Oh yeah. I condemn it.

“One Million Moms” indeed. Come back when you find the other 999,999.

If by ‘job’ you mean responsibility, are you suggesting that business owners are jackasses if they let their personal tastes and beliefs influence what they decide to offer for sale?

That depends on the line of business, the specificity of their tastes, and too many other factors to count. I wouldn’t fault a gun shop for not carrying computers, but I would fault a gun shop for not carrying S&W because he personally doesn’t own any S&W models and can’t imagine why any of his customers would want to – even though he knows a fair number of them do.

And what’s this “beliefs” bit everyone keeps bringing up? The guy’s a businessman, not clergy. Does anyone really think Boardman boarded up his theater because he’s a member of the Church of No-Jackass-Unless-It’s-Me? Puh-leeze.

Do you blast musicians and writers for, in effect, going ‘dark’ by not putting out albums and books out as often as their fans want?

I’m tempted to say something about apples and oranges, but am worried an orange might be insulted by the analogy.

In any event, it would seem that the public wasn’t clamoring for that movie… it seems they were more worried about him closing permanently than they were about him not showing that particular movie… so just how was he failing to give the public what they wanted?

He wasn’t “failing” those who didn’t want to see the movie anyway. From their perspective, it didn’t matter if the theater stayed open or not. He did fail those who would have liked to see either of the movies that don’t get his personal seal of approval, and either did not see them or spent almost as much extra time driving as they spent watching the film itself.

And wouldn’t the fact that the nearest theatre was 45 minutes away make it more likely that someone would have taken advantage of the situation if this guy was truly disappointing moviegoers in the town?

In a larger city, sure. In a small, remote town, probably not. Small towns can only support so many theaters. Better this guy should sell his to someone who wants to make money instead of a pointless point.

So back to wondering about why you got are riled up about this guy.

I’m not that riled up. I’m not losing any sleep over this moron. I don’t lose sleep over most things I blog about, for that matter.

If by ‘job’ you mean responsibility, are you suggesting that business owners are jackasses if they let their personal tastes and beliefs influence what they decide to offer for sale? Or is it only non-gourmet chefs who are supposed to just sell what people want to buy?

Do you blast musicians and writers for, in effect, going ‘dark’ by not putting out albums and books out as often as their fans want? Is JK Rowling soon to be added to your jackass hall of fame if she stops writing Harry Potter books after the next, and presumably last, one?

In any event, it would seem that the public wasn’t clamoring for that movie… it seems they were more worried about him closing permanently than they were about him not showing that particular movie… so just how was he failing to give the public what they wanted?

And wouldn’t the fact that the nearest theatre was 45 minutes away make it more likely that someone would have taken advantage of the situation if this guy was truly disappointing moviegoers in the town? Maybe you can enlighten us as to how the barriers to entry are so high for starting a movie theatre? You need a building. You need a popcorn machine. You need to arrange to get the films to show. You need a guy to take ticket stubs. Movie theatres get opened all the time…. it can’t be that difficult.

So back to wondering about why you got are riled up about this guy. You weren’t in Hoopeston trying to see that movie. Were you an investor and upset that this guy might have cost the movie approximately $24,000 (6,000 people in the town, half of whom are probably old enough to see the movie, seeing the movie an average of once each at an average ticket price of $8) in box office receipts?

I’ trying… and so far failing… to figure out what makes the guy a ‘jackass’

The fact that he closed down his theater rather than show a movie that he didn’t like. What the hell does the guy think he is, some kind of gourmet chef? He runs a movie theater, for chrissakes. His job is to give the public what it wants, not what he wants them to want.

And, if the guy made a practice of screwing things up, economic theory suggests that someone else would have opened a theatre in the town by now.

Economic theory, insofar as it predicts perfect competition, is not reality. If he tried a stunt like this in a competitive market, the market would punish him in no time flat. But with the nearest cinema 45 minutes away, and the cost of entry in that market relatively high, this isn’t a very competitive market, is it? That’s the only reason he can get away with running his business that badly.

I’m trying… and so far failing… to figure out what makes the guy a ‘jackass’. He didn’t make a big deal of temporarily closing the theatre, as evidenced by the townspeople worrying that he had closed it for real. He didn’t spit in his customer’s faces by refusing to carry a movie they were clamoring to see, evidenced by the support he received and the relatively few complainers. He didn’t deny his customers a product they absolutely positively had to have, notwithstanding the complaints of the 30 year old welder who, apparently, wasn’t complaining because he couldn’t see the movie but because the town’s kids were left roaming the streets because the theatre was dark (of course, being R-rated, most of the town’s kids wouldn’t have been able to see the movie anyway).

Contrary to your implication, he didn’t seem to have made a bad business decision, as given the size of the theatre, the lack of interest in that movie and the dynamics of box-office revenues, how much money could he have been turning down? And, if the guy made a practice of screwing things up, economic theory suggests that someone else would have opened a theatre in the town by now.

So, for those of us who are old and slow, could you please S P E L L O U T the particulars of what this guy did that was oh-so wrong?

THIS BLOG IS MY PROPERTY. IT’S MY OPINION.

Therefore, by your own reasoning, I must be “right.” Right?

Of course, I’m not really going to argue on that basis, as property rights only mean you have the legal right to do something, not that you are right in any other sense of the word, and certainly not that you are above criticism for it. Clear on the concept, now?

I think he’s perfectly clear on the concept. “If you want to see it, see it somewhere else. I don’t want to show material I consider to be crap in my privately-owned theater.” If he merely managed the place, then you’d have a leg to stand on, but I thought you grasped the concept of private property. If he didn’t want to show “The Passion of the Christ” for the same reason, he’d be right – for the same reason. It’s his theater. He decides what is and what isn’t acceptable.

IT’S HIS PROPERTY. IT’S HIS OPINION.

If you want the movie run in that house, buy his theater from him. If you want the movie run in that town, open your own theater.

“Unclear on the concept”? Not at all. But just because someone speaks doesn’t mean that everyone is required to give them a forum from which to do so.