The classics never die, and there are less every year.

This Saturday I woke up early and decided to watch a movie. I took a dive into my aging DVD collection and pulled out Terminator 2, Judgement Day. Instead of watching the special edition with all the cut scenes, I chose to experience the original theatrical release in all its 5.1 glory. After watching the movie, I sat and wonders why Terminator 3 had to stink so bad – how my last theatrical memory of the Cyberdyne Systems’ war machines had to be so laughable.

Get this – in 1991, there were 33 films released to theaters. Of that 33, about 1/3rd were remakes, sequels, and just a re-telling of an old story. Sure, there were some outstanding releases that year – in fact I can’t think of a single movie on the list that didn’t suck.

This year? Are you sitting down? According to stats published on the Internet, 660 films are being released to theaters this year. Yeah, you read that right – 660. Now whether straight to DVD and international titles are mixed in to that number, I don’t know. Still – the most telling number here is 40. 40 is the number of obvious remakes, sequels, and re-tellings of old stories that I could spot while flipping through the list.

They charge us $20 for 2 tickets, almost another $20 for snacks, pump out more movies than at any time in history (and that number shows no sign of stopping) and what does big Hollywood offer us? Enough sequels and remakes to have covered every screen in every theater for the duration of 1991.

I’ve said it a thousand times – modern entertainment stinks. Everything is a polished CGI masterpeice remake of someone else’s work hoping to cash in on yet another dying franchise. If there was ever any sign indicating massive failure in the industry, it’s that they’ve got an over 2000% increase in output and have to CON the CONsumer into watching absolute stinkers just to meet their bottom line.

I miss 1991.

Movie releases for 1991
Movie releases for 2007

(Note: Derek pointed out that my numbers may have been a wee bit off, but they still support my overall opinion that Hollywood == Crap. :P)