The Vail Daily reports on the closing of the last video store in Vail county. What technologically-savvy, cutting edge users of online rentals and Netflix do they find to explain the death of the video store?

Two movie theater managers.

That is just awesome topped with awesome sauce.

With movie theaters in the middle of an all-time record weekend in an all-time record year, the L.A. Times produces a useful round-up and look ahead at the theatrical release window:

 Exhibitors have drawn a line in the sand, steadfastly resisting the compression of release dates that they view as a threat to their livelihood. They get nervous when a studio attempts to release a movie on DVD less than 90 days after opening in theaters. Nonetheless, theater executives now are acknowledging they may need to adapt.

"We're going to protect our side of the business," said Amy Miles, chief executive of Regal Entertainment Group, the nation's largest theater circuit. But "we'd like to think that we'd work with the studios as business models evolved."

It's a delicate balancing act.

Theater operators want to be open to change without undercutting ticket sales, which have been remarkably strong. Above all, they hope the studios won't be oblivious to their concerns. "We want to know what's going to happen, and we want to have some input," said Tony Kerasotes, chief executive of Kerasotes Showplace Theatres and chairman of the National Assn. of Theatre Owners, a trade group.

For all their talk, however, studios say they're not ready to do away with windows entirely, fearing it could cannibalize their own business.

"People always say consumers want it all now, and Hollywood needs to change its business models," said Jim Gianopulos, co-chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment. "But I've yet to see anyone show up with a simultaneous-release model that works.

"We need to experiment and allow consumers to take advantage of new technologies and ways to experience movies conveniently."

Read the whole thing.

That's a quote from a wonderful L.A. Times article on this year's booming box office under the comically generic headline "Box-office revenue up for 2009".

The piece goes somewhat deeper than the headline suggests, considering whether booming box office and increased attendance this year are economically-driven or if something fundamental is underway in the way people want to watch movies. It even notes that new social media technologies like Twitter may be powering positive word of mouth far longer and more broadly than anticipated.

The box-office boom has not only surprised many in Hollywood, but provided a much-needed source of revenue growth as DVD sales have plunged more than 13% so far this year.

And it has proved that despite a digital revolution in the ways audiences consume content, one of the oldest methods has not lost its appeal.

"When the economy is down, people start cutting back, but after a while they want to go out and be entertained," said Ed Mintz, the president of market research firm CinemaScore. "Even at $10, or $15 for IMAX or 3-D, going to the movies is still a cheaper night out than almost anything else."

The economy is clearly part of the equation, but perhaps something else is happening. I'll leave Sony's Jeff Blake with the final word:

"There was a feeling that the business was recession-proof, but this is more than that," said Jeff Blake, vice chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment.

"This is people rediscovering going to the movies."

BusinessWeek has an article today explaining to its readers that movie theaters just might be a good investment.

"People have assumed for years that home theater and DVDs were killing off the business," says money manager Steve Birenberg, president of Northlake Capital Management and the media sector blogger for market research firm SNL Kagan. "Now we're seeing that's not true and it's much more stable and sustainable than investors thought."

Over the recent Easter weekend, the top 12 films brought in $130 million, up 61% from the same weekend last year. The previous weekend, which took in $148 million, was the biggest draw ever in April. And that comes after first-quarter receipts rose by 10% to 15% from the same period a year ago.

Now they're seeing that's not true. So are DailyFinance and Barron's (subscription req'd). Barron's published an investment note from Wall Street analysts at Piper Jaffray, which says, in part:

Year-to-date the domestic box office is up nearly 15% despite the battered consumer, lending credence to our thesis that solid content, escapism and low ticket prices relative to most other forms of out-of-home entertainment will combine to fuel solid box-office performance throughout 2009.

Double-digit increases in box office certainly do lend credence to that thesis. So do three straight years of gains at the box office. To be fair, though, it took the three previous down years for analysts to begin predicting the untimely demise of the movie theater industry. Both perspectives ignore the fact that the movie theater industry is on a three-decade path of modest, sustained growth.

