2005: the year people stopped caring about movies

Patrick Goldstein in the Los Angeles Times distills Hollywood's paranoia about "The Slump" -- the year-long box-office slide that inspired columnists to bend over backwards with new explanations about what it all meant. Were the movies worse than ever? Had DVD killed off the theatrical experience? This piece isn't necessarily persuasive journalism, but it eloquently sums up every "sky is falling" theory out there.

Hopefully in a few years, we'll be able to look back and laugh.