Theaters stop moviegoers from quality entertainment

The Day was November 5th and right when I got home from school, I went straight to the computer and looked up show times for Danny Boyle's new film “127 Hours” which had just been released. But, to my dismay, I noticed that it wasn't playing at the Lake in the Hills theatre or in Elgin. So then I checked Barrington, which usually shows more independent films since they have more screens. I was almost sure this would be the case, but then to my complete anguish I saw that it wasn’t showing there either.

At this point I realized that to see this movie I would have to go into downtown Chicago. I was very frustrated, to say the least. I thought that with Danny Boyle's recent mainstream success in the form of his film “Slumdog Millionaire," people would jump on his next film, at the very least because of his past popularity. Also, it stars James Franco, who is a very popular actor. The fact that it is based on a true story, alone, should get some people curious about the film. But I shouldn’t have been surprised about the films limited release.

Only a month earlier a film that was receiving a lot of hype in the indie film community, “Buried,” was supposed to be released in limited theatres on Sept. 24th. Like “127 Hours,” this film was also released in limited theatres, and also like “127 Hours” I didn't quite understand why. “127 hours” and “Buried” both have a very popular lead actor. In “Buried” Ryan Reynolds was the lead, who had just garnered a lot of popularity in his film "The Proposal” in 2009.

Now, turn back the clocks to August-- there was a little Australian gangster film called “Animal Kingdom” that looked amazing, and of course--you guessed it!--that movie was released in an extremely small number of theatres as well. And this is just to name a few--the list goes on, and over the years it seems the list has been getting longer. Why has this happened? Why is it that the society we now live in promotes films like "Vampires Suck," which has literally no cinematic quality whatsoever? These "movies" (since actually referring to them as movies is degrading to the term) get months in theatres worldwide and make millions of dollars, while small independent films never get to see the light of day.

In the end, my ranting is most likely falling on deaf ears since it is you, the viewer, who is to be blamed for all this. Since there is no demand for quality films anymore, theatres don’t show them because they are trying to run a business, and, to do that, they want to make some money. Sure, movie theatres have become extremely greedy lately with high ticket prices and ridiculously expensive snacks, but that’s another debate for another time. I understand the argument that each person is entitled to his/her own opinion. But I refuse to believe that I'm the last moviegoer in the world that demands high quality films. Please, if you read this and you also enjoy watching movies, then you should speak up. Movie lovers everywhere have to speak up and save what you love. On the other hand, if it is the case that I am the last movie fanatic left in the world, then the future of cinema is going to be very bleak and it will only get worse from here.

--Ben Stevenson