Irrational, Emotional Thinking & The Plight of the Overdog

Classic Underdog Story

Everybody likes to root for the underdog.  Even in the Bible you have little David and the Philistine giant warrior Goliath.  But did anyone think that this poor brute was walking into a ruthless killers trap?  If you look at David's military and political career, you should almost feel sorry for Goliath.

Who's Really The Underdog Here?

Below is a blog entry I made as a reply to a posted response to a SF Gate article about how big movie studio distributors are forcing the movie industry to adopt digital projectors for distribution purposes and how it is adversely effecting small independent movie theater owners.  The reply was by a poster that was negative to the big movie studios for victimizing the small independent movie theater owners.  From the replies and the ratings on the posts (I had negative ratings while posts with opposing views had very positive ratings) it's obvious that most people take the simple of view of rooting for the little guy.     My posts are in green and the reply to my post is in red.

Why is there some sense of bizarre entitlement for the small theater owners? 

Business is in the business of making money. i'm always astounded at the number of people that just don't get that and think there's some obligation on private industry to do more than make money for their owner/investors. 

Too many people have an irrational emotional response to "the big guys picking on the little guy". very simplistic.

Money is always made from food and drink

In reality the big studios have found a technology that they believe is more efficient and stand to make them more money than the traditional route even if it includes the shutdown of many smaller theaters. 
It's up to the smaller theaters to adapt. they are going to have to find more ways to make money than squeezing .50 cents per movie ticket and the couple of bucks made from popcorn and soda. I don't know: higher end food offerings? indie movie offerings (and charge more per ticket?), adult night were the theater serves boozes?...I don't know...but the independent movie theaters will have to find something new and innovative to survive...and that's how it should be.  Original Post

I think there's some sort of bizarre entitlement because on the one hand, movie studios say "Waaaahhh! Piracy is killing our business, we need draconian powers to shut down websites to stamp out pirates".

But on the other hand, they are imposing huge costs on small theater outlets that are providing a legal venue to see content.

I haven't stepped inside a megaplex in over 5 years, if my local theater closes, I likely won't see movies in a theater any longer. While I won't resort to piracy to see the movies I want to see, it would be trivial to do so, I can download new releases the week they hit the theaters (sometimes sooner).

Why is an industry claiming that no one will pay for its content while shutting down legal venues to pay for its content? Eliminating film is a huge cost savings for the industry (and supposedly will help combat piracy), can't they share some of that savings with theater owners? Responder's Original Post



My comment from my first post pretty much addresses your reply I think.

"in reality the big studios have found a technology that they believe is more efficient and stand to make them more money than the traditional route even if it includes the shutdown of many smaller theaters. "

The big studios and distributors have determined that the loss of your business and those that watch movies at the independent theaters are an acceptable loss compared to the gains they make from the new format. 

"Can't they share some of that savings with the theater owners?"...again entitlement??? why??? the the theaters in the business to make money for their shareholders (if you owned their stock or your 401K owned their stock..you should hope they'd do their best to make money). WHY should they give away profits???? If it make more business sense to let some of the small theater owners go out of business...then so be it..again it's the BIG PICTURE which is letting some of the less healthy small guys die makes the industry stronger and healthier (more money for the distributors/studios). 

As to piracy?? that's a completely different issue. people taking their product and watching it for free? hmm...I wonder why they would protest that. yes the music and movie industry has been slow...even backwards...at adapting to the digital download world...but it'll come. but that has little to do with distribution channels to movie theaters. Again, from the replies and comments...waaay to many people react irrationally with emotion over business decisions. My Original Reply Posting