Barry Diller: The movie business as before is finished and will never come back • Hacker News Board

Re: Barry Diller: The movie business as before is finished and will never come back

#21

Post by iamacyborg » Fri, Jul 09, 2021, 3:03 PM UTC

afavour wrote: post #13

The actual quote (with my emphasis added): > "The movie business *as before* is finished and will never come back." And I think that's correct. Superhero blockbusters taking over all box office receipts was one thing, but now those blockbusters are becoming deeply tied to streaming services like Disney+ that's bringing content into people's homes and away from movie theatres. I won't mourn movie theatres (though I ho…

> It makes me feel like a grouch to complain about the uber-popular, widely loved thing but this intertwined superhero universe exhausts me. I don't want to have to watch three previous movies and two TV shows to fully enjoy the movie that's in front of me.

They’ve also just become quite formulaic and as a result, boring.

Re: Barry Diller: The movie business as before is finished and will never come back

#22

Post by iamacyborg » Fri, Jul 09, 2021, 3:04 PM UTC

jeffreyrogers wrote: post #18

It's unfortunate, but I think he's probably right. Some movies are just better in theater. The experience of watching Mad Max: Fury Road in theater vs at home is a night and day difference.

Depends on your home setup, a big screen and some big speakers go a long way

Re: Barry Diller: The movie business as before is finished and will never come back

#23

Post by handrous » Fri, Jul 09, 2021, 3:05 PM UTC

afavour wrote: post #13

The actual quote (with my emphasis added): > "The movie business *as before* is finished and will never come back." And I think that's correct. Superhero blockbusters taking over all box office receipts was one thing, but now those blockbusters are becoming deeply tied to streaming services like Disney+ that's bringing content into people's homes and away from movie theatres. I won't mourn movie theatres (though I ho…

> I won't mourn movie theatres (though I hope places emulate the likes of Alamo Drafthouse and do dinner, drinks and let us make an evening out of watching a movie), but I do worry about things like movie financing. It feels the industry has split in two, either making super-expensive superhero blockbusters or super cheap indie films.

I'm informed by my cinemaphile friend that exactly this phenomenon has been much remarked upon in the last 15-20 years. Mid-budget films, which used to be very common, are mostly dead, leaving a couple kinds of low-budget film (the startup-model where you put out a ton of cheap movies and hope one is the next Blair Witch—and yes, most of this is horror—and the "indie" film kind) and the mega-budget ones that are basically investment vehicles. So, two kinds of films that exist because those models are the best ROI, and then indie films, and that's about it.

Meanwhile, there are still tons of good films coming out, but most are (broadly) in the "indie" bucket. People who complain that nothing good is made anymore[0] must just be looking at what's advertised heavily, is all I can figure. Dozens of good-to-great movies come out every year, including a whole bunch from the US.

[0] Then there's "it's all remakes now"—but 1) it's not, and 2) Hollywood started churning out tons of remakes about as early in their history as they possibly could, and never stopped.

Re: Barry Diller: The movie business as before is finished and will never come back

#24

Post by iab » Fri, Jul 09, 2021, 3:11 PM UTC

_trampeltier wrote: post #14

sharken wrote: post #8

The business of running movie theatres is what he is talking about and it's certainly changing. In Denmark the movies Godzilla vs. Kong, Nomadland and Black Widow will not be shown in major cinemas. The reason is that Warner Bros. and Disney (Marvel) have either shortened the exclusivity period (Warner Bros) or set the streaming premiere at the same day the movie airs in cinemas (Disney). The core of the issue is tha…

I'm a cinema guy, go to cinema about once a week. But to be honest, nobody misses movies like Godzilla vs. Kong. I think one of the worst movies ever.

Now now, let’s not be too hasty to make that determination until we’ve seen what fast & furious 9 has to offer

Re: Barry Diller: The movie business as before is finished and will never come back

#25

Post by sigzero » Fri, Jul 09, 2021, 3:16 PM UTC

afavour wrote: post #13

The actual quote (with my emphasis added): > "The movie business *as before* is finished and will never come back." And I think that's correct. Superhero blockbusters taking over all box office receipts was one thing, but now those blockbusters are becoming deeply tied to streaming services like Disney+ that's bringing content into people's homes and away from movie theatres. I won't mourn movie theatres (though I ho…

I will mourn movie theaters. Some shows are just 100% better in that environment.

