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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

#331

Post by DubiousPusher »

hughrr wrote: post #287
ahmedalsudani wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some would argue that your bladder was doing you a service ;)

I think the films were fairly enjoyable as long as you don't turn up with a film critic's hat on. But yes, missing 5 minutes probably wasn't a big deal at the end of the day.

It's gerting harder to be less of a snob. Years ago I decided to stop turning my nose up at "dumb" movies and just enjoy them but it feels almost as if the industry saw it as a challenge to make people like me scoff. The fandom and fauning is just endless and inescapable to the point tbat it is very hard to ignore.

It was also easier when we were getting big budget art pieces like "No Country" and "The Master" but those seem to have all but disappeared.

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

#332

Post by hughrr »

DubiousPusher wrote: post #331
hughrr wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the films were fairly enjoyable as long as you don't turn up with a film critic's hat on. But yes, missing 5 minutes probably wasn't a big deal at the end of the day.

It's gerting harder to be less of a snob. Years ago I decided to stop turning my nose up at "dumb" movies and just enjoy them but it feels almost as if the industry saw it as a challenge to make people like me scoff. The fandom and fauning is just endless and inescapable to the point tbat it is very hard to ignore. It was also easier when we were getting big budget art pieces like "No Country" and "The Master" but th…

The trick I find is to drink enough alcohol before you get there not to give a shit any more. Whether or not that's a good or a bad idea I haven't established yet.

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

#333

Post by karmelapple »

jack2222 wrote: post #314
jtwaleson wrote: post #183

Ok, here's my problem with the movie theatre industry. There's 100+ years of fantastic historical content and we're not doing anything with it. 99% of what's shown in theaters is new releases. I understand we don't want to "go stale" as a society and that movie producers also need to make a living, but the balance is just way off. I would pay good money to see "the good the bad and the ugly" with my kids in a couple…

You're completely right and obviously many many people would want to go and see something like the good the bad and the ugly in theatres - probably enough to fill the theatre for a showing or two - but the problem is how would they know it's on? A lot of people look up what movies are on that week, but most people are aware that the big movies are ok a the moment because they're marketed and obviously that marketing…

Event calendars in cities I’ve lived in typically have “special midnight movie” or “classic film screening” events listed, alongside things like “art in the park” or “July 4th fireworks.” I think event calendars like that can be pretty big drivers of traffic, and they should be relatively easy to setup almost anywhere.

Meetup.com could even be used to get the word out, though use of that might be limited in many places.

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

#334

Post by endisneigh »

mataug wrote: post #210
IAmGraydon wrote: post #118

Through my work, I have access to Placer.ai, which allows me to track foot traffic to any retail location or chain via visitors' cellphone GPS. Here's AMC's nationwide foot traffic from January 2017 through July 4, 2021. https://i.imgur.com/s3H7EYj.png

Looks kinda similar to the google search trends https://imgur.com/a/bbTjUkf

Wow, this is virtually identical. If I were paying for placer I'd stop after seeing that you can get effectively the same data for free, assuming you just need the trend.

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

#335

Post by albatross13 »

MivLives wrote: post #305
jtwaleson wrote: post #183

Ok, here's my problem with the movie theatre industry. There's 100+ years of fantastic historical content and we're not doing anything with it. 99% of what's shown in theaters is new releases. I understand we don't want to "go stale" as a society and that movie producers also need to make a living, but the balance is just way off. I would pay good money to see "the good the bad and the ugly" with my kids in a couple…

The smaller independent theaters near me tend to do more of this sort of thing. The one near me is doing an entire month of a Samurai movies. Also Month Python and the Holy Grail, and War of the Worlds (2005). All their first run movies tend to be independent ones. Not saying that chains shouldn't rerun old movies, just saying those types of theaters do exist. It's the only way I can truely get a movie theater experi…

> an entire month of samurai movies

Man, that is awesome. When my wife and I first started dating, our date nights consisted of going and seeing all of the harry potter movies as they were being re-shown in a local theater. We bought the expensive seats and this theater served food/beer with the movie, which made it that much more fun. I wish more theaters would adapt their business model do to stuff like this- I'd LOVE to see the LOTR trilogy (extended) in theaters again.

