of course i am excited to watch a 4k hdr pristine copy of a movie the day it is released but still kind of a major cultural change here. it is very funny that a lot of people now see chris nolan as the man who killed the concept of movies
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I think weâre on a smash bros style measurement, but nearing 200%.
My hope is this somehow means there will be less competition for small theatres.
movie theatres are going to eat all kinds of shit finally. drive-ins will make a come back, there will be apps specifically for renting cars that enhance the drive-inning experience. more movie theatres will try to do more event-type stuff and theyâll probably push for studios to do William Castle-esque novelties like smell-o-vision and alternate reality film experiences in an attempt to drive people back into theatres but nobody will care unless youâre throwing buckets of blood on people during A Nightmare on Elm Street showings or something. swap meets will need to find new places to meet and swap â possibly in old movie theatres.
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iâm torn. on one hand, there is something great about seeing a big dumb action flick like a John Wick or a Fast movie in a theater with a bunch of people who are super into it, or a classic movie youâve never watched on a big screen on a midnight showing with riffing and hooting. hard to replicate that expedience even with instantly streaming digital to 4K. (I saw Detective Pikachu with 15 friends on opening night with a full theater with a bunch of other intoxicated millennials and that really made that experience the good time it wouldnât have been otherwise)
on the other hand, going to see new movies (especially new horror and dramas) on opening weekend has given me both anxiety and irritation how annoying and distracting and obnoxious people have the capacity to be when a movie politely asks they spend two hours engaging in a story and people still have loud conversations on the phone or with other people (or sometimes, just get into fights???). getting to just watch something on HBO MAX without distraction can be appealing.
i think at the end of this, thereâs still gonna be local and community theaters who donât show brand new flicks and id like to believe theyâd make it but who the hell knows in this strange new world. conflicted.
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i want to go to a drive-in in one of those limousine pool/hot tub things.
Iâll be happy to never listen to some oaf loudly eat popcorn during a quiet scene ever again
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Honestly I think as soon as thereâs a vaccine people will go right back to it and nothing much will change, as long as the chains can keep themselves alive on drip feed money for that long. I think in general we all underestimate how many people are going to exuberantly want to go back to exactly how things were after the threat of infection is minimized.
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Maybe youâre right and theaters will become even more like the chrome-plated diners that thrive off serving up 1950s nostalgia than they already are. But it will be like nostalgia for the ambiance surrounding a 90s Michael Bay or James Cameron picture instead.
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i guess we should also note that this is happening at the same time as the end of the paramount decrees meaning movies studios can now outright own the theaters/distribution networks too and with theaters dying just as itâs legal for disney/amazon whatnot to scoop them up the next couple years are gonna be a real bloodbath
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my take is that independent movie theaters will actually survive this and giant corporate ones will not. or most of them will not.
that will create a pretty big shift in what kinds of movies get made, and maybe it will rule.
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but if the end of the Paramount decree kills reportory theater, what can they show? Disney might want Disney theaters around like theyâre Apple stores, butâŚ?
it kills me because a theater business ought to be easy to run: a room with chairs and you show pre-recorded content as often as you can, but itâs so hard to keep them afloat
Change.org petition to allow movie studios to own movie theaters again but specifically prevent Netflix from doing it just so we can get Shaw Bros. movie theaters again
idk if i just donât know what this means, or if the edibles are kicking in, butâŚplease explain?
anyway, i guess my thinking is that they would just show what theyâve already been showing: old movies/independent films. i think most indie theaters have managed to only-just-barely survive because of that, specifically. and places like Alamo and Nitehawk (in NYC) figured out that food and alcohol also help.
my friends who run the DIY theater, Spectacle, seem to feel like this situation isnât any more precarious than what theyâd already been facing for the last 5 years, so who knows
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My understanding is that the worry is that Disney will lock the back catalog, and now the Fox catalog that sustains repertory theaters, behind contracts that require, say, showing all Marvel movies for weeks on first release, removing the ability of these small studios to make money on Aliens and then show new indie movies in between. Forced bundling, basically. Along with that, I understand that contracts for blockbusters often specify display tech, seating quality, and the like, locking these small theaters out from showing them even if they want to.
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ahhhh ok. yeah, that would suck.
i definitely donât know enough about the business to properly qualify any of my thoughts, but i guess it comes down to how much the major studios actually own. like do the major studios technically own every movie? maybe thatâs a dumb statement, but i guess iâm thinking, what is the amount of film that is showable if major studios stop allowing it?
i just think that there will always be a demand for people to gather in a place and eat and drink and watch stuff, and my thinking was that smaller theaters have lower overhead.
yeah! this business seems like it should work especially if itâs not live performers, but youâve got more experience than anyone at how hard that is
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The flattening of distribution of the internet moves the power away from the bundlers (big studios, movie labels, middle-tier, middle-budget productions of all sorts) and towards the storefronts, who own the consumer relationship (movies: Netflix, studio film portals like HBO Max, Disney+) and those who can independently attract an audience (individual stars, streamers, Patreon). You donât have anything stopping you from independently reaching an audience but you can no longer join a pack for safety, itâs a wild gamble.
So the world is better at finding and breaking out new talent but the prospects for any given person who wants to do that work are worse because thereâs no more soft failure into a middling production anymore
In other words, I think future independent film grows out of YouTube and TikTok stars doing more ambitious projects and taking the audience they already have with them
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the big chain theatre had ÂŁ5 tickets for absolutely everything, and it was really nice just being able to turn up and see whateverâs showing with v little cost. i saw a lot more shit than when i lived in london with access to the bfi etc.
in the music world there was a ton of hype earlier in the year about âvirtual concertsâ and while thatâs definitely a thing thatâs not going anywhere, it became really obvious that thatâs not going to catch on as a permanent replacement of in person concerts and anyone who thought that was the case was either an idiot or drinking industry kool-aid and everyoneâs just waiting things out and hoping there will be any venues left open when things are safe to have again.
similarly i think the move for bigger movies to simultaneously premiere on streaming services might have been inevitable given where things were heading and the pandemic has just accelerated it. i also think the experience of blockbuster movies in a big theater is by no means as indispensable to a lot of people as going to concerts is.
that said, i do think there will be a point in time when itâs far safer to be in public where people will be very desperate to go out to shows or to the theater or really go out to anything again because theyâve realized how much being in all the time sucks. and in a lot of places in america (and elsewhere) where there arenât a lot of options that one place is the big multiplex. the problem is that the damage might be permanently done on a lot of theaters/venues by the point everything is safe again. but i do think that whatever is left/whoever can open up to fill that void will benefit a lot at that point.
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now people in the middle of nowhere will be able to go to their local Disney Center and itâll be like Cracker Barrel and filled with a massive gift shop before you get to the theater itself to watch only Disney owned films
yeah this is something people here and elsewhere are ignoring when they say âthe chains will go under and independent theaters will stay openâ and probably a much bigger and more real concern than the big theater chains going under tbh. esp considering how small the margins a lot of them operate at and how them screening famous older movies now owned by Disney keeps them afloat.
anyway the effects of austerity stuff is going to be an increasingly overwhelming problem in all sectors of life after the pandemic. i donât think weâre all going to be fully aware of all of the levels of shock doctrine that are happening across society right now until decades later.
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