Trends and Entertainment

Moviegoers in 2009: Make Us Laugh

When it came to the movies this year, it certainly was not our father’s (or grandfather, or great-grandfather’s) downturn. Like moviegoing in the Depression, more of us surely flocked to the cinema, but we were truly after an escape this time.

As Patrick J. Sauer noted earlier this year, Hollywood circa 1930 turned out films that reflected the times – Gold Diggers of 1933, Hallelujah I’m A Bum and Our Daily Bread, to name a few. This year, we had The Hangover. Clocking in at a $459.4 million global box office, I think we can safely say we weren’t eager to have our hard times memorialized on the silver screen just yet.

We also took in comedies like Paul Blart: Mall Cop—perhaps since we weren’t actually going to the malls, why not go there virtually? Brooks Barnes at the New York Times had a nice look back at what we wanted from the movies in 2009:

Perhaps the biggest lesson of the year, however, was a positive one. Moviegoers decided that relatable, nonthinking comedies — a little raunch but not too much, please (“Brüno” seemed to push it too far) — are the perfect balm for the recession.

“The Hangover,” which cost about $35 million to produce and sold $459.4 million at the global box office, is exhibit No. 1. But audiences also responded to “Paul Blart: Mall Cop,” “The Proposal” and “Couples Retreat,” which Universal Pictures smartly opened its wallet to film in Bora Bora.

The comedies that worked, noted Todd Phillips, director of “The Hangover,” were ones that audiences could see happening to them. In his film, about four men who go to Las Vegas for a bachelor party, “the chemistry of these four guys and the brush with which their friendship was painted felt very authentic,” he said. “People could relate to it and picture themselves going through it.”

Read the rest of his story here.