It's been argued that one of the many reasons the whole movie biz is in decline is because our attention span is getting shorter, and more people simply don't have the inclination to sit through a two hour long-form movie anymore.

I think I might agree with that. In addition to movies becoming just as vapid as music has become over the last decade or two, they also take two hours to consume. I don't think I do *anything* for two hours while awake anymore. I haven't seen the inside of a movie theater in years. When we put a movie on at home, my wife multitasks on her phone, my daughter loses interest in the first five minutes, and I can barely stay awake.

I don't think it's about attention span. But quality seems to have dramatically declined. We also have more options for our attention. The same people who won't sit through a two hour movie will gladly spend the same amount of time on Instagram or Facebook.

2020-05-18 12:03 from IGnatius T Foobar
It's been argued that one of the many reasons the whole movie biz is in

decline is because our attention span is getting shorter, and more
people simply don't have the inclination to sit through a two hour
long-form movie anymore.

I think I might agree with that. In addition to movies becoming just

as vapid as music has become over the last decade or two, they also

take two hours to consume. I don't think I do *anything* for two hours

while awake anymore. I haven't seen the inside of a movie theater in

years. When we put a movie on at home, my wife multitasks on her
phone, my daughter loses interest in the first five minutes, and I can

barely stay awake.

I don't know. I don't fully agree with attention span getting shorter. I think it is the will of spending effort that is getting shorter. That is why you see less people playing pen-and-paper RPG and more playing RPG videogames. The barrier of entry takes less effort (even if playing seriously can get hard if you care).

Movies take less effort to consume than, say, board games, or painting miniatures, but series take even less effort, and so series are taking over. That is my take.

Quality has definitely declined, but I was trying not to take the grumpy-old-man angle. I agree with you though. The big budget films are all "theme park" movies, and most of those are crappy sequels, prequels, and reboots. CGI has gotten so good now that it's sterile and uninteresting. And don't get me started on the trend of filmmakers working harder to push Hollywood values on us than to entertain us.

Then there are the theaters. I think most people agree that the big theaters are suffering the same fate as Sears. From what I have come to understand, the production houses have abandoned the previously-sacred 90 day window between releasing a film to theaters and releasing it directly to consumers. Some PPV services are even starting to make plans to stream new first-run films at premium prices.

Back to the attention span thing ... people will generally complain if you light up your phone in a theater, but it's common practice to poke around on one's phone while watching a movie at home.