I don’t often get to listen to Kai Ryssdal “Do the Numbers” on “Marketplace.” The show airs at an inconvenient time for me. No, I don’t own an identity theft enabling device (you call them “smart” phones but they are really idiot phones) so subscribing to the podcast doesn’t make that much sense. I do have this habit of downloading several hours worth of NPR archived podcasts for interesting shows and plugging them into my car when going on a long drive, but a 6 month old report on today’s markets, while entertaining, would probably lose much in the way of relevance.

Btw, when you visit the marketplace.org archive it only offers “view on iTunes.” Clicking the link from a Linux machine (the majority of today’s devices when you also add in all of the Android devices which are running a stripped down archaic version of Linux under the hood) it takes you to an iTunes page with a download link for the Windows version of iTunes. They also have a link for a Mac version. Nothing for Linux that I see. This will isolate Apple in the marketplace, especially since Windows 10 is a merger/integration with Ubuntu and the first in a series of steps for Microsoft to abandon Windows as you know it. Soon it will just be a Windows like desktop running on Linux. In short, Windows will be like KDE, Gnome or any of the other desktops running on Linux.

At any rate, the July 31, 2017 show had Kai discussing how “The Emoji Movie” was a really bad movie which happened to also be number 2 (Freudian?) at the box office, yet “Battleship” was also a really bad movie which barely made any money. Well, “Battleship” wasn’t a “bad” movie, it was true to its genre. There are only so many “new” things you can do with an alien invasion action movie. It definitely has a market, but that market isn’t how most Hollywood money watchers keep score. They keep score by first and second weekend box office receipts, which, really isn’t where the market for this movie lives.

The market for alien invasion action movies with lots of stuff blowing up and a few hard bodied characters is the DVD rental, premium movie channel wait for Fox/FX crowd. We just can’t deal with sitting in a theater for two hours. Some of us don’t have that big of a bladder anymore while others simply don’t like all of those annoying kids texting, talking and playing with laser lights while we are trying to watch a movie.

Thank God I never saw “The Emoji Movie!” From what I’ve read about it the maximum age of anyone wanting to see it should be about 14. While there are some teens and 20-somethings willing to plunk down the $50+ it costs to go to a movie these days, the bulk of the “Battleship” fan base is more the 40+ crowd. More the Lazy Boy recliner, remote control with a pause button and a cold drink by their side crowd. We’re the ones who buy the Toyota Avalons, well north of $50K SUVs and the occasional Mercedes. It’s quite odd one doesn’t see many of these types of commercials during that DVD show they are always running on Fox/FX.

Know thy market before passing judgment.