especially #2
Joanne commented:
Hollywood not only produces crap movies, but produces crap coming out of most of their mouths. I believe people are just sick of the whole lot of them.
Michele Bachmann is the conservative everyone should be getting behind, but again the left media is selecting which candidate they want to run against Obama, the non-eligible President of the United States.
bg commented:
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re: greenfairie #2 December 31, 2011 at 9:26 am
Mpaa’s Chris Dodd: Critics’ View Of Sopa
As Censorship “outrageous And False”
Opinion Piece On CBS Says Chris Dodd Should Be
Fired For His ‘Intransigent’ Position On SOPA/PIPA
more about Dodds “Social Engineering”..
[scroll threads for much more]
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Patty commented:
Seems his follies are coming right back to bit him in his A.
Patty commented:
I see retirement coming. Oh, he will do find and “Land on His Feet” will stolen money.
the B!
Patty commented:
resisted attempts by the Bush Administration to closely regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
No wonder the democrats hated Bush so much. Washington is one big Joke. It will take someone very close to God to fix it.
bg commented:
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re: #8 December 31, 2011 at 9:34 am bg
SOPA: Endgame Is Total Internet Censorship
links & more @ link..
anyone else notice what great plans & investments our
congressmen and women have made for their futures??
not to mention Presidents & VP’s .. gah!!
[It may be interesting to note that the Chicago Climate Exchange in spite of its hype, is a veritable rat’s nest of cronyism. The largest shareholder in the Exchange is Goldman Sachs. Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley is its honorary chairman, The Joyce Foundation, which funded the Exchange also funded money for John Ayers’ Chicago School Initiatives. John is the brother of William Ayers.]
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MAJ Mike commented:
Most movies are crap and watching a movie in the over-priced multiplex is a crap experience. Better to watch a movie-on-demand on cable — lots cheaper, no over-priced movie snacks, you can pause the action as needed.
Why even go to a theater?
Steve Burri commented:
But, but Dodd got a sweetheart deal from movie theaters Countrywide.
LYNNDH commented:
Ok, one GREAT movie to see is “War Horse”. Go see it.
Multitude commented:
John Fembup and bg: I think we’re all missing the obvious answer to Big Hollywood’s decline: Mandate movie theater viewings.
With the constitutionality of Obamacare soon to be upheld (SCOTUS won’t dare interfere with the privilege and sovereign authoritarian power of the Executive Branch and lawmaking authority of the Legislative Branch, per well established history), there is absolutely nothing to prevent an act such as SOPA being amended and passed to mandate weekly film watchings.
Combine that with Progressive strategy that plans for the re-education of the millions Bill Ayers and friends didn’t intend to necessarily exterminate, and mix in unemployment re-education training credits for the 17% or more who can’t find work but could be watching Progressive movies, and you’ve got synergies in the governmental apparatus.
Of course, we’ll need to have Michelle Obama show up in one of her darling multi-thousand dollar Klingon battle dresses and explain how popcorn, butter and soda is bad, but broccoli and brussel sprout smoothies are an acceptable alternative. We’ll obviously have to tax the rich 1% who make $50K a year or more, perhaps just charging quadruple the current ticket price (and seizing their homes if they resist) so that all the OWS trustifarians can have their movie viewing subsidized.
And we’ll place Czarina Kathleen Sebelius in charge of issuing exemptions to the privileged Progressive “Not 1% Because… We Care Too Much In Our Hearts” like Michael Moore, Al Gore, all the progressive media elites, etc. After all, we can trust them to watch the same instructional programming in their homes in front of their theater-sized screens in their 60-80 seat private studios. Why would we want to expose these sensitive and compassionate NOT ONE PERCENT persons to the filth of the middle class, the used-gum and spilled beverage sticky floors, and the general stench of the smelly populace Harry Reid is so known to loath.
cal rifkin commented:
Success has been hard for him since the last “waitress sandwich” episode.
