FILM FANS PULL NO PUNCHES MOVIEGOERS SAY TICKETS TOO PRICEY FOR MEDIOCRE FEATURES.

Byline: Greg Hernandez Staff Writer

A new study based on Internet comments posted to thousands of sites about the 2005 box office slump sheds some light on why people have been going to the movies less often.

Canada-based Brandimensions Perspective, after surfing thousands of weblogs, forums, discussions boards and chat rooms, found that moviegoers are, among other things, frustrated with what they believe are mostly bad or mediocre movies, with the high cost of tickets and concessions and with pre-show commercials and previews.

The shrinking DVD release windows and popularity of such services as Netflix have also made going to the movie a less frequent outing.

``The current quality of the movies is not good enough for people to put up with all that stuff at the movie theater that frustrates them,'' Brandimensions' Chief Executive Officer Bradley Silver said Monday. ``I think America's relationship with movies is in turmoil.''

Despite such major hits as ``Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith,'' ``War of the Worlds'' and ``Wedding Crashers'' this summer, the sentiment of more than half of the people whose comments feature in the study indicated that this year's summer movies did not appeal to them.

Domestic attendance for the season that typically accounts for about 40 percent of the year's ticket sales are projected to lag behind summer of 2004 by 12 percent, according to figures provided by box office tracker Exhibitor Relations Co.

Brandimensions, which based its study on approximately 1,350 Internet mentions about the box office slump, said this online data should be taken seriously by Hollywood.

``It's becoming the new traditional form of research,'' Silver said. ``It's near real-time, unscripted, unbiased, and it's giving you a consumers' perspective in their own words. They are not answering a question in a focus group. It's what they truly want to say and speak about.''

As evidenced by the multitude of comments included in the study, moviegoers are an opinionated bunch:

--``Tell Hollywood to keep paying ... Tom Cruise $20 million per movie and keep losing their drawers. I, for one, refuse to drop $9 for each ticket to the theater. The entire family can watch (pay per view) for $1.99.'' (Posted on the site Free Republic)

--``The bottom line is this: make better movies and your troubles will disappear.'' (Life Goes Off)

--``It's the same overhyped actors playing the same roles or the same movie just spit out a different way.'' (All Things Considered)

--``I think Hollywood's Internet threat will come from movie review sites, not file traders.'' (Slyck Forums)

Brandimensions' Michael Coristine, project manager of the study, said the online sentiments show that audiences are less likely to be sucked in by marketing if a movie is bad.

``The moviegoing public has become so much more educated,'' Coristine said. ``Moviegoers are much more wary. They do their homework more.''

Greg Hernandez, [phone]

greg.hernandez(at)dailynews.com