Box Office Success

* Re “It’s a Boy’s Life in Hollywood,” Jan. 13: Several of the movies mentioned as targeted to, and attended by, 14-year-olds are rated R, meaning restricted; under 17 requires an accompanying parent or adult guardian. There were no adults mentioned as taking these children into these films, and my guess is none were required by the 16-year-olds selling the tickets at the multiplexes. That’s convenient. The owners and movie executives obviously are aware of this.

The most important sentence in the article is, “They take turns getting food, which for Eric usually means nachos, a medium drink and a huge bag of Skittles.” That is the real reason for targeting films to 14-year-olds. Go where the profit is. Instead of tracking box office every week, we should be tracking concession stand sales.

Rent an old Disney movie some time called “The Barefoot Executive.” It’s about how entertainment executives hang their desperate careers on whether a monkey applauds their product or not.

JAMIE WOOTEN

Los Angeles