A week or so ago, Fletch mentioned that he had yet to see a 2011 release. In a slight way I was able to relate, since at the time I myself had only seen one 2011 release – THE GREEN HORNET. At the time he mentioned that it would seem like I should be further ahead, and when I thought about it, I realized that he was right.

A quick glance at my watchlist for the tells me that as we close out the ninth week of the year, I’ve been to a whopping eleven screenings to date. That’s not even counting two trips where the show was sold out (I blame Lady Hatter for those misfires) and an additional excursion where the projector broke during the pre-show. Fourteen trips…and almost all of them to see classics or 2010 Oscar-bait holdovers.

For the sake of argument, let’s count INCENDIES as a 2011 film, even though it qualified for the 2010 Oscars. That brings us up to 2 out of 14. What has lead to me listening to classic rock and all but ignoring the top forty? Not to answer a question with a question, but what did I really miss??

NO STRINGS ATTACHED?
THE RITE?
I AM NUMBER FOUR?
JUST GO WITH IT?

It feels like I could excavate better titles out of a Wal-Mart bargain bin. Further, it feels like these titles are destined for the Wal-Mart bargain bin. What’s a guy gotta do to get a SHUTTER ISLAND…a SILENCE OF THE LAMBS…hell, I’d even take a CLOVERFIELD! But no, those would be too good for winter audiences. Hollywood thinks we’re much better served with NEVER SAY NEVER.

Of course, now that the calendar has turned to March, there’s nothing but fun times with titles like PAUL, SUCKER PUNCH, and THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU stacked like Jenga blocks poised to topple on us all at once. Really Hollywood? You couldn’t have pulled even one of those titles and given it to us already??

I understand that tests have shown that this time of year people are less likely to go out. People fight seasonal depression and tend to hunker down and wait anxiously for warmer weather and longer bouts of daylight. But how different is that from Christmastime when people are running in twelve different directions at once? “Attendance dips in January & February” is the company line…but maybe, just maybe, it wouldn’t dip so hard if you didn’t supply audiences with putrid, steaming scraps.

While I do realize that me and my fourteen trips are an exception, I must also point out this article from Slashfilm. You see it turns out that moviegoers like me that head out to the theatre more than once a month actually supply Hollywood with more than half of its annual profits. So why not gear your schedule to me and my fellow nerds in the eleventh percentile? Maybe if studios did that, then they would have snagged some of my hard earned, rather than it getting handed over to theatres for second showings of TIME BANDITS or FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING.

Alright…that’s out of my system. Who’s ready to see RANGO?