Year's End: Box Office Rorschach, Pt 1 - Whose Disruption Is It Anyway?

There is a disease in Hollywood that is also found in many places, more so in 2019 than in the past... though it has certainly been there in the past as well.

When it's about someone else, gossip is fun, even if it might be untrue... but if people are saying it, there must be some truth to it. When it's about Me, gossip is unfair and unkind and why in God's name don't They (at least) stick to the facts?

Box Office Reporting, in 2019, is driven as much by gossip as by facts.

There are a series of assumptions that are popular in the media and they color virtually every story written about the film industry, especially in season-end and year-end pieces. Like any good lie, they have a kernel of truth that makes the lie seem more believable.

You've heard it. If you are reading this, you surely see this "fact" stated, as a matter of fact, every week.

Motion picture theatrical is dying. Motion picture theatrical is dead.

At the core of this anti-factual fart is — and has been for the last four dec…