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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

#441

Post by darren_ »

ping_pong wrote: post #233
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…

When was the last great comedy movie you've seen in the movie theatres? I posed this question to my buddies and we were genuinely stumped. For me it was probably early 2000s, but nothing in the last 15 years that's for sure.

What We Do In The Shadows

(disclaimer of bias: NZer)

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

#442

Post by throwamon »

spywaregorilla wrote: post #38
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…

They're wrong, and the reason they believe it is because they're stuck on older mediums. In music, the radio and the record store defined the market. You had a small window so you invested big and mainstream stuff tended to be pretty good. Now music access is decentralized and you can chase a long tail of niche personal tastes. Music is incredibly healthy right now. There's so much great content going in myriad diffe…

The plural of medium (in this context) is media.

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

#443

Post by jmcgough »

werber wrote: post #3

The "movie business" is far from dead, there's an insane amount of production now and the breadth of those productions is far wider. The only death is the exclusivity of the industry, stories like the movie Tangerine (shot on iphones) or the recent release Zola (based on a twitter feed) are reaching audiences along with a ton of others that never would have seen them. Contrary to that, the highest grossing films of a…

> Contrary to that, the highest grossing films of all time are mostly within this century and past decade now

That's only true if you don't adjust for inflation: https://www.boxofficemojo.com/chart/top_lifetime_gross_adjus...

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

#444

Post by jdavis703 »

chrisseaton wrote: post #359
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…

You can watch all these anytime on streaming - why do you need a cinema to see them?

There’s also the community aspect. Being in an audience that’s actively engaged in a movie is like being at a sports game vs watching the game on TV.

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

#445

Post by bjt »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #389
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.

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 stra…

The Cinemarks near me did this during COVID. For $100 last summer I was able to rent out a theater and see the original Jurassic Park with my extended family. Rather than a minimum number of people they had a max of 20 (because COVID).

Looks like they're still doing it. https://www.cinemark.com/misc/private-watch-party/private-wa...

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

#446

Post by allturtles »

dogorman wrote: post #431
logical_proof wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a remarkably different experience between seeing Clint Eastwood 20 feet tall versus 25 inches tall

The angular size of Clint Eastwood is or can be made the same, by adjusting your distance from the screen. The difference is everything else about the experience, everything except the apparent size of Clint Eastwood. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angular_diameter

Your brain can perceive the difference between a 25 foot tall figure and a 25 inch tall one even if the angular distance is the same. Just like you can tell the difference between a giant ant striding through your neighborhood and a tiny ant on the wall in front of your face. One is impressive, the other isn't.

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

#447

Post by erikpukinskis »

snowwrestler wrote: post #398
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 can think of at least 4 big movie theaters in DC that did this. 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 las…

Comparing individual theaters doing a handful of showings to AMC running 10 showings a day of a film with ads all over YouTube and a McDonalds tie-in is not a fair comparison.

A fair comparison would be a re-release with advertising, a press tour, collabs with social media personalities, and a nationwide multi-week run.

People see movies because their brother in Florida said it was fun, or because they have seen the trailer four times. What on earth would compel someone to look up the schedule of random showings at their local theater?

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

#448

Post by anigbrowl »

anigbrowl wrote: post #340
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…

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…

vortices Y_Y

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

#449

Post by ehnto »

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…

Theatres in my city do this, it is fantastic. I paid normal prices to go watch Heat on the big screen in 2021 and it was worth every penny.

As someone who really didn't watch movies until recently, I have missed a lot of them. So being able to watch some of the iconic movies of yesterday in the theatre has been great.

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

#450

Post by TrispusAttucks »

This shouldn't be surprising.

The Internet geographically decentralizes everything. Movies and theaters are no different.

- movies

- music

- retail

- dating

- groceries

- work/office

- government paper work

- etc.

That is the progress of a society evolving.

All the incessant coming and going and driving and flying. Good riddance. Stay home. Plant a garden. Watch new movies. Save the planet.

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