Re: Barry Diller: The movie business as before is finished and will never come back

#26

Post by mihaic » Fri, Jul 09, 2021, 3:19 PM UTC

What I find exhausting is having any systemic criticism of the movie/music industry met with arguments along the lines of: "It was just different, you're merely nostalgic/you have golden age syndrome", and have a hard time answering back with anything except: "It really was better, sometime things do get substantially worse".

While technologically everything has improved, creativity feel like going from the golden age of the greco-roman world to 8th century Europe, where indie bands/movies are like the churches that preserved some measure of past glories. What argument can one make when the burden of proof is to show cultural regression?

Re: Barry Diller: The movie business as before is finished and will never come back

#27

Post by dbsmith83 » Fri, Jul 09, 2021, 3:19 PM UTC

ilamont wrote: post #4

”I used to be in the movie business where you made something really because you cared about it," he said, noting that popular reception mattered more than anything else. What arrogance.

I think you missed the point. He's saying that now things are made with other purposes in mind (like Amazon Prime). Obviously the people on the ground creating the thing care about it, but at the top things probably look different than they used to.

> "The system is not necessarily to please anybody," Diller said, suggesting Prime Video's primary purpose is to get more customers to sign up for Amazon Prime.

Re: Barry Diller: The movie business as before is finished and will never come back

#28

Post by yepthatsreality » Fri, Jul 09, 2021, 3:22 PM UTC

iamacyborg wrote: post #22

jeffreyrogers wrote: post #18

It's unfortunate, but I think he's probably right. Some movies are just better in theater. The experience of watching Mad Max: Fury Road in theater vs at home is a night and day difference.

Depends on your home setup, a big screen and some big speakers go a long way

I agree. No sticky floor, no person behind me that decided to take off their giant winter coat when the movie started (instead of previews), no people ruining my immersion because they have to pull out their pocket PC to address their attention deficit, no large groups of people clapping at every character reveal during a film or audibly cheering on the protagonists, no untrusted heavily farted-in seating, no reduced premium of the experience because big corp decided to save a few bucks by cleaning less, no overpriced concessions, no lines.

What I do miss is "going out" to see a movie. Alamo Drafthouse has a good model that entices "going out" but most chains couldn't shift to adapt to a similar model. Auto-managed streaming quality is something I don't really like either, let me buffer my own selection.

Re: Barry Diller: The movie business as before is finished and will never come back

#29

Post by spoonjim » Fri, Jul 09, 2021, 3:22 PM UTC

afavour wrote: post #13

The actual quote (with my emphasis added): > "The movie business *as before* is finished and will never come back." And I think that's correct. Superhero blockbusters taking over all box office receipts was one thing, but now those blockbusters are becoming deeply tied to streaming services like Disney+ that's bringing content into people's homes and away from movie theatres. I won't mourn movie theatres (though I ho…

> It feels the industry has split in two, either making super-expensive superhero blockbusters or super cheap indie films.

The great mid-budget content is now in Streaming TV, but if you’re wedded to the feature film format, try watching anything from A24 films.

> It makes me feel like a grouch to complain about the uber-popular, widely loved thing but this intertwined superhero universe exhausts me.

I haven’t seen a superhero movie since 1999’s Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Just stop watching them, you won’t become culturally isolated.

Re: Barry Diller: The movie business as before is finished and will never come back

#30

Post by adventured » Fri, Jul 09, 2021, 3:23 PM UTC

iab wrote: post #24

_trampeltier wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a cinema guy, go to cinema about once a week. But to be honest, nobody misses movies like Godzilla vs. Kong. I think one of the worst movies ever.

Now now, let’s not be too hasty to make that determination until we’ve seen what fast & furious 9 has to offer

No need to wait. It's really bad.

The last King Kong (vs Godzilla) was at least silly amusing to watch (once). F9 is just bad across the board, there was nothing enjoyable about it, the formula has now jumped the shark twice (the last Fast movie was the first jumping of the shark). The Fast franchise is in the guard rail, the race is over.