Mark Steyn explains that it's political correctness:

...I stopped to buy the third boxed set in the ''Looney Tunes Golden Collection.'' Loved the first two: Daffy, Bugs, Porky, beautifully restored, tons of special features. But, for some reason, this new set begins with a special announcement by Whoopi Goldberg explaining what it is we're not meant to find funny: ''Unfortunately at that time racial and ethnic differences were caricatured in ways that may have embarrassed and even hurt people of color, women and ethnic groups,'' she tells us sternly. ''These jokes were wrong then and they're wrong today'' -- unlike, say, Whoopi Goldberg's most memorable joke of recent years, the one at that 2004 all-star Democratic Party gala in New York where she compared President Bush to her, um, private parts. There's a gag for the ages...

...''Stealth'' was a high-tech action thriller about USAF pilots zapping about the skies in which the bad guy is the plane.

That's right: An unmanned computer-flown plane goes rogue and starts attacking things. The money shot is -- stop me if this rings a vague bell -- a big downtown skyscraper with a jet heading toward it. Only there are no terrorists aboard the jet. The jet itself is the terrorist.

This is the pitiful state Hollywood's been reduced to. Safer not to have any bad guys. Let's make the plane the bad guy. No wonder it's 20th century Britlit -- ''Harry Potter,'' ''Lord of the Rings,'' ''Narnia'' -- keeping those Monday morning numbers up. It's Hollywood's yarn-spinning that's really out of focus, and in the end even home entertainment revenue won't save a storytelling business that no longer knows how to tell any.

That's rather goofy. Hollywood is not "losing money." It is the movie box office that has taken a hit, and that is mostly likely because people would rather sit in their own home watching movies on their HDTV screen with surround sound. The popcorn is cheaper too.

DVD sales are up and Hollywood ain't going broke. And if "political correctness" is the issue, then how come these watered-down morality tales like Harry Potter are making so much money?

"Watered down morality tales"? You mean that whole, passe "good versus evil" thing? I don't see how that's particularly "watered down".

Movies where there are no good guys might be critical successes, but they tend to be less successful with the viewing public, with good reason. No one wants to sit through two hours of moral relativism and lame attempts to make murderers and sociopaths appear as sympathetic characters.

"You mean that whole, passe "good versus evil" thing?"

Why don't you actually read the article, instead of simply the comments?

Steyn claims that movies have gotten away from morality tales and Rand Simberg says that this is why Hollywood is losing money. I think that neither claim is proven.

The movie industry is notoriously obsure in reporting it's earnings, but the reported grosses this year have been running 10 to 13 percent under last year, in spite of yet another round of ticket price increases. The Regal theater chain (largest in US) has had their stock price decrease 2.6 percent over the last year. Warner, supposedly in a record sales year, is laying off workers and Sony has reportedly lost 47 million this year, mainly due to their entertainment division. Disney has cut loose Miramax and Dreamworks is trying to sell itself off. These are not the signs and portents of a booming movie industry. The present trend points to the industry's profits becoming dependent on fewer and fewer people who will pay more for a ticket.

*gruff announcer voice*

Once there was a Girl....

[queue piano music with hot blonde chick of the week spinning around in a sun dress]

Who met a man....

[Fade in Vince Vaughn]

They fell in love..

Vince Vaughn: You know you got with the twinkle in your eyes.

And had a baby....

[camera wonders through 3 story house and then peers over the baby crib]

Robin Williams is......the hairiest baby

[full on head shot of Robin wearing a baby bib and beanie cap]

Robin Williams: BAGARAAAAY!!! EEEE UUUU EEEE UUU EEE UUU.[silly dance] Nanu Nanu my diapers full.

I hate these spoilers. When is this movie going to start?

Hollywood is out of ideas (hence Rocky n+1 now in production). Hollywood really needs to divest and set up fully autonomous studios in London, New York, Vancouver and Sydney who choose their own scripts and their own people.

Everyone's fed up of movies written from the (usually empty) perspective of an LA screenwriter reflecting LA cultural values, made with the standard LA actor set du jour and directed by whoever made it big in the cuthroat LA ratrace. It was Spielberg who said "I know the only person to play Harry Potter - Haley Joel Osment". And of course the ultimate abomination was casting David Hasselhof as Doctor Who (which sunk the project). There is so much more to life and culture than this one heirarchy of people can capture.

I realize that there is a business model that works that way fairly independently of artistic input, but that model is in decline. Just imagine how empty life would be if all music were made in LA too. That is where the movie industry is now. The world is moving on.

Mr. Cooney: neither Rand nor Mark Stein said that Hollywood is losing money because they no longer make "morality tales." Why don't you try reading the article? Steyn said that the reason Hollywood is losing money is because 1) the cramped, uncomfortable theaters with bad, blurry pictures run by inept crews, 2) the dull, bland, safe rehashing of the same three ideas (wacky girl and guy fall into comic hate-love, hilarity ensues, also car chases; brooding freethinking manchild who is still in love with his divorced Only Wife is Abused By the System -- which is represented by short-haired white men in suits, aka Republicans; or occasionally, blond neo-Nazi terrorists with fake Cherman accents -- and Loses Everything He Has But His Dignity, with car chases and explosions; and brooding, mature woman-goddess is Hurt By Men, but is redeemed by her Feisty, Bitchy, Neurotic, Yet Wise Beyond Their Prescriptions female friends -- no car chases and the only explosions are screaming cat fights that dissolve into hugs 'n' tears) 3) the stifling political correctness that covers the industry like a blanket of mold and which has done something formerly thought impossible: made the Catholic League for Decency (or whatever they were called), the Hays Commission, and the dreaded Joe McCarthy and HUAC look like a bunch of fun party people.

He noted that Harry Potter was a phenomenon, but one unconnected to the overall problem of the no-fun suck that Hollywood's output has become. He did imply that people go see the Potter movies because they seem to actually accept that there is good and evil in the world, not just "accepting" and "hurtful." They also aren't overly concerned with political correctness, though Rowling is careful to have Indian and black students in the wizard school, and one of Goblet of Fire's subplots is (at least in the book, I haven't seen the movie) about bigotry against the "different," in this case, giants -- but at least no one gets up and stops the action dead to make a speech, or worse. If the current minds behind today's thrillers with the fake "nazis are the only acceptible villains" terrorists in them had been in charge of the Potter films Harry would have been cast as a black lesbian paraplegic and there would have been no magic to avoid insulting Wiccans.

Last films I saw were Kill Bill I and Finding Nemo. Small wonder though that Looney Tunes are still popular, they're funny. In the sixties cartoons degenerated into The Jetsons and The Flintstones or worse, Yogi Bear. Eighties anime, childifying everything, hasn't helped any decent discovery. Today toons are dominated by variations on 'Buffy': from Cowboy Bebop to Kim Possible. Weird that Hollywood isn't catching up. But perhaps it will when it finally notices 'Sita Sings The Blues'; a reworked Ramayana where Sita, like in the series by Ashok Banker where Sita as a swordfighting princess.
Yeah, I - guy in his thirties - still prefer toons. Steyn hit the nail on the head: most films with humans are boooooooooooooooooooooring!!