Why Box Office Movies are in a slump

No matter who wins Sunday, Hollywood can both brag about an unusually daring crop of Academy Awards films and hang its head in embarrassment that hardly any came from the studios that dominate the movie business.

The Oscars are as establishment as it gets in the entertainment world. So it's a triumph of art over commerce that low-budget, fierce dramas such as the cowboy romance "Brokeback Mountain," the ensemble tale "Crash," the Truman Capote story "Capote" and the Edward R. Murrow saga "Good Night, and Good Luck" are the awards darlings this time over the escapist blockbusters that often rule.

"It doesn't have anything to do with the budget of the film. It has to do with the scope and scale of ambition, and the skill that people brought to it to realize that ambition," said James Schamus, a producer of best-picture front-runner "Brokeback Mountain."

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The gay cowboys of "Brokeback Mountain" lassoed the best feature prize at the Independent Spirit Awards, the art-house world's equivalent of the Oscars, on Saturday, a day before the picture competes for a leading eight honors at the Academy Awards.

Taiwanese filmmaker Ang Lee was named best director for the his work on the acclaimed drama, but the film had to share the spotlight with three other double-winners that will also vie for Oscar glory.

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Huffman was happy that "Transamerica," in which she plays a preoperative transsexual, was bringing "inclusiveness and understanding (to) people that are disenfranchised."

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In other categories, the controversial Palestinian suicide-bomber drama "Paradise Now" won for best foreign film, and the big-business morality tale "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" won for best documentary. Both are competing for Oscars in their respective fields.

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And they wonder how come the box office is in the biggest slump in history.

The majority of people do not like to watch garbage or even political garbage. We get enough of that from talk shows, news, morning shows, talk radio...ect. Most of us when we go to the movies want to be entertained, not preached to.

Not sure I know what Huffman means by "to a people who have been disenfranchised". I am not sure she knows the meaning of the word. Perhaps she meant discriminated against? I would hope she knows the difference.

As for the Palestinian suicide bomber "Paradise now", just shows how much the Oscars and those in Hollywood have stooped and debased themselves for a propaganda piece for murderers of men, women and children.

I can predict one thing for certain, I will not be going to see a movie for some time and more people are beginning to say the same thing.

It is no longer entertainment.