Rock commented:
Or maybe many Americans opted to show their displeasure with the freak-town progressives and their agenda by ignoring the freaks and their Socialist trash. Hopefully we are seeing the effects of boycotting on the Leftist slime and their products.
bg commented:
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Multitude #16 December 31, 2011 at 11:16 am
so true..
and albeit i only have basic cable, i have noticed subtle changing in my choice of the few shows i can view.. it seems like they check on what one is watching & replace it with something they want one to watch, i swear, i’m not paranoid about that.. as i hardly watch tv, but the few shows i use to watch, well, they’ve gone missing so to speak, and shows i’ve no interest in have, well, supplanted them.. pretty soon i’ll be probably watching ingVsoc..
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tommy mc donnell commented:
i haven’t been to a movie in years because they are left wing propaganda vehicles.
FurryGuy commented:
The MPAA was created to figleaf the scandals that were an essential part of Hollywood in the 1920′s, one of the scandals was the highly publicized antics of Fatty Arbuckle. Now the organization’s mission is to celebrate the same filth that studio heads in the 1920′s were so eager to hide.
Having Chris Dodd running the MPAA will only make more people aware of how degenerate Hollywood really is.
gee! commented:
I agree with most here …………..Hollyweird movies stink…………anymore……….but it couldn’t because employment is high ……………young people are having a hard time finding jobs…… considering young people spend-more money on movies and music than some of old farts…….just saying
Earthmover commented:
I have not been to a movie since Saving Private Ryan came out. I absolutely
WILL NOT support a group of liberals like Hollywood who help to destroy this
Country every day. I don’t subscribe to the movie channels either.
ogee commented:
I guess he was a trying to sell tickets to those who did not have “THE ABILITY TO PAY”….just like his mortgage bill states. The ‘ability to pay ACT’ of the Dudd and Fwank bill. Jeebus what rock did these people crawl out of. OF COURSE YOU DON’T SELL LOANS OR ANYTHING TO ANYONE WITHOUT THEIR ABILITY TO PAY…. Dodd and Frank are demented and brain dead.
Maybe the ticket price was too predatory. (What’s predatory to you may not be predatory to me…it may be a good thing for me.) Another portion of the Dudd Fwank act……..predatory lending…. they preyed on broke people to buy tickets? It’s only predatory if you are broke…
Nevermind….. these people are senile anyway.
FurryGuy commented:
Chris Dodd’s chairmanship of the MPAA may be only a sideshow of a sideshow because a lot of what is driving declining ticket sales is soured economic times, the hyper-inflation of said tickets and many a movie that is not worth the price of even a matinee admission. When movies “connect” with the viewing public revenues are quite respectable.
Molon Labe commented:
Movies today have no magic. They are unusually dark, I mean that, you can’t see anything. Worse the sound tracks are indistinct and often inaudible, except for blaring rap music or curses. There are no plots, implausible characters, who are usually jokes. The “stars” themselves are awful. There isn’t one man today who is as masculine as Yul Brenner or John Wayne. They are girlie men like Matt Damon, Tom Cruise and the like. Al Pacino and DeNiro are old men. The women actresses are even worse. Most of them act like they were John Wayne. There isn’t one of them as tough as Bette Davis or Joan Crawford or as feminine as Sophia Loren or Marilyn Monroe.
We only get lousy computer special effects. Nothing compared to the thrills of the chariot race in Ben Hur. The comedies are tasteless, written by idiots who think SNL is the ultimate in comedy.
Hollywood is dead.
bg commented:
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Burning Down The House
good movie, about bad people..
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Charlie commented:
These old coots ALL need to retire
Stuart commented:
No, bg, bad movies about bad people, and even worse scripts
In the last year I have read a good half dozen novels that would make Academy Award class films.
