AMC Says More Than 20k Have Booked 'Barbie'-'Oppenheimer' Double Features
variety.com
variety.com
Promote actual movies a little more rather than spending hundreds of millions on dumb movies and leaving no room for real cinema.
So what you are complaining about is rather shallowness or masses who want more popcorn fun rather than taking chances with experimental productions (just to be clear I am all for it, ie Tarantino broke through by similar 'taking creative chances', but folks do rarely visit unconventional stuff en masse).
Haven't seen Flash yet but these movies all aim to be next juicy Endgame. If you want to blame anybody for current direction of Hollywood, blame all folks visiting Avengers franchise.
Sadly, they have no idea what they’re doing with the whole of DC and this movie was destined for failure.
You can't help those who are unwilling to help themselves. Literally no one forced them to sink 300 million into Dial of Destiny, for example. Or all the other crap they are putting out.
"Cutting spending" usually means removing funding from actual good movies and ideas, and doubling down on money-makers, no matter how dumb, stupid, or creatively bankrupt those money makers become.
Ahh yes. The studio have been hit trough no fault of their own.
I think the studios have produced total shit for a long time. Destroyed franchizes with incompetent writing and it is catching up.
Latest Indidana Jones is case in point. Everything about that movie except Harrison Ford is bad. And the latest reincarnation of Olive Oyl of Popeye fame is so unfitted for the role of action heroine it is not even funny.
I have a theory that the low interest rates in the past several years created massive distortions in the movie business. Firstly, incredibly expensive movies that, while entertaining (like the last Indiana Jones), have very little hopes of turning a profit. Secondly, streaming services having mountains of money and making things that are, well, too good and unprofitable long term. For instance, according to some unofficial numbers, you can make four Sound of Freedoms with the budget of a single Amazon Lord of the Rings episode!
Nobody can do that. Go down the list of films in 2023 on IMDB. How many of those didn't make back their money domestically? A LOT. The profit from even one of your movies barely pays for a single other flop.
Matt Damon commented in an interview that the problem was the collapse of DVD sales. With DVD sales, you could occasionally get a long slow burn after the movie was done (see: John Wick). Without DVD sales, it's either get it at the box office or you're done.
My claim is that there is an underserved market and companies are starting to invest in it and create movies that aren't ultra low budget. More movies to come, and like any market with limited competition, an opportunity to watch for.
About DVD/Blueray sales, a separate and interesting discussion. Digital purchases were supposed to replace those, but with non-portable DRM and cumbersome UIs with subscription services, this isn't happening yet. I wonder if anyone will "solve" the problem of buying a movie in the 21st century, or maybe buying movies is dead for good?
A quick search suggests each had a $100M budget, so it's worth noting they're not exactly cheap. They'll still need pretty big opening weekends to turn a healthy profit.
People on /r/boxoffice are saying that if <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbenheimer> works (and so far it seems so), a) there will be business school case studies. b) Expect other informal studio cooperations like this.
Anyway, I immensely enjoyed "Dial of Destiny", and I saw it with a fairly good crowd, although the front three rows were less-populated. The auditorium had a gigantic screen and seat-shaking bass audio. I honestly didn't notice all the woke feminism until it was pointed out to me; I suppose I am inured to all that by now. But all the settings and the chases and the hokey artifacts were amazing to me, and I've always been a fan of Indy and Harrison. Special place in my heart.
Anyway, on Saturday I ventured to the same mall again to see "Sound of Freedom". Now the mall was packed, the multiplex was packed, and the auditorium was even more packed than before. I had an aisle seat in Row B, and seeing the screen was a little off-kilter. But the film was fantastic. It was gripping, exciting, repulsive, and triumphant. I was glad to have spent the money on that ticket and supported these moviemakers. In fact, I will be returning to see it tonight, because I told some friends and one of them has gathered a group for this outing. So, spread the word; this is the must-see film of the summer, and you can probably find free tickets, because many are being donated in a "pay-it-forward" movement.
Regarding etiquette: I've found people to be polite when I go to the movies. Sometimes someone peeks at their phone and the brightness is way up. But I think the management is fairly responsive if someone has a bad experience. I've lived in this major city for 24 years, and I've probably never encountered someone so rude that it ruined my movie, or I had to report to management. There used to be some really janky theaters in the bad part of town where it was normal to be snarky, and yell at the screen and throw popcorn and stuff, and sometimes we'd go there on purpose, because people can really be hilarious when it's a Rocky Horror attitude to some campy horror movie. But that's a social contract and not being rude to other patrons, you know?
It's clearly an underserved market, and it also highlights that if you want to add themes currently associated with politics (race, feminism, vaccines, religion), you better know your audience and keep costs proportional to what you're doing.
Disney in particular has had a series of underwhelming to abysmal results when mixing liberal themes into movies that otherwise were meant to have broad appeal. The market is starting to do its job and reallocating resources appropriately to what people want to see. And to be clear, I'm not saying that this is a good thing or a bad thing, simply that it's happening.
Huh, why would you say that? Dude seems like a little off, but I wouldn't just attribute any such oddities to being conservative.
Here on HN we're too quick to associate the label "conservative" as a negative trait, while for me calling someone "liberal" or "conservative" is akin to calling someone "sports enthusiast". It is what it is...
it sounds good. logical. sounds it. is it?
what’s the distribution of your label attribution? this one suspects that the conservative label sees significantly more use.
this isn’t judgement, it is an observation. humans like belonging, and belonging is cemented through identifying an out group.
the puzzling bit is the labeling itself. did it add value? seems to have mostly taken everyone away from talking about Barbie bombs.
This said, I also think that the label "conservative" is thrown around a lot more because HN commenters tend to be more on the US "liberal" side of the opinion spectrum. Conservatives, thus, do stand out. This can be done with or without criticism. When I called the parent "conservative", I did so to point out that conservatives are an underserved market.
The whole thing costs about £50 sure (maybe nearer £60 nowadays), and we combine it with bowling and a meal out. Overall it’s a £150 “day out”. It’s not comparable to watching a film at home.
They're known for being pretty willing to kick out unruly guests, and I definitely appreciate it. I actually haven't had any issues at any of their locations in Denver, CO.
There's obvious exceptions, big fan service opening movies like Endgame were quite loud but it was a whole audience experience and it was fun, but typical movies and post-opening-weekend, most people are respectful.
This is in Eastern Europe.
Sure, you have the occasional people with phones lighting up or ringing during the movie, especially in movies with strong teenager attendance, but it doesn't define the experience. Yesterday someone took a baby to a horror movie I watched (!), and there was a bit of crying here and there. This kind of inconsiderate person isn't common in my experience, it's just like the random annoying person at a restaurant.
To be honest, with the movie plan it's totally worth it, but that's me. I love movies and while I have a decent and comfortable watching setup at home, it's like watching a travel vlog vs actually traveling - a whole different ball game.