391–400 of 492 posts
https://www.wnd.com/2017/06/see-what-1991-disney-memo-predic...
He's wrong Quibi was a bad idea, but he's right with to say they didn't build to iterate -
"It was a bad idea that had no testing ground other than a big-scale investment," Diller said. "Otherwise, it would have slithered around for a while. But it was such a big-scale thing that it lived and died in a millisecond."
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 There's 100+ years of fantastic historical content and we're not doing anything with it. 99% of what's shown in theaters is new releases.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…
For example the audience would vote with their ticket purchases, which would kick in once a threshold had been met (50% of seats filled, etc.).
The cinema itself could market its web/mobile app instead of individual films, or actually both at once.
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…
> 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?
Why would every movie theater need to do that? That seems like an absurd proposition.
Do I really need to watch older movies in some newer giant theater designed with a special sounds system that the entire theater needs to be certified for if I'm watching a movie that wasn't scored to take advantage of it?
> What happens to profit margins?
I dunno. Why don't you ask the theaters that run old/indie movies either exclusively or during designated time slots once a week or so? They seem to think it's profitable, since they do it.
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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.
That’s why Facebook hand Google are free to use, but they mine data for profit.
That’s why we have shit films for the most part, and mediocre restaurants.
There are rare bubbles of quality where there is consumer demand and habits around that. Coffee where I live is pricey and good. But in other places it can be cheap and crap if that’s more profitable.
Get millions of fussy people to spend thousands on the movies and you could conjure up some great experiences!
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…
You can watch all these anytime on streaming - why do you need a cinema to see them?
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You could also argue it was spoofing the Airport films which were based on books.
There are a significant number of scenes in Airplane that are directly lifted from Zero Hour. I haven't checked recently, but I think it's almost a scene-for-scene remake in many respects.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-v2BHNBVCs
It really was a remake of a "serious" drama as a comedy.
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 Uptown used to do revivals between big releases. I saw Blade Runner, Ben Hur, 2001, and other classics there. They did not make money on those and had to convert to 100% current releases. I think it is now closed.
The Air & Space IMAX theater used to do “Sci Fi Sundays” where they played a classic science fiction movie on Sunday evenings as the last showing.
The Avalon is in one of the richest neighborhoods on DC/MD border. When it went bankrupt all the neighbors pooled their money and started a nonprofit to keep it open.
The AFI has a theater in a MD suburb, which shows all sorts of revivals and classics year round.
In every one of these theaters I am always shocked to see how few people a classic pulls in. Went to see Blade Runner “Final Cut” at AFI on a huge screen and there were like 40 people. 2001 in a 70mm print was about half full. Inception or Interstellar in IMAX (the real one, 70 ft tall screen) was less than half full.
A small takeaway is that, with so much historical catalog, the audience is very finely chopped up. Only a relatively small % of people love each old movie enough to rally to the theater at a specific night and time.
The big takeaway is how crucial strong marketing is for theater attendance. Undoubtedly there were many available casual fans who simply did not know about these showings. Mass marketing is hard and expensive.
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.
Badly written novels and screenplays often have the feeling of watching a cheap puppet show where the author is clearly visible puppeteering all the other characters because they act unrealistically and in accordance with the author's poor understanding of the world and people. In "The Room", the painfully eccentric author is not only puppeteering, but he's acting and directing it, and not in a hypothetical way. It goes so totally over the top with that that it's epic in an unexpected way because the writing intends to be serious.
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…
How many good old films are there? An order of magnitude more than that! So what do you put on? Whatever you choose, you won't attract a significant chunk of fans, the way you can attract a significant chunk of opera fans by putting on The Magic Flute.
There are probably a lot more film fans than opera fans. But opera fans are probably willing to spend a lot more per event than film fans.