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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

#381

Post by jbay808 »

kbenson wrote: post #349
jelling wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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…

In my area the local cinema used to do put on old Studio Ghibli movies. They always completely sold out.

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

#382

Post by loonster »

IAmGraydon wrote: post #296
mataug wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Yep. That's because people use Google to get directions to the nearest theater.

I would think most people know where their local theater is. It's probably people searching to see what is playing and times.

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

#383

Post by karmelapple »

ElViajero wrote: post #82
mihaic wrote: post #26

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 ag…

> What argument can one make when the burden of proof is to show cultural regression? First, you will need to give examples of what kind of movies you find "creative" that were done in the past and there is no current equivalent for that level of creativity. "Jojo Rabbit", "Parasite", "Blade Runner 2049", "Coco", "Lady Bird", "Arrival", "The Nice Guys", ... that is the past 5 years with one almost missing because the…

Thanks for reminding me of The Nice Guys. That was well-done... all of these were.

Still haven't seen Blade Runner 2049 ... which is the only sequel on that list, so I perhaps that's why!

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

#384

Post by [deleted] »

rglover wrote: post #295

Studios should create "backlot" theaters where you can come to the set, do Q&A/photos with actors/crew, and see the movie (or, similar to kickstarter, see the dailies/weeklies in progress) with regular screenings and events. Charge a premium for it, minimal cost to operate, and fans would love it. Would revitalize the role of the actor while generating a unique revenue stream. If multiple studios did it, you could ha…

[deleted]

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

#385

Post by wolverine876 »

anigbrowl wrote: post #313
wolverine876 wrote: post #255

Barry: Call me. I'll show you where you can find great art in movies, an order of magnitude more than what was available before. I'm a big believer in data and not personal anecdotes, but if I can do it, Barry can (and you can). I never imagined so much incredible art existed on video as what I've seen in the last 5+ years on streaming. The standard for what I will watch has risen dramatically - I don't have to compr…

There is indeed lots of great art about at all levels, but what Diller is complaining about is the business of balancing mediocre productions that ae sure to be popular and make money with stuff that almost certainly won't be popular in the short term but deserves to be financed and produced so people can catch up to it later (which might be decades). Diller worked in a business where studios banked on a combination…

> in another you're having your existing tastes affirmed within safe boundaries, and StreamCorp's goal is to be better at doing that than your friends or circumstances. You'll get lots of great viewing material that meets your aesthetic preferences, but not anything that really surprises or shakes you; you won't ever have a movie experience that causes you to walk around for 3 hours in the rain because you changed.

That doesn't describe what I watch at all. It may be what many people see, but I'm saying that there is another way for Diller and them, and that I've witnessed it.

Also, people have been saying that 'it's not like the old days, when we weren't so focused on money' probably for Diller's entire career. I've heard it for my entire life. I think today it's particularly misplaced now, when there is more availability and outlets for artistry in film than ever before. And also, some of it is funded by FAANG.

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

#386

Post by madrox »

Ed Catmull once pointed out that the movie industry is actually quite cooperative and wants everyone to succeed. The more successful someone else's movie was last week tends to positively influence whether the audience will come back to theaters to see your movie the following week. It occurs to me that this idea is gone from streaming movies. In fact, you're more at odds with your competitors than ever, since you'll basically be competing for the same subscription dollars in the minds of your audience. I'm very interested in what that will mean in the future.

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

#387

Post by kristianc »

kbenson wrote: post #349
jelling wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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…

> 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.

Great. Now every movie theatre starts doing that. What happens to profit margins?

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

#388

Post by dotBen »

endisneigh wrote: post #334
mataug wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yes, because after considering a datapoint of n=1, it's reasonable to extrapolate that the footfall of any arbitrary location correlates to the Google Trend graph of the locations's search terms /s

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

#389

Post by quickthrower2 »

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 way to make this work first off is the cinema on a quiet day offers the chance to rent a smaller theatre and play one of a preselected back catalog of movies.

Then people will do it as a party experience kind of thing. They could just ask for a minimum of 10 customers, which might be a better turn out than the quiet days.

Then extend it by offering a “ride share” where you let the cinema sell more tickets to strangers and as they sell you might get vouchers towards foods and drink thrown in. Why would anyone do this? Pick YOUR film and maybe get free drinks sounds great.

Democratising the film festival ;-)

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

#390

Post by TOGoS »

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.

Maybe because many of the nice things we would like to have are not profitable, and the insistence that profit is all that matters[1] is the reason we can't have nice things.

[1] to be clear: I'm referring to the insistence by those who have the gobs of money/stocks to decide what we can have, not by the average HN commenter.

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