I'm far from the opinion that we're mindless . . . However, I do think that general moviegoers do not attend films randomly either.  This must mean that they rely upon a source of information in order to make their decision(s), and I'm of the opinion that this source (mainstream movie media) is highly flawed, if not indeed sinister.  In this slight sense moviegoers are being told what to do, in that they rely upon propoganda (if you agree that this is what mainstream film promotion amounts to) to 'inform' their choices. 

I can't say how many people I've heard say that they went to see a movie "because Siskel liked it," or comments like that, but there have been many.  (Indeed, film review shows wouldn't air if their 'suggestions' didn't hold at least some weight amongst its demographic.) I may have been too careless with my wording in my previous post, but I'm not so sure that I'm willing to call most movie goer's choices with respect to film attendance fully independent (or informed) either.  And that's not even getting into the horrible release practices in North America, such that seeing many quality foreign (and even domestic) films becomes an epic quest in an of itself. 

At the end of the day, yes, it is the individual who gets him/her self there to the theater.  But they still have to choose what they will see, and they rarely do that blindly (if you consider the mainstream media to shed any light at all . . . remember that people do indeed get paid to tell people they liked a movie - ergo, go see it - without having seen it . . . often they are given a list of gratuitous comments to choose from, instead of going to the trouble to lie with their own words).

The line between media info and propoganda is a tenuous one, but I do think that this tenuousness can mean that many people's ability, or skill (something that is maintained via healthy practice) to choose for themselves atrophies over time. 

Dismal, perhaps.  I don't know; it's what I see.  Remember, I am responding to a train of thought asserting that blockbusters make more money because they're 'interesting.'  Often we flock in droves to a film that is 'uninteresting' from conception, to promos, all the way to the Collector's Edition DVD (which, if you pre-order from Amazon, you'll get a free choice from 4 other equally uninspiring films that they just can't seem to sell enough of).  Why do we do it?  The optimist in me says that it's not because we choose to.

Blair

ps - I too am not a Will Smith fan