It's been a rough year for Bollywood. The Indian movie industry reportedly posted a loss for the first six months of 2008. And out of 116 films released during that period, there were only two hits and another two "average grossers," according to the Economic Times of India.
The big problem – or so say analysts – is that ticket prices in India are no longer affordable for most moviegoers. (((How is that even possible? Bollywood was thriving when your average Raj Kapoor fan couldn't even afford a cup of tea.)))
"It is unimaginable that the loss ratio can be so high due to bad films," an analyst, Amod Mehra, told the Economic Times. "People are not interested in shelling out money for films."
We have to believe the ample supply of pirated Bollywood films – both online and on the street – isn't helping much, especially if the cost of admission is out of most people's budgets. (The web is chock full of web sites that brazenly make Bollywood films available to download for free.)
Could the U.S. box office experience a similar fate? It's hard to imagine now, when blockbusters like "Hancock" gross more than $100 million in less than a week. Still, some analysts speculate that the decline has already begun – and it will only be a matter of time before the business models of movie studios and TV networks collapse under the weight of digital distribution....