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

#336

Post by kevinventullo »

gregsadetsky wrote: post #239
tolbish wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much geo data can they obtain if my location is disabled for almost all of my apps?

1) A device's location can be guessed with your IP address at the very least. 2) Wifi networks. On iOS, I'm almost sure that apps cannot access the list of wifi networks that the device sees. As you may know, the list of wifi access point MAC addresses can be used to triangulate a device's geolocation (there was a related case with Google Streets View cars gobbling up that info[0]) On Android, wifi network MAC addres…

Android requires location services enabled to do ambient WiFi scans: https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/connectivity/wifi...

However, I believe connected WiFi information can be obtained on Android without location services enabled.

On iOS, I believe an app needs special permission even to fetch connected WiFi, and I believe you are correct that there is no way to access ambient WiFi scans.

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

#337

Post by munificent »

roland35 wrote: post #149
munificent wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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) * Wond…

Interesting lists, although I think maybe books based movies are more towards original side if we map this as a spectrum instead of a binary value :) New books with great stories are written every year, and I would rather watch that than spider man reboot #4 honestly.

> I think maybe books based movies are more towards original side

I agree totally. I'd also score remakes as more original if the film being remade is significantly older.

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

#338

Post by Traster »

fshbbdssbbgdd wrote: post #312
ganoushoreilly wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> https://imgur.com/a/jTkXhtx The thesis that appears to be correct with AMC and GME is that the shorts never really covered, they simply kicked the can through some creative vehicles.

How do we know that? Is it possible that substantially all the active funds with a thesis on AMC/GME got out, so now the price is driven by retail meme buyers who have no price target?

Honestly, I feel that we're way past the point of productively engaging with the wallstreetbets crowd, the "Naked short squeeze" eternal narative is about as substantial as the people claiming Trump will be inaugurated again later this year. There's no evidence threshold that can be met - on an infinite timeline, the fact that these hedge funds haven't lost money is just more evidence of dirty tricks rather than the most likely scenario - they dumped the stock long ago, and either have a strategy to get back in or have a strategy to avoid being burned again.

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

#339

Post by DubiousPusher »

hughrr wrote: post #275
Y_Y wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where's the data? Let's have some references to all this high quality stuff.

Well The Expanse quite frankly teabags to death 20 years of science fiction moves. I can't watch anything else now.

The quality of genre work has increased mightily but it really does feel like the budget has fallen out of more high minded stuff like "MOON" and "GATTACA". Maybe this isn't real. After all, we've had some pretty good snooty stuff. Ex Machina, Interstellar, Arrival, etc.

Very much could be just how much Avengers flicks have absolutely dominated the marketing. I think it's akin to how music seems to have died of you listen to the radio because the decline in listenership has resulted in more pop stations playing the absolutely most widely appealing stuff. But there is a thriving ecosystem off to the side that's way fuller and more varied than anything we had in the 90s.

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

#340

Post by anigbrowl »

nineplay wrote: post #53
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…

> 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…

Go back and watch films from the early 70s - the comedies are farcically stupid and the serious films are violent and paranoid, because between Vietnam, Watergate, and other political issues, its was a tough time and people were angry, disillusioned, and pessimistic. Spielberg's first commercial film Duel is a very fine piece of cinema but it's far from being 'fun.' Likewise Lucas' early work like THX1138 or American Graffiti is shot through with anxiety about the future and lost innocence. Hitchcock could do great screwball comedies but he alternated them with nightmarish vortexes on taboo subjects.

What you want are optimistic films where people get into trouble but keep their sense of humor and eventually bounce back. That requires a social and cultural environment, and a showbusiness industry, in which people can do the same. Have you heard many stories lately where a talented director goes way over budget or even bombs but makes a great comeback because people are forgiving and want to support a real artist? You have not, because the arts are heavily professionalized these days and computers have made accountants very powerful.

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