SUNDAY RANT: Studio's... we just want to be entertained.

Variety detailing the disappointing DVD sales of things like SPIDER-MAN 3 (the biggest opening movie of all time by the way) and FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER which were both expected to sell extremely well as soon as they hit the shelves. Well there's a simple reason for this. BOTH MOVIES SUCKED. For SPIDER-MAN 3 to be struggling in the DVD charts after so many people attended the opening day screenings just really goes to show how much of a turn off the film was for so many people. Here's a quote from Warner Brothers home video (that title seems dated in the DVD age doesn't it?) president Ron Sanders speaking about the lack of DVD sales this year.

"The expectation was that the big summer at the box office would translate into the biggest fourth quarter ever, but it doesn't look like that will happen."
Experts say that a 5% drop on DVD sales from last year is expected by Jan 1st. 2008. I'm sorry but that's an absolute disaster. In a year that brought more sequels and huge blockbusters than we have ever seen in the history of film... with franchises like PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN, SPIDER-MAN, HARRY POTTER, TRANSFORMERS, SIMPSONS, BOURNE, DIE HARD, FANTASTIC FOUR, OCEAN'S, 300 and GRINDHOUSE (which they really fucked up with on DVD) and carry overs from last year's late entry's like CASINO ROYALE and THE DEPARTED, that's an unforgivable disappointment. 2007 has not been a good year for film. I will speak more of this upon my 'end of year' review but looking ahead to 2008... I just want to be entertained and studio's just haven't done that this year. Please don't let me be here this time next year saying the exact the same thing. I expect much better next year, especially from the blockbusters and big studio releases because there is something going disastrously wrong in developing movies that should entertain us. With the popcorn films like INDIANA JONES, THE DARK KNIGHT, STAR TREK, IRON MAN, SPEED RACER, THE INCREDIBLE HULK, THE MUMMY 3, WANTED, NARNIA and THE HAPPENING... I don't God damn expect Shakespeare, just something I can sit and enjoy and not regret spending my hard-earned money on. I just want some solid entertainment. No matter how much you push CGI and special effects, there is nothing that beats a well told story. Don't forget that and hopefully this disastrous DVD drop in sales is a WAKE UP CALL to you that we will not put up with the lackluster movies you are releasing for much longer.

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Matt Holmes is the co-founder of What Culture, formerly known as Obsessed With Film. He has been blogging about pop culture and entertainment since 2006 and has written over 10,000 articles.