Did you know there's money in Scrabble?

I knew this! Or, I think I knew it. Back on Table Talk, one of the members was a competitive crossword puzzler (at8ax was his name). He informed the TTTV folder about an ABC News report on competitive puzzling, and we all tuned in, and he had neglected to mention than he won the competition in question.

I know he had a day job, but.

Scrabble champions have to do a lot of boring agony stuff to get to the champion level -- memorize random combinations of letters. There's a guy on the New York Times editorial page who theorizes that there has never been a female Scrabble champion because women are hard-wired not to be that dorky. (I don't especially agree, but it's a funny theory.)

But the theaters used to be able to rent the movie to show and make up the rental cost via ticket sales.

They're not in the job of breaking even, though -- they're there to make a profit. My understanding is that it hasn't been possible off tickets alone for a long time. That's why the food costs an arm and a leg. My secondary assumption was that commercials were more of that -- keeping ticket costs down, effectively.

If, like magazines, the product would otherwise be so expensive no one would buy it, I could understand

Except that this is the case. Movie theatres make next to nothing on ticket sales. Profit comes from ads and popcorn.

I don't really understand the "can't talk before the movie anymore" complaint -- has anyone ever really been shushed for talking during a Fanta ad?

I would have shushed them, were everyone around me not staring perplexed or horror-struck at the screen in silence. I love the Fantanas!

Ads don't bother me. I mean, trailers are ads, and we expect them. Adding other products to the mix to make my ticket cheaper seems a small price to pay.

I wish they'd mix the ads up more. That run of LA Times ads has been going since I got here, and it's hateful.

But, really, I don't care. They air before the movie start time, I don't have to look, and I can still talk. I even allow for one-liners during trailers.

I work in a theater, and it's true that the theater company doesn't make money off the ticket sales. That money goes directly to the company making the film. Plus, the theater company has to pay for lots of accessories, like shipping the prints to and fro, equipment and maintenance, employees, buildings, etc.etc. The large majority of their profit comes from the food.

I certainly agree that the food is too expensive. Sometimes I feel absurd trying to convince people that $3.25 for a large soda or $6.00 for a tub of popcorn is a good value. $4.25 for a liter of water my foot! Yeah, they're making a crazy profit. But that profit also paid for the giant screen, powerful speakers and squishy stadium seats. Also, it's a bit of a vicious cycle... the more expensive the food, the less people buy it, the higher the prices get. But it's hard to convince people that if everyone buys a drink at the movie, eventually their popcorn might get cheaper.

Went to see Batman Begins yesterday and liked it lots.(Note: I am not so much into the comic book Batman, though I have read Batman:Year One and The Dark Knight Returns) On a shallow note, Cillian Murphy has really pretty eyes...

Oh, yeah. We got Serenity as one of the trailers. Yay!(Also The Dukes of Hazzard Why, dear lord, why?)

Oh, yeah. We got Serenity as one of the trailers. Yay!(Also The Dukes of Hazzard Why, dear lord, why?)

Why "Dukes of Hazzard"? Because next year's Oscar race was crying out of a "For Your Consideration" campaign for Jessica Simpson.

I *still* haven't seen the Serenity trailer on the big screen. I'm so sad. We traveled two hours to see Howl's Moving Castle last week, and it was so worth it. But still no Serenity trailer.

But we did get the Dukes of Hazzard trailer. DH and I sat there, mouths slightly ajar in appall, wondering, like Sheryl, ...why?

We also got a Willie Wonka trailer I hadn't seen before, and it was enough, unlike the others I'd seen, to make me want to see the movie.

DS has also seen the Narnia trailer and says it looks like the movie's going to be really good.