When I was a wee bit younger, the only way to get show times for a movie was to pick up the yellow pages, thumb through listings of local theaters, rotary dial the numbers one at a time and ask each human being on the other end what time Star Wars was showing. By the time I was done, Luke was finding out that Darth was really his father. Fast forward to today and you won’t see me touching a yellow pages book except when used as a booster seat. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t use digital technology to find movies, read reviews, watch trailers or get peer feedback on the hottest summer films. According to a recent entertainment article in the Chicago Tribune, the box office success of Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” may have been due to the help of social media sites like Twitter. Let’s face facts; digital technology facilitates finding information on movies. Yet, you still see movie chains taking out ads in newspapers when everyone knows that you go to the internet or your iPhone App to get customizable information on the movies you seek. According to an article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette print-based listings may have seen their last days. According to the article, “the top two U.S. chains, Regal Entertainment Group and AMC Entertainment Inc., have begun to reduce or eliminate the small-type listings showing the start times for movies at individual theaters.” For those who still use the newspaper to get movie information, this could be another reason to abandon their subscription; as if they needed more. But come on people, let’s move out of the Stone Age and embrace the convenience and wonder that is the Internet. I really do enjoy watching trailers in HD right on my Mactop before making a decision to spend my hard-earned dollars on a movie. For me, pretty pixels work way harder than ink when selling a “talkie”. It makes me wonder why media companies still take out full-page ads promoting their films in newspapers. I find them a nuisance and wouldn’t put up a fight if they went the way of the Edsel.
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