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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

#371

Post by fragbait65 »

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 There's 100+ years of fantastic historical content and we're not doing anything with it. 99% of what's shown in theaters is new releases.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…

I agree, especially since a portion of the "new" movies are regurgitation of old classics anyway and more often than not weaker than the original movies.

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

#372

Post by thrower123 »

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 There's 100+ years of fantastic historical content and we're not doing anything with it. 99% of what's shown in theaters is new releases.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…

Blame copyright. It's the main reason we can't have nice things.

20 or 30 years ought to be more than enough time before a film lapses into public domain.

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

#373

Post by a5seo »

jelling wrote: post #341
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 There's 100+ years of fantastic historical content and we're not doing anything with it. 99% of what's shown in theaters is new releases.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…

Every top comment on HN is someone with an unprofitable use case complaining that no one serves them. Change my mind.

The problem is content owners still think of theaters as part of their fiefdom.

They’ll let you, the consumer, watch TGTB&TU in your house for next to $0 but if a theater wants to show it, there’s a $200 minimum fee (or 60% of ticket sales whichever is higher) plus another $150 to ship a hard drive with the content and one-time key.

You either have to find a lot of people who want to watch TGTB&TU at the same time and location or the studio needs to lower the costs of back catalog content to exhibitors and quit with the whole driving shipping bullshit.

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

#375

Post by munificent »

Apocryphon wrote: post #200
ttmb wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Here are the top ten box office films of 2020 But see, 2020 was an aberration. You have to look at 2019. Sequel, remake, sequel, sequel, comic, sequel, sequel/comic, remake, comic, sequel/remake, Oh. Oh no. Let's keep going for top 20, yeah? Sequel/remake, ORIGINAL, sequel, sequel, sequel, sequel, video game, ORIGINAL, comic, comic. (from boxofficemojo) 2 in the top 20. Let's keep going? ORIGINAL, remake, sequel-is…

Looks to be a different source from the OP, but let's go down the chart for 1980 past the top ten: https://www.boxofficemojo.com/year/1980/ Kramer vs. Kramer (book) Ordinary People (book) Popeye (comic) The Shining (book) Cheech and Chong's Next Movie (sequel) Caddyshack (original - franchise starter) Friday the 13th (original - franchise starter) Brubaker (book) The Jazz Singer (remake) Flash Gordon (sequel/remake)…

> Maybe you should go back a few decades until you can find a time when the top 20 were mostly originals.

Even if box office leaders were never mostly originals, there's still a very big difference between 50% and 20%.

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

#376

Post by lumost »

542458 wrote: post #363
kbenson wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are theaters that are dedicated to playing older movies, and they apparently turn enough profit to subsist in some locations. I think that makes this a top comment on HN with a profitable use case complaining that there's not enough around. Also, I would watch the shit out of the Good the Bad and the Ugly in a theater. Same with original Star Wars (which I think happened during extra trilogy releases occasional…

Anecdotally, there are two in my town. One seems to go bankrupt every few years. I’ve been told (by somebody who would know) that the other basically survives thanks to the Rocky Horror Picture Show, the Room, and Troll 2. Everything else loses money according to that fellow.

This type of theater is closer to the business model of community theater. Your banking on the notion that enough people are interested in seeing a particular set of classic movies to make ends work - or more likely you're betting that you can lose money slow enough to make a fun go of things.

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

#377

Post by matthewmcg »

jelling wrote: post #341
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…

Every top comment on HN is someone with an unprofitable use case complaining that no one serves them. Change my mind.

Or someone with a “novel” idea for a business that already exists, e.g. revival or reparatory cinemas.

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

#378

Post by edgyquant »

Apocryphon wrote: post #134
jfengel wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HBO had been doing it for a few years, with shows like The Wire and Deadwood. But Breaking Bad helped bring it to a wider audience, since AMC is basic cable rather than premium. (AMC had launched into that a year before with Mad Men, which was similarly TV as good film.)

I think the turn of the century start of the prestige drama cable age was The Sopranos , with The West Wing doing something similar on network TV.

I do think Sopranos was one of the first but specifically left it off due to it having lots of filler compared to breaking bad. It's a weird middle point where it did tell a movie like story but still lots of the unneeded drama of syndicated shows that came before it.

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

#379

Post by edgyquant »

ping_pong wrote: post #234
edgyquant wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Breaking Bad really set the stage for TV shows being good film. Whether you like the show or not it had a clear and defined story and ended after 5 seasons where most shows before would just run until their ratings dropped.

Better Call Saul at its best is as good, if not better, than 99% of Breaking Bad. Of course, the best episodes of BB are among the best in TV history.

I agree I think it's actually a much better show. It does take a couple seasons to really kick into high gear so I've had trouble turning other people onto it who were BB fans.

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

#380

Post by mcshicks »

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…

I have a friend works for American cinematheque. If you live in the Los Angeles area this is what you are looking for. Not just old movies but q&a with people involved in the film making. https://americancinematheque.com/
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