Three things to add, all aimed squarely at Paul Schraeder…
as much as I like and respect Schraeder’s work, I feel his above comment displays his being a bit…out of touch. I can’t help picturing Schraeder picturing the producers and director, maybe the leads too, all gathered late night in a corner booth at the Brown Derby or Musso’s, clutching a hot-off-the-presses newspaper anxiously searching for their film’s review by Rex Reed or Pauline Kael. For better or worse, the world don’t work like that no more.
I don’t think “normal people” ever went through the reviews “like they used to,” even when print used to be more of an influence. I may be wrong but…
much as I snicker in agreement with Schraeder’s assessment of audiences today (did you not see the name of this community?), I don’t know if I’d go on record saying that.