Counterpunch : Parents, You Hold the Key

As a stepparent, I sympathize with Maureen Foster’s difficulty in identifying appropriate movies for her family (Counterpunch, Aug. 23), and I want to suggest an answer to her question, “Why aren’t there a lot more films that are appropriate?” What’s operating here is simple economics, and parents will be astonished to learn that they--not legislators and not studio executives--ultimately hold the purse strings.

Family movies are scarce because they tend not to be as profitable as

other kinds of films. If there is a glut of gross-out movies in the theaters, it’s because teens and young adults are flocking to those pictures. But when it comes to family fare, parents rarely put their money where their mouth is.

The tepid box office for recent releases such as “The Iron Giant” and “A Dog of Flanders” tells the story all too well: Parents are happy that kiddie movies exist, but when it comes to actually sitting through one in a theater, parents hem and haw and wait for the video. And that spells disaster--or at least consternation--for the studio. Because if a movie doesn’t “open” strongly (do a lot of business its first weekend), the studio has little chance of recovering its investment.

Surprising? Here are three reasons why the opening weekend is so crucial.

* Most people want to see popular movies; they want to feel like they’re part of something with heat. So a spot on the list of the weekend’s top five money-makers is marketing dynamite for the studio.

* If a movie doesn’t do well the first weekend, the studio immediately cuts its losses and pulls its television ads, so public awareness of the film plummets. The studio’s low expectation for the movie will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

* If a picture isn’t performing (raking in the bucks), it rapidly loses screens (gets pulled from the theaters). That picture will disappear from the multiplex quicker than you can say “Babe: Pig in the City.”

I know that video is a wonderful baby-sitter, and it’s tempting to rent kiddie movies instead of seeing them in the theaters. But video revenues aren’t nearly enough return on a studio’s multimillion-dollar investment. If a picture didn’t do well at the box office, it will get a smaller video release and a less lucrative television sale. And the next time a kids’ movie is proposed at that studio? Fuggedaboudit.

Here is what parents can do to change this sad state of affairs: Suppose a new remake of “A Little Princess” appears in the theaters. A beloved classic with a strong heroine and inspirational story line--what could be better for your kids? What I suggest is that, over the weekend that “A Little Princess” opens, we all take our families to that movie and give the studio a little positive reinforcement. Take your kids and your kids’ friends (I know, the car will be noisy), and tell your sister in Santa Rosa and your cousin in Fresno to get down to their local multiplex to support that picture. If the family has a lot of plans that weekend, go to the first show of the day, or ask your parents to take the kids. The point is, children don’t have driver’s licenses; adults do. It’s up to parents to give “A Little Princess” a strong opening weekend.

Actually, a magnificent remake of “A Little Princess” was released in 1995. It was critically acclaimed but didn’t do well at the box office. I saw it; did you?