Movies, a children’s pastime?

I’ve been watching more and more TV the last few years while the amount of movies I tend to watch has been declining. Recently I’ve taken a step back to look at just the volume of quality TV series’ we have running. It all may not be to your liking but there is bound to be something that’ll hit your sweet spot: The Walking Dead, Justified, Hannibal, The Americans, Game of Thrones, True Detective, Banshee, TV is filled to the brim with high concept and high quality productions.

The thing is, all these TV shows are very much aimed at adults. Different networks put different restrictions as far as content goes, no nudity on one and no swearing on another but even if all the graphic content is barred the quality TV is still aimed at grown up audiences at least on a tonal or intellectual level. The big TV event of the year is a smart and mature show.

Which gets me as to why I’ve been watching fewer movies? It’s because the biggest movies each year, the blockbusters, are kiddie fare. Everything is dumbed down and their tone scaled to hit that PG-13 rating so that the parents can give their kids some money for a movie ticket knowing the cinemas have all their offerings suitable for the young’uns.

As seen on television

The paradigm shift the movie studios made to go after the early teen market might have paid off in the short run but the industry is now in a corner. Do these cash grab kid movies have a shelf life beyond their opening weekend? Kids are hardly a reliable source of income as nothing Hollywood has made in the recent years has any legacy value. They are forced to serve their new found audience with something fresh on an ever increasing pace to meet whatever happens to be ‘in’ at the moment, and hope for a quick turnaround in the first few weeks to the movies lifecycle.

Could this happen to TV as well? Or video games, which are largely seen as a children’s hobby while the biggest games are rated M which is the equivalent of an R rating as the video game ratings go. If there is a way to make more money quicker I’m sure the suits will jump on the chance of making everything for the kids. After all, movies became a children’s pastime and we let it happen. All that can be done is to give our support to the few manly projects that pop up from time to time.