The end is near...well, for Hollywood and all that is holy.

A friend sent me this prediction of doom by Patrick Goldstein from the LA Times about the turbulent future of film.

Maybe I'm an eternal optimist, something I've ever been accused of before, but I just don't buy into these gloomy scenarios. Yes, the window between theatrical and DVD release is narrowing, yes, the options for home viewing are expanding, but I still believe that there is a communal experience of going to the theater that people will always want to have.

My old girlfriend was the best cook I ever knew but we still ate out. Beer is a hell of a lot cheaper at home than a bar but people still go out. Unless people stop "going out" I think they'll keep going out to movies.

The problem with articles like this is that Goldstein ultimately commits the same sin that he is writing about, making sweeping predictions based on one recent event. The recent event was the anemic summer box office. Studio execs and filmmakers and yes, Patrick Goldstein can come to their own conclusions about what it all means but I would argue that they will all be wrong. They simply are not able to understand what most filmgoers know, the movies this summer sucked.

Make good movies and people will come. Make a lot of good movies and people will even come to a crappy one that is thrown in the mix because they are used to coming. Put a good one in the middle of a bunch of bad movies and people will miss it. Don't worry about trends and what's hip and all that stuff. Just...make...good...movies.

I think the members of the United International Fellowship of Theater Owners (or whatever club they belong to) would agree.

Goldstein makes several good points and it is an interesting read but I think his rumors about the coming death of the movie theater are greatly exaggerated.