Hollywood Heads for the Ruins

Hollywood and the entertainment industry are facing a horror movie of their own in 09.
- Studios are canning plans for big budget movies
- TV ad revenue is down
- DVD sales are down 5% in the US
- Blu-Ray sales have dropped about 5% and are not in mass market yet
- sources for film financing - like other loans- have dried up
- Movie attendances were down 5% last year

That Great Depression tale about how people went out for entertainment to escape their economic woes no longer holds true.
In this fascinating LA Times story on Hollywood's terrible plight, there is acknowledgment that as the recession drags on, it will affect moviegoing at a time when consumers are getting more of their entertainment at home with their big-screen TVs, video games and the Internet.

The Independent reports even fantasy movies are for the chop and notes as one example how -when the media was asleep- Disney quietly withdraw from producing The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the next in the Chronicles of Narnia series of films based on the children's books by C S Lewis.