The Last Picture Shows By Charles Oliver Hollywood just celebrated its biggest year ever. But some in the industry are worried about its future. U.S. ticket sales have remained flat for the last 20 years or so.
Theatrical grosses keep going up because ticket prices keep increasing.
It is too soon to proclaim the death of film. But a convergence of technological changes and economic forces is presenting the greatest threat to cinema-going since the introduction of television in the late 1940s. Since the 1960s, the core of the movie-going audience has been young people, particularly young men, ages 13 to 25. But that is changing. As late as 1983, according to Motion Picture Association of Am-erica figures, young people accounted for 55 percent of all movie tickets sold.