Love That Bad Book!

I talked to a couple of writers' groups and a writers' conference while I was out on my book tour. One of the groups was actually a screenwriting group, since that's a part of my background. I made a couple of predictions early in my talk:

1. Paul Blart, Mall Cop, opening that week, was going to earn more than $100 million total box office.

2. A second release that same weekend was going to make $100 million in its first week and no one there would be able to name it.

I was right about both. Blart minted money and nobody in the audience knew that a long-anticipated expansion to World of Warcraft was due out the next day. Entertainment is a wide, wide field.

I don't know if anybody cared about the point I was making, but I did spark some anger from at least one person. How could I cheerfully anticipate the success of a movie like Paul Blart, Mall Cop? Surely it was just another sign of the hideous degeneration of Hollywood and civilization in general. I mean, honestly, kids these days! Why couldn't I promote something good?

As it happens, this occurred during the run up to awards season and there were some quite good movies in the theaters. So I asked the gentleman in question how many of them he'd seen. Answer? None. But you have them on your Netflix list, right? Right.

So we come around to my point and how this applies to the title of this post. We should love and adore a movie like Paul Blart. We don't ever have to see it, but it cost nothing to make and made a lot of money. It paid for three or four excellent small films that nobody went to see, but put on their Netflix list. Every successful movie should be good news for a film lover. They keep the studios open and the Panaflexes turning.

Now when you see the pile of that terrible, dreadful book on the front table of the chain bookstore, and see the crowds of screaming teenage girls and their creepy mothers outside the premiere of the movie made from that terrible, dreadful book, be of good cheer. Think of the share of the money earned going to good writers for good books. Maybe yours!

I also enjoy thinking that my tax dollars go to the Hubble telescope program. Try it; it helps.