All Hail Moving Pictures!

For all the parents imploring their offspring to go outside and gaze blearily at the real world in all it's dazzling wonder, and all the health warnings that an active life will be a longer life, record numbers of people chose to while away 2002 in the darkened confines of their local multiplex. The US reported another record-breaking year, with a whopping $9.4 billion being taken in cinema admissions throughout 2002 - the highest attendance rate in 45 years. The chief driving forces behind this shot-in-the-arm for the indolent lifestyle, were the year's heavy-hitters, Attack of the Clones, The Two Towers, Spider-Man, Harry Potter and Monsters, Inc. Reports have suggested that increasingly wide releases, threats of terrorism and an economic downturn have been largely responsible for this boom in cinema attendance, though we'd wager that it has more to do with the weight of blockbusters and sheer quality of many of this year's offerings. All things considered, it would be a fool who thinks that any kind of physical exertion could hope to be as appealing as the prospect of sitting on one's backside for two hours with a gargantuan tub of popcorn and a two-litre jumbo Coke for company.