Artifact # 10: Response

The article I picked is "Out There in the Dark, All Alone" by Manohla Dargis. This article is about how not as many people are "moviegoers" anymore. According to the article, the amount of people who went to the movies dropped from 90 million, in 1948, to 23 million today. I agree with Matthew Sigman when he says that he disagrees with how people in America don't watch as many movies as they used to. While many people still go see movies in the theater, there are many other ways to watch them. For instance, many people can get them bootleg, wait till they come out on DVD or wait until their cable company offers them. They can even wait for netflix. Because there are so many more options today than in 1948, people don't have to pay a whopping $10 to go see a movie more than once. Then the article goes on to say that a lot of movies that people went to see in theaters, were never viewed after that. They either sat on the shelf or "...[were] destroyed (or tossed into the Pacific Ocean...".  Over the years technology has changed movies drastically, from how they're made to how they're viewed. Like i stated earlier, there are many different choices on how to watch a movie. But to add on to that list, you can view movies through YouTube and many other websites. For instance, SideReel or Mega Video. In my opinion, I think that technologies have changed movies for the better. It is so expensive to see a movie in the theater these days, it's almost not worth it to go. I don't think I would go as much as I do if my boyfriend didn't pay for me most of the time. I would rather wait until the movie came out on DVD or online to watch it in the comfort of my own home. Also I don't like going to theaters because I don't feel comfortable, who wants to sit and watch a two to three hour movie in uncomfortable chairs in a filled theater? Not me. To sum it up, I don't think that we should only count the ratings on how many people go to the movies. I think we should include all of the new way to view the movies as well. Because even though people are the number of people that physically go to a theater is declining, people are still watching these movies.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/movies/the-24-hour-movie-and-digital-technology.html?pagewanted=2&_r=3&emc=eta1