Dawn C. Chmielewski and Meg James
Los Angeles Times
January 18, 2011

To paraphrase Apollo 13 astronaut Jack Swigert, “Hollywood, we have a problem.”

The industry that was supposed to be immune to economic downturns looks like it’s going to have some re-entry problems as the economy begins to recover.

Broad swaths of the entertainment business declined in 2010.DVD sales were off 13%. Music CD purchases plummeted 19%. Video game sales as well as concert and theater attendance also fell. Even the turnout for America’s favorite pastimes — baseball and NASCAR — was down. And swift changes in technology will make it difficult for Hollywood to capture pre-recession levels of revenue.

So much for the value of escapism.