From Food Court to Box Office

Sales May Be Off, but Mall Guards Are Hot in Hollywood
By: Dave Itzkoff
NYT, Tuesday, January 22, 2009

The movie “Paul Blart: Mall Cop,” starring the comedian Kevin James, recently was released last week. It opened at No. 1 making $39.2 million in the first four days. This article is about this film and a film starring Seth Rogen in the comedy “Observe and Report,” which has almost the same plot of a mall cop who teams up with a detective.

He also wrote, according to Jeff Blake, chairman for worldwide marketing and distribution for Sony, that the movie couldn’t have come out in a better time, because it came out during the time retail sales declined for the past six months, and that it was a good idea, because it is a film that makes people laugh in these economic times.

In the lede, Itzkoff starts off with a good criticism of “Mall Cop.” He compares the job of a shopping-mall security officer to a car salesman and a hedge-fund manager, because they gain public admiration, which means their jobs are very entertaining. His “but” statement is the fifth paragraph. After mentioning the other works that involve a mall cop character, he sees why is it that the writers chose to make these films, because he feels there is something “irresistible” about the American mall. And then he gives an example as to why he thinks that way, (“Disneyland version of what the world‘s supposed to be“). The kicker is a quote from Malachy Kavanagh, a communications executive for the International Council of Shopping Centers (a trade group).