In a sense, movies are an opiate, and my concern is that ‘too much, all at once’ may not be a good thing overall, both culturally and economically. Escapism is fine to a degree, but the continuing enculturation of ‘must do’ behaviors comes at the expense of social consciousness. Take Harry Potter, and it’s myth-driven ‘haute ecole’ orientation towards childhood…a childhood based on a British “prep school’ model that maybe 5% of the UK population can experience…for the rest, it is an economic infeasability. As a result, the 95% who can’t experience a dormitorial primary/secondary school situation, with ‘good’ education, will never ask “why not me?” because they’re too busy pretending the experience.

Then again, the charm of Trek was that it took on some of these issues rather than getting caught up in ‘pretend-land’. In a sense, the only ‘magic bullet’ in Trek is the Enterprise itself. The rest is plausible, right down to the possibilities of First Contact, which *will* happen during the lifetimes of many of us.

As with Trek, each of these fandoms is suggestive of a ‘religion’ in a sense. Fortunately, the ‘religion’ of Trek possesses significant optimism that humankind will make the right choices with the technology it creates. Not all fandoms possess that particular ’spirituality’. Many are dystopic. But the complexifying of fandoms resulting from over-proliferation of entertainment properties creates a consumer culture that merits superficiality over substance, while real-life environments continue to deteriorate and presenting sociopolitical issues are ignored. If 90% of a cohort of moviegoers claim that a movie is ‘great’ while, within the same cohort, 70% of them are polled as having little faith that there is hope for the future, then something is wrong.

Too much isn’t always a good thing: by using entertainment as a ’slavish’ coping skill (ie, “fun on demand”), is it possible that one can become enslaved to the very forms of entertainment they seek?

Is anyone going to the Zombiewalk that will be going on for the movie Zombieland? The movie looks good and the walk will be amazing i’m sure.

i got a bunch of details on the facebook event.. http://www.facebook.com/zombieland

I think we’ll see a Trek 2 (12?) before we see a Hangover sequel in any case. :)

Not sure where you get that … The hangover is less than $20M apart from Trek. It is earning over #10M/week in over 2,600 theatres and only dropping by 10-15%/week. Trek is down to less than a million/week in 500 theatres (fewer every week) and dropping by 40%/week. In two weekends Hangover can top Trek at this rate. How is Hangover not tracking ahead of it?

#29. Mike Ten wrote: “And #3 RD, I think Potter will take Transformers 2.”

I would certainly hope so, but I was speaking to the end of August only. That’s actually a tough call though. Potter has not traditionally performed that strongly (only ranking 1st/YR once) and Transformers is already massive with the Summer far from over. If GI:Joe is as good as some of the reviews suggest, then Transformers could take a hit. Where I see Joe faltering is foreign – it seems to have a somewhat arrogant US attitude, made all the more unpleasant by its military depiction.

#5. CarlG wrote: Well, Trek did still make outrageous amounts of money no matter how you slice it. Besides, I wasn’t aware there was a competition going on…

No competition, just a reality check. “Outrageous” money for you and me maybe, but clearly in terms of box-office, merely “good” money. It was being held up against movies like “Batman Begins” and “Superman Returns” as a benchmark of success, but in adjusted dollars, it has not quite achieved that goal. But it has definitely made plenty of money and is proving once again that it has the same earning potential that the original 4 films in the franchise proved was possible and led to 30 years of feature films, for better or worse.

(Plus the seller only has a 90% rating, and seems to think that know and now are interchangeable words… nope. Wouldn’t bid if I DID have the money.)

I wonder what the reserve was?