In an extraordinary assertion, Edward Jay Epstein, Ph.D., that Hollywood has been engaging in smokescreens and mirrors to attempt to retain the image of a former "glamorous movie culture that no longer exists." Epstein is an industry insider and has written the book "The Big Picture" which talks about these very things.
At a seminar he said that the six major studios that contol the industry are so 
good at using the “the cult of deception,” that they are able to make people believe the image they portray, which has very little semblance to reality.
The two major tools that are used, according to Epstein, are non-disclosure agreements and public relation filters that are employed to keep the myth of the former movie culture going, long after it has disappeared.
He unveiled the devastating reality of the industry when he said that there used to be 90 million viewers a week that visited the theaters, now they've decreased to 25 million, and that is with the doubling of the population. He added that the emergence of Internet will make it even worse.
His conclusion is that “The myth of the box office is totally meaningless. The Associated Press reports it every week, they depict it as a weekly race. But today most movies lose money at the box office. After all the deductions, they don’t bring back a penny. A studio is lucky to get 40 cents on the dollar."
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