Here's an insightful article about the film industry's recent slump by New York Times film critic A.O. Scott:

The Spring of Our Discontent

The major studios seriously underestimate their audience in assuming that all we want is amusement. You would think that the recent popularity of a number of indie films and documentaries (e.g., Napoleon Dynamite and Super Size Me) that have been publicized by little more than word of mouth would be a clue as to what audiences really want.

You have to wonder also about the economic injustice of the making and release of some of the films Scott refers to as "placeholders." How many millions of dollars are spent every year on garbage like Son of the Mask and FearDotCom and Swimfan? There are plenty of films whose value is up for debate, but it seems to me that at least 15 movies are released every year that don't even pretend to offer anything of value (good or bad) to their audiences.

The fact that there are starving people in the world should not preclude the making and enjoyment of the arts, but I would hope that it would make studio executives think twice before spending so much money on garbage films.

--Katie