The end of the movies for the Boomers

UNIVERSAL REMOTE

Mrs. Monocle and I went to a few movies in the early part of this decade as we first experienced the joys of empty nestdom. We saw Gosford Park, Shrek, Ocean's Eleven, and a few more. It was fun while it lasted, but for whatever reason, we just kind of stopped.

It turns out that Kevin Drum explains why:

Did adults abandon movies because movies got juvenile? Or did movies get juvenile because adults abanonded them? I've never come to a firm conclusion about this myself, but I suspect it's more the latter. As a social experience — for dates, for hanging out with your friends, for getting out of the house — movies are as good as they've ever been. And that's a big part of what kids want out of their pastimes. But adults? They mostly just want to relax with a bit of good entertainment, and they have a whole lot of other options for that these days. Options that, from an adult point of view, are generally superior.

So that leaves kids as the primary audience for movies, and moviemakers have responded by making movies for kids. That's too bad for the dwindling number of us who are over 30 but still like going to movies.

Indeed, I have relatives who've taken their grandchildren to the movies recently and watched Shrek Forever After and Toy Story III. That seems to be pretty much what's available these days.