State of the Soap Box Address

When I started The Soap Box Office in April, 2010 I considered it first and foremost to be a labor of love. I love movies more than just about anyone I know and I love writing. It just made sense to put the two together. I have tried to craft TSBO to be a place where the movie buff and the average moviegoer alike can get movie news, intelligent movie coverage, and if nothing else, a time waster during a stressful day. I've very proud of the modest success this site has had so far (13,000+ hits in a little over a year) and I look forward to whatever the future holds for this place.

Movie reviewing has been a hobby for me, make no mistake, but I'd be lying if I said there wasn't a part of me that held out hope that someday, there'd be more to this thing than just a Blogger blog. I have tried to make TSBO as professional as I can, taught myself the cruder elements of website design, and spent numerous hours writing when I really didn't feel like writing. In short, for the most part, TSBO has been a second job for me. At times, when I published a review I was especially proud of and got little response, I considered taking a break or walking away altogether. Movie blogs are a dime a dozen and they come and go on an hourly basis;  there was not necessarily anything wrong with letting mine go by the wayside, too. I haven't read near as much over the last 18 months as I did before and my Playstation 3 has become nothing more than a Blu Ray player; sometimes I really miss those things. But in the end, I really enjoy this movie reviewing thing and I've held out for the possibility that at some point, it might pay off a bit.

Two weeks ago I received a comment on my "Mission Statement" blog, the very first piece I wrote when I transitioned over to this site, asking if I might be interested in writing for a new movie site. After a few days of correspondence, I decided this was a great opportunity for me. I am happy to announce that beginning this week, I have been added as the editor in chief for I Eat Films. A couple of my reviews have already been posted and over the next few weeks, our content will go up and up both in quantity and quality. We're new and, just like this blog, we're one small fish in a very large pond but we're very optimistic about where this thing will take us. Regardless of what happens, I look at this as a chance to get some more exposure for my content, further my audience, and maybe even take some of the pressure off myself by splitting up the big movies with other talented writers.

What this means for The Soap Box Office is very simple: almost nothing. All of my content will still make it's way here one way or another. I'll still be here wasting too many words on bad movies, linking to news items and blog entries, and hating John Travolta with every ounce of my being. I'll just be doing that on a bigger site (a .com, no less) as well. On the bigger theatrical reviews, I'll probably post a link back to IEF but most DVD reviews, Movie News Today, and assorted theatrical reviews will be found here. I will, however, ask you, nay, IMPLORE you, to check out ieatfilms.com. Follow us on Twitter @ieatfilms (follow me @TXBDG) or find us on Facebook but most importantly, come to the site and check us out. Click on our dumb ads, run up our page views, and join our community. The overwhelming odds are that we'll never see a dollar out of all this mess but we've got to start somewhere, don't we?