CARBONDALE -- It's true the recession might be slashing our budgets. But one thing that's not scaring people away is movie theaters. Last weekend horror film "Friday the 13th" brought in more than 45 million dollars. On a whole, movie goers spent 233 million dollars on tickets, that's a 35% increase from last year. Boyd Henson from Anna is spent Thursday night going to his first movie in decades.
"I'm 82, I was about 15 years old, it's been a long time," said Henson.
For many it's a night out, maybe a way to escape the sometimes harsh realities we face now. Or maybe it's entertainment that doesn't hurt the pocketbook.
"Well because the girls get together and we go out every Thursday and this was a good thing to do and also I had a free ticket," said Sara Goss from Murphysboro.
Film buffs will have plenty to be happy about this week. The 31st annual Big Muddy Film Festival kicked off Thursday night with a free performance from the Southern Illinois Dance Company.
"They're gonna do a shadow performance so we're kind of mixing like dance and movies," said Danielle Williamson one of the festival organizers.
And speaking of movies they'll be plenty of them. More than 75 films will be shown over 10 days. Organizers say many of them will tackle issues that are normally ignored.
"They're films that make you go wow, I didn't realize that was happening in the world or I didn't realize that was really an issue, or that's a big problem maybe we should address that, so they're films that bring to life things we normally don't thin about because we're in our own day to day lives," said Damon Taylor, a festival organizer.
Now not all the movies at Big Muddy are free. But the rest will cost you less than five bucks. By the way, it's not just movie theaters that are raking it in, the online film-rental company Netflix saw its latest profits jump 45 percent.
