i hope i didn't just give away the ending

(ed. note that is the title of the best new radicals song...check it out)

many of the readers of this blog work at or exist on the periphery of movie theatres and therefore often recieve free admittance to features. such as occurs with a privledge like this, occasionally the delight of seeing films inside the confines of a theatre designed solely for the experience escapes said workforce and they begin to take for granted their access to theatrically screened movies. at times like this, we here at beer cannes like to find a way to bring them back to the realm of the uninitiated and perhaps allow them to remember momentarily what it is like for the unprivledged masses.(not that we really think they forgot)

going to the movies without the aid of the occasional free admittance that i am often afforded is freaking expensive. and by this i don't necessarily mean just in dollars.

we live in a time where the proliferation of a myriad medias has allowed for an almost infinite amount of options for entertaining use of our free time. it used to be that going to the movies was pretty much the bomb as there was a time when all they had to compete with was the fledgling programming of no more than three television networks and the outdated and outmoded offerings of narrative driven radio programming. in the face of this competition people would just about go see anything, often without knowing what it was beforehand.

but today there are many more options. films have to compete with the internet, video games, a million television stations, etc. people don't seem to deem it worth their time to get into something that could possibly have an unforseen outcome. in short people don't want to waste their time going to films that might suck because they know there are other options that could provide a similarly fulfilled sense of entertainment. they want the safety net of knowing approximately what they are getting into before they get into it.

and that jason maier is part of the reason that, in today's business model for film distribution, trailers that give away pretty much everything are a necessary evil. people simply want to use their preciously valuable free time in a way that is sure to satisfy them.

and unfortunately, the great masses don't consider the sometimes splendidly entertaining viewing of a truly horrible film as satisfying, much less as entertainment at all. cinema has become another commodity that is sold on its familiarity. the new batman is essentially nothing but a name brand like coke or mcdonald's in that it serves its purpose of filling us up in a way that is familliar to our senses because we have built a stockpile of past experience with the product. in this sense trailers are nothing more than the advertising for said products and therefore take on as their goal the building of a brand name or image. we then in turn go to see the new batman film and know what it is that we are getting into much in a similar way to that in which we order a coca cola and know with fairly accurate certainty beforehand how it will taste.

think about the average filmgoer(not one who like theater workers has a veritable buffet of oppurtunity) the average american will probably go to the theater no more than once a week. they will plop down ten bones during peak hours(twenty if on a date, more for kids) just to see the film. now when you factor in concessions or cocktails(thanks landmark) that price becomes somewhat astronomical to a non six figure salary, taking a large percentage of monies set aside for leisure activity. if such a large portion is being paid, one would imagine that the financier of said output would want to have an idea of what his investment will be like. and as you can tell by looking at the grosses lately, nobody is going to the films with trailers that don't promise a specific sort of experience. nobody goes to the european film with the trailer that begs the question, "what the fuck is going on?" because frankly, it is often too expensive, both in terms of time and money, to gamble on something that is vague and undefined.

now i love films and i suppose that because most of my readership works around them that they do as well. part of the allure is often the excitement that comes with not knowing exactly what one will get, and we often get angry when we see trailers that destroy that sense of wonderment. but we are a rare, special breed and most patrons of theaters are not like us. unfortunately, these people are the ones that ratchet up the profits putting films like batman over the trillion dollar mark while the european art film with the tricky plot languishes in obscurity. the studios, which are pretty smart, understand that they already have us, the cine-geeks, and therefore utilize their resources in cultivating another segment of audience, the audience it needs to thrive, the kind that needs to be told what they are about to see before they see it. and that is why trailers usually give away the ending.

nice question maier...i appreciate it.