re: Is the the worst era for movies in your lifetime?

Because they spend too much making movies. There's no reason a romantic comedy should cost near $100 million. I get a special effects film costing a ton, but budgets are out of control.

And while ticket sales aren't at an all-time high, they are pretty close. They sold 1.31 million tickets last year, slightly down from 2015 and more importantly, down from the all-time high of 1.57 million in 2002. But tickets sales are well up from the 90s. 1996 was the first time we ever cracked 1.3 million.

Hollywood did make $11.37 billion last year, which was an all-time record. So they aren't hurting. And that's before we get to worldwide grosses.

Honestly, despite people's belly-aching, this is a sustainable model: formulaic big tent movies to pay the rent and a bunch of smaller, limited budget movies for quality and prestige. The problem is trying to have TOO many tentpoles. By definition, there should just be one. The problem right now is spending way too much on the "middle class" of films. People's lack of interest do not support their budgets.