Right, I'd not mourn those. (And one thing about VFX-fest films is that if they're worth seeing at all, they're worth seeing in a real cinema with big screen and sound system. So there is a revenue stream available there.) But according to IMDB, even "Brokeback Mountain", most of which was two dudes sitting round a campfire not even saying all that much, cost $44 million to make. Clearly some of that went on overpricing by suppliers (and actors?) who knew their customers were loaded -- overpricing, in other words, which would soon vanish if film-makers lost their cosy monopoly on digital copying of their work. But it still seems that making films which don't suck is still really quite expensive compared to making music which doesn't suck.

I'm very glad that "The Fellowship of the Ring" ($93M) and "Lawrence of Arabia" ($15M in 1962 dollars) were made, and were made the way they were.

Peter