Where Have You Gone, Jack Valenti?

13 Comments »

13 Responses to “Where Have You Gone, Jack Valenti?”

1. Bruce says:

   August 24, 2005 at 2:14 pm

   Valenti was never appreciated for all the work he did. He was one premiere lobbyist.
2. bicycle bob says:

   August 24, 2005 at 2:47 pm

   u answered it yourself dave. they like the slump talk. gives them an excuse when a film under performs. not their fault.
3. Wrecktum says:

   August 24, 2005 at 5:02 pm

   Talk of “the slump” takes the pressure off of bomb-happy development execs and allows them to point fingers elsewhere. “It’s the slump!” they Blackberry. “It’s not my shitty film! People don’t want to see movies because they hate going to theatres!!”
   Self fulfilling prophesy, assholes. Blame the theatres and the public and the media will continue to write about it. The NY Times will print their thousanth slump story. Entertainment Weekly will publish their umpteenth “why we hate going to the movies” story. And the moviegoing public will start to believe it.
   So keep at it guys. Keep telling the world about the paradigm shift in the taste of moviegoers and how technology has impacted the business. You’ll soon be talking yourselves out of a job.
4. BluStealer says:

   August 24, 2005 at 6:21 pm

   The blame, everyone knows, is focused squarely on the quality of films. That’s it.
5. Skyblade says:

   August 25, 2005 at 2:08 am

   I generally. And when movies that, at the very least, consist of a more strenous effort than to simply cash in, like “Kingdom of Heaven” dissapoint, while fare like “Fantastic Four” hits the top of the charts, well, it’s not a quality issue. Everyone always talks about a downward spiral. If quality had anything to do with anything, 2001 would be the summer of the slump, not this year.
6. David Poland says:

   August 25, 2005 at 3:03 am

   Yes, not a quality issue at all… a “do people want to see it” issue only… and that likely means more crap which sells better…
7. sky_capitan says:

   August 25, 2005 at 3:25 am

   Well what’s to prevent him from writing an op-ed piece somewhere. No one ever really retires in the movie business, do they?
   Dear Mr. Valenti,
   Would you like to write a piece for us at MCN? I’ll let you look at my Jeff Wells autographed copy of Entertainment Weekly.
   Best Wishes, David Poland
8. Bruce says:

   August 25, 2005 at 2:37 pm

   You have a Wells autograph? Did you have to pay his son for the privilege?
9. sky_capitan says:

   August 26, 2005 at 4:24 am

   No I didn’t, I traded my 8 Legged Freaks dvd for it. I wonder if he’d like to contribute to my own tuition though, it’s due in less than 2 weeks…
10. Terence D says:

    August 26, 2005 at 3:06 pm

    I wonder if I can put a donation thing by my posts here. Just giving a little never hurt my bank account.
11. BluStealer says:

    August 26, 2005 at 3:15 pm

    The Fantastic Four was going to make its money no matter how good or bad it was. It is one of the most famous and well loved comics of our time. As long as they made it semi fun and sold it well, it was going to do good business. The problem is it could have done triple what it made.
    Kingdom of Heaven wasn’t very good. A story no one cared about. A star who isn’t a star. And it is not exactly summer fare.
12. KamikazeCamelV2.0 says:

    August 27, 2005 at 3:47 pm

    Oy, can we get over the fact that F4 is one of the successes of the Summer. There’s always a bad cartoony movie that makes lots of cash. Why should this year be any different.
13. prideray says:

    September 1, 2005 at 10:39 pm

    Jack knew.