When consumers yell ‘Cut!’ Hollywood thrives

While detailed box-office figures were not released back then as they are today, as many as 4.6 billion movie tickets a year were sold in the 1930s — three times more than in 2002, the best year of modern times. And the U.S. population during the Depression was less than half of today's 300 million.

Granted, there was simply less to do then.

"What were your options? Radio, books and movies," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers. "You didn't have the iPod. You had your Victrola. We didn't have video games. We had, I don't know ... 'Tiddlywinks'."

In those days, projectors ran virtually nonstop as feature films were accompanied by cartoons, newsreels and short films. Much of the schedule was devoted to glossy musicals, slapstick and screwball comedies that took people's minds off the gloomy economy, from Marx brothers comedies such as "A Night at the Opera" to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing cheek to cheek in "Top Hat."

"When the economy gets a little bit sluggish, our business seems to do well or even pick up," said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros., which is trotting out key celebrities at ShoWest such as George Lucas, Steve Carell and Christian Bale to plug its summer lineup, which includes "Star Wars: Clone Wars," "Get Smart," "Speed Racer" and the Batman sequel "The Dark Knight."

Fellman, whose father worked in theaters starting in 1928, said movie houses have survived all new competition for people's entertainment time and money — from radio during the Depression, television in the 1950s and home video in the 1980s.

Television did take a calamitous toll on movie theaters, whose audiences steadily declined through the mid-1970s to less than a fourth of their numbers in the late '40s. Attendance generally was flat into the early 1990s but has improved since then as theaters with better seating, sound and concessions became the standard.

And besides the possible looming recession, there are other factors drawing more people to the movies: Fans can buy tickets online ahead of time so they can avoid turning up for sold-out shows. And recent hits such as "Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert" demonstrate the mass appeal of movies shown in three-dimensional digital format.

But for all the technological improvements, the basic lure of movies is the same as it was in the Depression — the chance to get away. And that may be especially powerful in a time when economic woes are heavy on Americans' minds.

"It's escape from everything," Maltin said. "It's a chance to, like all those song lyrics, `forget your troubles, come on get happy.'"

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