The material is out there, written by authors like Ivan Doig and Jim Harrison. Even Harry Turtledove has a whole stable of stories if Sci Fi is your thing. Instead we get Zombies, Vampires (enough Twilight already) and “super heros” like ??THE MIGHTY THOR??? The adjective “lame” doesn’t come close.
But then again Hollywood would probably screw up the best of scripts and produce a lesson for us proles on how to be good little Socialists. Face it: Hollywood is dead, but it’s stinking rotting corpse hasn’t been collected yet.
L.E. Liesner commented:
Chris Dodd a former Senator does not know how to make money for a business, all he knows is how to spend taxpayers money. Hollywood couldn’t find a better representative to run them into bankruptcy. Hope they keep him until he finishes the job.
vangrungy (comment miner) commented:
http://www.deadline.com/2011/12/mpaas-chris-dodd-critics-view-of-sopa-as-censorship-outrageous-and-false/
The MPAA could go on a site, post an “illegal” video, then claim copyright infringement and have the site shut down. We already know they practice this because Viacomm did it with YouTube and were caught in court.
What these new acts would do effectively takes the sniper rifle of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act — “Somebody on your forums posted my photo without permission; remove it” — and turns it into a shotgun: “Somebody on your forums posted my photo without permission; your entire website is blocked for everyone until you remove it.”
You only have to think for a few moments to realize how many websites would effectively disappear if this were the law of the land — no more YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Tumblr, WordPress, or any other site where people can post content of any kind.
It also creates a regime where any new web service needs to enter into some kind of ongoing legal relationship with every copyright holder ever in order to really be safe. This is the definition of strangling innovation: startups can’t afford to do the level of content filtering that, say, Google can. So there just won’t be any more startups that let people share things.
So, yeah, it’s a horrendous bill that will “break the internet.”
Comment by writer — Tuesday December 13, 2011 @ 9:08pm
RedBeard commented:
There are still good fims being made, but it definitely seems like the percentage of decent ones has declined dramatically in recent decades.
We seldom go to a theater, for many reasons. Ticket prices are one reason. And the popcorn that you need a Master Card pre-approval to afford is another. But rude, uncivilized, blabbermouth movie audiences are the primary reason we stay away. Went to the theater to see Ken Branagh’s Hamlet and Henry V, and the audiences were well behaved for those shows, for perhaps obvious reasons. We also take the grandkids to weekend matinees see things like Cars and other kiddie fare, because the sometimes loud kid audiences are simply what one would expect. But most others? Not worth the irritation, and the DVD will be out soon.
But the biggest problem with films these days is the apparent shortage of writers with a talent level anywhere above that of an average high school dropout. Special effects should augment a good story, not be the reason for the film’s existence.
Molon is right about the soundtracks, too. Somewhere along the line, it became fashionable for “stars” to start mumbling their lines rather than speaking them. I guess that’s trendy, or something.
Bottom line: I love GOOD films, so that’s why I watch so many old ones. That’s where the bulk of the quality is.
Dana Garcia commented:
Umm, I’m no fan of Creepy Corrupt Chris, but I don’t see how he has made Hollywood’s creation of terrible movies any worse.
One could make an argument for liberal triumphalism following the Obama election, but the Chris Dodd effect, not so much.
bg commented:
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Stuart #31 December 31, 2011 at 2:13 pm
lol, wasn’t meant to be taken literally..
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bg commented:
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re: #37 December 31, 2011 at 3:49 pm bg
oh wait..
but it certainly can be..
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Blacque Jacques Shellacque commented:
Well, no need to feel sorry for this scandal-plagued politician, the former Senator Dodd moved on to greener pastures.
Odd, but I don’t recall the media making much hay over the crap he was involved in.
Oh yeah, right, he’s NOT a Republican. I understand now.
To be undeservedly fair to Dodd, Hollywood’s products mostly suck now anyway, so I fail to see what he could have done that would make the average moviegoer want to eat crap…
Buffalobob commented:
The bigger question is why is Dodd not in jail.