The current ride of big box office and attendance increases is great fun and a rare bright spot in a tough economy. It's important to remember, though, that it will not always be this way. There will be years of slower growth and there will be years when attendance shrinks, but it's the long term trends and fundamental strengths of the business to keep an eye on. Trust me: the movie theater industry has been dying for 40 years and will continue to do so for as long as I can imagine.

What a way to go.

A little imagination, that's all I'm asking for...

I look forward to "elbowed with a PG-13," "noogied with a PG," "tickled with a G," and "defenestrated with an NC-17".

Quite, seriously, if you're not a parent, why do you care what the rating is at all? The ratings really aren't talking to you. If you're under 18 - or 17 - I get it. Every rating that doesn't let you into the movie of your chocie is unjust. And who wants to go see a movie with your parents that you'd rather see with your similarly under-aged friends? I'm nearly 50 and I still don't want to see movies with my mother.

But this is the bargain movie theaters and distributors made with America's parents. The Ratings Board rates a film as honestly as it can (and being composed of humans, it will make decisions that other humans, being humans, will disagree with), the distributors and movie theaters post those ratings clearly and the movie theater does its best to enforce them.

This system, of necessity, is not perfect. It requires an imaginative empathy with the concerns of a diverse population of parents with concerns that vary by region, income, education and religiosity. It also requires a certain degree of movie literacy from parents. They need to understand the broad range of films that may come under a PG-13 rating, or an R, and use that knowledge to compare the rating reasons that accompanies each rating. An R for "some sexual humor" will not be directly comparable to a film rated R for "sequences of grisly bloody violence and torture throughout, and for language".

The question I asked earlier, though, still stands. If you're not a parent - and not under 18 - why do you care what a movie's rating is?

The cast of The Big Bang Theory explores the complexities...

Big media outlets are waking up to the phenomenal box office and admissions numbers being generated so far this year.

On Sunday, the New York Times weighed in with the news that movie theaters are a bargain:

Helping feed the surge is the mix of movies, which have been more audience-friendly in recent months as the studios have tried to adjust after the lackluster sales of more somber and serious films.

As she stood in line at the 18-screen Bridge theater complex here on Thursday to buy weekend tickets for "Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience," Angel Hernandez was not thinking much about escaping reality. Instead, Ms. Hernandez, a Los Angeles parking lot attendant and mother of four young girls, was focused on one very specific reality: her wallet.

Even with the movie carrying a premium price of $15 because of its 3-D effects - children's tickets typically run $9 at the Bridge - Ms. Hernandez saw the experience as a bargain.

"Spending hundreds of dollars to take them to Disneyland is ridiculous right now," she said. "For $60 and some candy money I can still be a good mom and give them a little fun."

On Monday, it was NBC Nightly News, with Brian Williams waxing lyrical about the reasonably-priced comforts of settling in to a darkened movie theater, favorite snacks in hand.

NPD's "Entertainment Trends in America" reports that nearly 80 percent of frequent moviegoers plan to go to the theater the same amount or more often than they did last year, despite news about a declining U.S. economy. Even among infrequent moviegoers (those who attend movies once or twice within three months) 57 percent plan to hold steady, or even increase, their attendance this year. (emphasis mine)

Taken from a sample of more than 11,000 consumers, the report notes certain factors that drive consumers to the movies:

The top reason cited by consumers who intend to go to the movies more often this year is the social experience of going with family, friends, or significant others (73 percent). Nearly half (48 percent) pointed to the overall "movie-theater experience" (e.g., large screen, sound systems, etc.) as a primary reason they like to watch movies in the theater.

Makes sense - and it's something we've been saying here quite a lot. Something else we've been saying - home entertainment technologies are not a threat to moviegoing. Movie theaters and home entertainment are complementary. People who love movies are promiscuous. They'll watch movies over and over and in many different ways.

According to NPD's report, frequent moviegoers are 20 percent more likely than the average movie-ticket buyer to purchase DVDs of recent theatrical releases. They are also 60 percent more likely to rent a movie downloaded from the Web, and 40 percent more likely to purchase a movie as a digital download.

We don't expect frisky movie-goers to confine their love solely to the movie theater. But we do believe in serial monogamy - the preservation of the theatrical release window. 

To sum up, the sky is not falling, movie theaters continue to not die. Will the Wall Street Journal report it? "Buehler...? Buehler...?"