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

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

#101

Post by spywaregorilla »

sidlls wrote: post #89
spywaregorilla wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. So I watch a lot more limited series TV instead... and maybe that's just fine? To me, this is like complaining that you don't want to have to read the Fellowship…

Almost nobody expects their "cotton candy" entertainment to require that level of effort regularly. It's fine if a small handful of things based on prior art ("Return of the King") are around; healthy even. When that's all there is, though, that seems like a problem.

> Almost nobody expects their "cotton candy" entertainment to require that level of effort regularly.

Most people love continuations of prior art. The vast majority of people have no problem watching a few films per year, and consider it a luxury, not an effort. People love seeing their favorite characters reappear and have done so long before film.

> When that's all there is, though, that seems like a problem.

Well... it's not all there is, so that's good.

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

#102

Post by munificent »

handrous wrote: post #23
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 re…

> Then there's "it's all remakes now"—but 1) it's not,

It really is, if by "remake" you mean all ways of leveraging existing IP. Here are the top ten box office films of 2020:

    * Bad Boys for Life (sequel)
    * Sonic the Hedgehog (videogame)
    * Birds of Prey (comic book)
    * Dolittle (book)
    * The Invisible Man (book)
    * The Call of the Wild (book)
    * Onward (original)
    * The Croods: A New Age (sequel)
    * Tenet (original)
    * Wonder Woman 1984 (sequal, comic book)
Two originals. Now go back 20 years:

    * Mission: Impossible 2 (sequel)
    * Gladiator (book)
    * Cast Away (original)
    * What Women Want (original)
    * Dinosaur (original)
    * How the Grinch Stole Christmas (book)
    * Meet the Parents (remake)
    * The Perfect Storm (book)
    * X-Men (comic book)
    * What Lies Beneath (original)
Four originals. Go back another 10 years:

    * Ghost (original)
    * Home Alone (original)
    * Pretty Woman (original)
    * Dances with Wolves (book)
    * Total Recall (short story)
    * Back to the Future Part III (sequel)
    * Die Hard 2 (sequel)
    * Presumed Innocent (book)
    * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (comic book)
    * Kindergarten Cop (original)
Five originals. Another ten years to 1980:

    * The Empire Strikes Back (sequel)
    * 9 to 5 (original)
    * Stir Crazy (original)
    * Airplane! (original)
    * Any Which Way You Can (sequel)
    * Private Benjamin (original)
    * Coal Miner's Daughter (original)
    * Smokey and the Bandit II (sequel)
    * The Blue Lagoon (book)
    * The Blues Brothers (SNL sketch)
Five originals again. I'm going by top box-office gross here because I think that's a good proxy for what is successful. You can look at other years, but there is a very clear (but not overwhelming) trend towards movies based on familiar content. It's not clear whether studios are leading audiences or vice versa. Probably some iterative process of both.

There's also a clear trend away from dramas. I think that's because drama (and non-slapstick comedies) tend to rely heavily on specific cultural norms for their effect which makes them translate poorly. There is a very clear trend especially in the last decade or so of Hollywood focusing on movies that will also do well in China in particular.

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

#103

Post by merlincorey »

outlawBand wrote: post #73
mullingitover wrote: post #67

We're arguably repeating history, where 100 years ago film was the upstart (but rapidly growing) business and vaudeville was the established incumbent. Film offered far more creative possibilities and were dramatically more immersive than the entertainment it replaced. Today the film industry is the incumbent - profits have peaked, and the upstart video game business has already eclipsed it. Once again, video games h…

...but there is a huge percentage of the population that doesn't like / play video games.

Plenty of them are willing to watch people play video games, even if they don't want to play them.

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

#104

Post by ghaff »

iNane9000 wrote: post #93
handrous wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 re…

How do I find these movies? Amazon has some old, mostly low quality movies, but nothing good or recent. They got rid of the criterion collection years ago. Sincere question: How does one even find or acquire films today? I’d love to watch a movie, but literally don’t know how to go about it anymore. Netflix is not an answer as most of their content are not movies and basically spam to me.

Amazon has tons of movies but many of them you have to buy/rent a la carte. At least in the US, there's Red Box for mostly recent films. You can also subscribe to Netflix' DVD service--although their back catalog isn't as good as it used to be.

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

#105

Post by heurist »

iNane9000 wrote: post #93
handrous wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 re…

How do I find these movies? Amazon has some old, mostly low quality movies, but nothing good or recent. They got rid of the criterion collection years ago. Sincere question: How does one even find or acquire films today? I’d love to watch a movie, but literally don’t know how to go about it anymore. Netflix is not an answer as most of their content are not movies and basically spam to me.

Check out the Criterion Channel: https://www.criterionchannel.com/

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

#106

Post by mentos »

I have no clue how they're making money on these movies that are going straight to streaming platforms?

With a movie releasing in theatres there was a sense of urgency to see it on the big screen with big sound and big lights.

Being able to stream it whenever you want from home now means you never will.

Not sure if any platforms do it already but they should try to create a sense of scarcity by offering only a limited number of opening weekend tickets that you can reserve.

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

#107

Post by WalterBright »

iNane9000 wrote: post #93
handrous wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 re…

How do I find these movies? Amazon has some old, mostly low quality movies, but nothing good or recent. They got rid of the criterion collection years ago. Sincere question: How does one even find or acquire films today? I’d love to watch a movie, but literally don’t know how to go about it anymore. Netflix is not an answer as most of their content are not movies and basically spam to me.

The TCM channel does a good job of organizing films into categories. I've been watching their Film Noir picks every Saturday night. Lots of fun movies I never knew existed.

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

#108

Post by KingMachiavelli »

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…

> 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.

What's interesting is that the industry has repeatedly been broken up due to antitrust & anti-competition issues. It will be interesting to see how things stand in 10-15 years; will consolidation eventually bring government action or do we now accept 3-4 major players as being sufficient competition.

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

#109

Post by Retric »

majormajor wrote: post #72
nineplay wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People who complain that nothing good is made anymore must just be looking at what's advertised heavily I can't speak for everyone but I think it's hard to find anything 'fun'. The indie films inevitably seem to be deadly serious, whether it's terrible crimes or failing relationships or the inevitably of death. If a viewer wants 'fun' then they're stuck with formulaic superhero blockbusters. It feels different. Spi…

That's a broader cultural issue for all sorts of art today, not a movie specific thing. The depressed/angry mood has been building for a couple decades or more, and getting more widespread. Even something intentionally over the top like Fast and Furious or Marvel has more "serious issue" stuff in many of the installments from the last 5 years than previously. It's easier in the news to see all the bad stuff that used…

It’s really difficult to make a successful movie nowadays when you need to appeal to multiple different cultures at the same time. The depressed/angry mood is simply easier on the artist because it’s universal by default.

It sticks around until people get bored of it and studios move on for a while. Only to circle back in a few year and try again.

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

#110

Post by inglor_cz »

js8 wrote: post #44
sigzero wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I won't. I am from Czechia and maybe the culture here was different, but it used to be that movie theaters were somewhat like a normal theater, where you are supposed to be mostly quiet, behave, and not eat and litter during the show. But modern multiplexes have changed that etiquette, and it's hard for me to stand it. And the advertisements...

Yeah, here in CZ we dressed quite well going to the movie theatre in the early 1990s. These days anything will do.
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