The economy is… not good.  I know it; you know it.  If it weren’t evident by our personal and business bottom lines, you can’t help but be bombarded by stories on the news of businesses closing, banks foreclosing on homes, and people out of work.  Things are bad all over.

Well, maybe not everywhere, it turns out.  Hollywood, so disconnected from the real world of fly over country, seems to be doing just fine.  Movie theater attendance is on a record setting pace.  Consider how well Hollywood could be doing if they put out any decent movies this year (Star Trek excepted, of course).

The real issue of interest here is not that Hollywood doesn’t have to abide by the same rules as the rest of America.  That’s old news.  No, the real story is that Americans, so financially strapped that we’re putting the mid-level restaurants out of business and doing all our shopping at Wal-Mart, haven’t stopped going to the movies.  The message seems to be that we’ll sacrifice on the non-essentials, but don’t you dare take away my $8 tub of popcorn smothered in artificially butter flavored grease.  There are some things that we simply will not concede.

This got me thinking, so I did a little research on my own.  I visited about a dozen local businesses, from a citrus juicing plant to an auto dealer to concrete block makers to restaurants.   Time after time I listened to heart-wrenching stories of loss and layoffs and declining revenue and no hope on the horizon.

Thoroughly depressed, I then visited the local comic book store.  There, all is well.  No dip in revenue and a steady stream of customers.  I didn’t get to the video game store, but I suspect they would tell me a similar story.  In 21st century America, entertainment is king.

We’ll buy the cheap mac and cheese, we’ll put off replacing that worn out shirt, we’ll give up the Gatorade and drink water instead.  But we’ll keep our movies and comics and cable TV, thank you very much.

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