Strange how Hollywood is still making the same excuse.
I only saw two movies in theaters this year and it wasn't because I pirated them and I don't know anyone who didn't go see a movie for that reason. No the reason is with tickets now costing $13 a piece and there being an hour of ads before the movie, going to the theater just is not a good value any more. When i was a kid you could go to the movies for $4.50 if you went to an afternoon showing, now a ticket costs almost three times that much but most of us are not making three times what we made when i was a kid so we literally can't afford to go to the movies. In my family if we go to the movie it would cost us more then $70 just to get in the door for one showing that doesn't even start on time. That is just under what we spend on food for a whole week, who can afford that. No one. Do have the money we use Redbox or buy the movie on Bluray where one flat fee covers everyone in the house watching the movie as many times as they want, the movie starts on time, and we can pause it if someone needs to go to the bathroom.
When with careful shopping my family can buy a Bluray for ten bucks why should we pay more then seven times that much just to see the same movie once in a setting full of rude people where the film doesn't start on time? That and not piracy is why theaters are not doing well.
Going to the theater isn't fun any more and lots of working families can't afford to go. In short the theaters have priced themselves out of the market place. I mean i didn't even go to see the last Hobbit movie and I have loved every Peter Jackson movie i have ever seen but i just couldn't afford to spend $13 seeing a movie once.
Lower ticket prices, put cellphone jammers in the theaters, and ditch the ads and then I will come back. Until then I am people like me will be staying home.