The big picture

It's the reason that no one wants to sit in the front row at a movie:

Sometimes, the closer you are to something, the harder it is to see.

Maybe that's why Hollywood can't understand the reason movie attendance in 2005 fell to the lowest levels in eight years and box-office receipts were off 5 percent in the first 11 months.

"Hollywood ends its most disappointing year in nearly two decades," is how one report put it.

Why?

Probably a number of reasons. But you have to think that chief among them is a decided lack of quality family fare.

It's Hollywood's way, despite the numbers. Consider: 18 of the top 20 grossing movies of all time are decidedly family-oriented. Yet, when Mel Gibson has difficulty getting Hollywood's support to make The Passion of the Christ - and it ends up 10th on the all-time box-office list - it sure begins to look like Hollywood has a blind spot for what most of the country wants to see.

We're talking about a very fundamental, uncomplicated thing, here: finding out what your customers want and getting it for them.

Yet, Hollywood and its friends in the elite liberal media fall all over themselves promoting a movie about gay cowboys, and a retelling of King Kong, while the Christian allegory Chronicles of Narnia sneaks up to the top of the end-of-year box office.

After four weeks, Narnia had out-earned Kong by $50 million.

Please, someone go down to the front row, tap Hollywood on the shoulder and invite it to back up a bit - and see the big picture.

They're trying to sell us things we don't want.