Yesterday, I commented that going to the movies doesn't seem like a cheap escape these days, at least not if you're taking a whole family.

Now that fuel prices have dipped a little, I think the cost of taking the whole family to the movies is about comparable to a week's worth of gas.

But while once Hollywood profited off recessions, according to the Associated Press, entertainment companies aren't as invulnerable as they once were:

Friday October 24, 2:09 pm ET
Recession-resilient Hollywood feels pinch from economic worries

By Ryan Nakashima, AP Business Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- When Paul Hodges lost his job as a newspaper librarian this summer, he cut back on junk food, canceled his Netflix subscription, went back to his old DVDs and tried to stop buying new ones.

"I had to scale back like everyone," said Hodges, a 35-year-old homeowner in Coral Springs, Fla. "It forced me to prioritize things."

In past downturns, Hollywood earned a reputation for being "recession-proof" as U.S. consumers' movie spending kept growing steadily. This time, the industry is coming off three years of nearly flat spending, and there are cracks in its armor: Home video sales slipped this month as consumer confidence fell again amid rising unemployment and a crashing stock market.

But studios -- which profit more from distributing a movie on DVD than they do from its theatrical release -- are faring better than other companies dependent on discretionary spending. And many Hollywood executives remain optimistic.

"The bottom hasn't fallen out of it," said Steve Feldstein, a vice president at Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, owned by News Corp. "Historically, home entertainment has withstood economic downturns. Most folks would rather watch a movie than watch the stock market."

I have to agree that these days watching the stock market can be more depressing than the most heart-wrenching drama. (Raise you're hand if you're starting to wonder if you'll ever be able to retire.) But given that, I have to say that DVDs aren't that high on my shopping list. My low-end Netflix subscription only lets me rent two discs a month and everything else has to be off the instant play list, but who has time for more than that?

On a related topic... I was just talking to someone about how my TV is a couple years older than my daughter, with a smaller screen than my computer monitor. It's not digital.

When TV does go digital, I'm really going to have to consider whether it's even worth it to upgrade the set. Almost all the TV shows I watch can be streamed live from network websites, my son likes YouTube videos better than TV shows and my daughter prefers "moobies" and she's the only one who watches the instant movies on Netflix.

It almost seems like a high- speed Internet connection eliminates the need for cable.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 24th, 2008 at 10:58 am and is filed under Family Tree. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.