("yawn" wasn't what i was looking for)

compare-

1960s top grossing films:

Swiss Family Robinson
101 Dalmatians
How the West Was Won
Cleopatra
Mary Poppins
The Sound of Music
Hawaii
The Jungle Book
Funny Girl
Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid

1990 top grossing films:

Home Alone
T2: Judgment Day
Aladdin
Jurassic Park
The Lion King
Batman Forever
Independence Day
Titanic
Saving Private Ryan
The Phantom Menace

okay, granted you still have kids being an unbeatable market force. but the need to see shit blown up and other ignorant excuses for celluloid still are making money today. i understand the censorship limits back then were different, but the action film (a generally imperfect and intellectual-inconsistent type) didn't dominate the box-office so heavily before the 70's (Jaws.)

these films have generally little substance and are just shallow excuses to tap into the audience's vicarious and escapist fantasies. but *they* get the financing, because *they* get the crowds. "art house" films are blackballed by big studios and the medium suffers.