I think when people get depressed: watching TV/movies are like a top addiction. Next comes food. So I wouldn't be surprised if the numbers actually go up, because people would avoid buying anything but involuntarily ending watching movies.
If I understand what you are saying I completely agree :)
The point I think you're making is that movies cost less than other forms of entertainment. So people who are still seeking entertainment but have a more limited budget tend to go to the movies more.
So as an example, a family might have planned to go to Disneyland but now that their cash is more constrained they settled for Pizza and a Movie. Hence movie sales go up in a bad economy while more expensive entertainment goes down
A recession is going to, somewhat counter-intuitively, increase obesity.
Unhealthy food is far cheaper (per calorie) than healthy food (http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/05/a-high-price-for-he...). That is also one of the reasons you see an inverse correlation between income and obesity in modern America (i.e., rich people are skinnier).
The root cause is all the corn subsidies we have. Pretty much all our junk food either contains large quantities of corn, or is fed-on corn.
Unhealthy food is far cheaper (per calorie) than healthy food
I think this is only half the story. (Rice is about as inexpensive per calorie as humanly possible but the American poor don't consume large quantities of it -- because they don't have to.) The other half:
1) Historically, being poor meant you couldn't afford enough food, healthy or otherwise.
2) History has ended.
3) Historically, being poor meant you did lots of physically taxing labor.
4) History has ended.
5) Well-off Americans make a fetish out of physical fitness. Its as much a class marker as education these days.
This is a good point. If we compute the # of calories per dollar obtained from a fast food meal, it is much cheaper than the # of calories per dollar obtained from fruits and vegetables. $1.00 for a burger and fries vs $1.00 a grapefruit; at least a couple hundred calories vs. 50 calories...
I doubt it has ANYTHING to do with depression or a recession or any of that. When the movies are good, people go to the movies. When the movies suck, people don't go to the movies.
Paul Blart is a pretty good movie. It's light hearted fun - perfect kost for a movie. Heavy stuff is easier to read than to watch - movies move at their own pace, and it's not possible to pack so much heavy stuff into movies.
The movie makers are learning to make what Americans want, and they are being rewarded for it.
I think the movie industry should sue the investment banks for ruining the economy. Imagine how much more money they would be making if it weren't for the damn recession.
(I hate to explain jokes, but this is their argument about piracy -- pirates are killing the industry despite the fact that they are seeing record profits. If it weren't for piracy, the record numbers would be even more record-y.)
