Many years ago, in the lobby of a Midwestern movie palace, I saw a sign propped up on an easel: “fight pay tv!” I didn’t know what it meant then and I still don’t (I suspect it was some sort of early pay-per-view scheme that theater owners wanted outlawed), but it was clearly a manifestation of the doom-and-gloom haunting Hollywood ever since the idiot box became the center of American life. If television is beating up on us now, Mr. John Q. Bijou reasoned in 1964, “pay TV” will murder us down the road. And this was before the advent of cable and the VCR.
Curious then, is it not, that the first half of 1989 has been the biggest, most profitable period in motion-picture history? And just how big is big? Why, $2.4 billion in the first six months. Holy greenbacks, Batman! We’re a far way down Mr. Bijou’s hard road, and it turns out to be made of yellow brick—gold, in fact.
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