HOME | POLITICS | SPORTS | LIFE | SCI/TECH | OPEDS | HELPFUL TIPS
|
May 27, 2004 On June 16, 1960, America was introduced to a masterpiece known as Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho”. It starred Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins. The movie introduced a whole new meaning of the word “horror”. But it introduced an even bigger word, “cash cow”. A cash cow is a term in Hollywood that means that a movie is made, it succeeds, then a sequel is made, it succeeds, then merchandise comes, and the more the movie makes, the more the studio will squeeze every asset until the movie or franchise can’t make past it’s budget. Most horror movies are cash cow’s, movies like “Friday The 13th,” “Nightmare on Elm Street,” and “Halloween.” All have grossed over a billion dollars in their respected franchise in ticket sales, merchandise, video/DVD sales or rents, and reruns on television. Lately, the horror genre has become a major joke, even a joke to the cash cows. In April of 2002 the movie “Jason X” was released and made the top 4 movies of the week; however, if a brand new movie comes out and doesn’t make the top 3 it’s considered a flop, even though Jason X made more than its budget, it was considered a bomb. Being a horror movie fanatic, and even a writer of horror, I found that horror movies would never make the big comeback as it did in the 1980’s, it seemed the slasher flicks were being overrun by fantasy movies that were made for kids. Until Freddy vs. Jason was released. Freddy vs. Jason was a film that was ten years in the making, in 1993 “Jason Goes to Hell” was the second Jason film that claimed that the franchise was over, but it was also the only contact between Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees, and it was more of a joke ending than a serious ending, even I was fooled, until I heard Freddy and Jason were going to duke it out. Freddy vs. Jason was released in August of 2003 and destroyed the box office, it was the second movie to be released during the summer that was number one two weeks in a row; the first was X2: X-Men 2. In October of the same year a remake of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” was released and it went to number one, it seemed the good ol days of slasher flicks were back, the cash cows are still milking the green to the producers and producing the red for our entertainment. Even this year is doing pretty good for horror films; “Dawn of The Dead” was number one in the box office. To this day the horror genre is smoking as there already is a new Halloween movie coming out, and a new Chucky movie that is titled “Seed of Chucky,” obviously ripping off the Frankenstein franchise, but it is still a making for a cash cow to continue milking us with great entertainment. I only hope that the horror genre is not a complete joke, obviously the numbers at the box office have already declared that the people are not interested in pop singers trying to act, watered-down comedies that were funny several years ago, and fantasy movies that have too much special effects you think your own mother isn’t real, the people are wanting good horror films, and it’s about time that we get them. ------------ About the author Eric Schomburg: Visit http://www.geocities.com/schomburg2002. The website is about my novel, One of a Kind, a story about a young boy who possess the powers of the natural elements. Email: schomburg2002@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
