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Reel Inequality: Charting the Vanishing Middle Class of Movies

reelinequality.com

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Re: Reel Inequality: Charting the Vanishing Middle Class of Movies

#11

Post by FirmwareBurner »

intalentive wrote: post #6

I miss “smart” mid-budget movies of the kind Miramax used to put out in the 90s. With a few exceptions they don’t seem to be as prevalent. The market has changed.

I miss the cheesy but wholesome comedies and parodies of the 1990s and 2000s: Anger Management, Rush Hour, The Cable Guy, American Pie, Scary Movie, Bruce Almighty, Eurotrip, Tropic Thunder, Hot Shots, Borat, Idiocracy, How High, White Chicks, etc.

We can't have any like those in this age because someone on Twitter will claim to be offended. Good thing to back-up those old gems as well before they get cancelled/edited to comply with modern sensibilities.

Re: Reel Inequality: Charting the Vanishing Middle Class of Movies

#12

Post by whartung »

Isn't this because the mid range is going straight into the streaming services, rather than through (an I assume expensive) distribution process into theaters?

Theater going is expensive (I think it's expensive), the alternatives are "pretty good", so that impacts overall theater presence.

Having a "block buster" that can justify the expense of marketing and distributing to the now weaker theater market seems like a prudent thing for the studios and it's just part of the current reality of entertainment.

I know I don't see many movies in the theater. I don't know if I've seen anything since Top Gun. I was hoping to see Dune 2, but it's delayed. I will be seeing the Ferrari bio-pic, simply because I'm a Mann nut. Otherwise, we rented Barbie. We rented GoG3, we'll be renting Oppenheimer.

And whatever other random stuff I sleep through from Netflix.

Re: Reel Inequality: Charting the Vanishing Middle Class of Movies

#13

Post by g9yuayon »

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #10
g9yuayon wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 2023 had a lot of big-budget bombs. Ant-Man, Indiana Jones, Mission Impossible, Transformers, The Flash, Fast X, Blue Beetle, Elemental, Shazam!, and the Marvels all underperformed somewhere on the scale from "disappointment" to "disaster". And rightly so. The so-called special effects in those superhero movies are really getting exhausting. What's the point of having superpower yet battling like a peasant in medie…

>What's the point of having the best technologies on earth yet having your tribe living in dirt and fighting with rhinos and using duet to elect your leaders Yes, Marvel is shit now, but escapism and fantasy entertainment doesn't work on real world logic. If I want to see realistic battles going on I just turn on the news. I go to the cinema because I want a dose of escapism while I turn off my brain for 2 hours.

Me too. It's just that I don't want to escape into the world of the villagers in Wakanda, where owners of stealth jet and energy shield fought on rhinos with spears, and a handful of people lived like royalties but I would live like a peasant.

Re: Reel Inequality: Charting the Vanishing Middle Class of Movies

#14

Post by mjr00 »

tunesmith wrote: post #9
mjr00 wrote: post #5

2023 had a lot of big-budget bombs. Ant-Man, Indiana Jones, Mission Impossible, Transformers, The Flash, Fast X, Blue Beetle, Elemental, Shazam!, and the Marvels all underperformed somewhere on the scale from "disappointment" to "disaster". On the other hand, aside from the massive big-budget hits of Barbie and Mario, there were also a number of mid-budget films that did very well: John Wick 4, Sound of Freedom, Five…

But that's not really what the graph plots; it doesn't try to estimate revenue expectations or even production costs. (Although, that would be interesting to factor in production costs.) Comparing 2006 to 2023, I see more sequels early in the list, and fewer originals.

Right, which is why concluding that there's a "vanishing middle class" from those charts doesn't make sense. (assuming that's what the author intended the conclusion to be. Aside from the title, there doesn't seem to be much of one.)

Re: Reel Inequality: Charting the Vanishing Middle Class of Movies

#15

Post by EA-3167 »

g9yuayon wrote: post #8
mjr00 wrote: post #5

2023 had a lot of big-budget bombs. Ant-Man, Indiana Jones, Mission Impossible, Transformers, The Flash, Fast X, Blue Beetle, Elemental, Shazam!, and the Marvels all underperformed somewhere on the scale from "disappointment" to "disaster". On the other hand, aside from the massive big-budget hits of Barbie and Mario, there were also a number of mid-budget films that did very well: John Wick 4, Sound of Freedom, Five…

> 2023 had a lot of big-budget bombs. Ant-Man, Indiana Jones, Mission Impossible, Transformers, The Flash, Fast X, Blue Beetle, Elemental, Shazam!, and the Marvels all underperformed somewhere on the scale from "disappointment" to "disaster". And rightly so. The so-called special effects in those superhero movies are really getting exhausting. What's the point of having superpower yet battling like a peasant in medie…

If you haven't already read Mother of Learning you really should, you would absolutely adore it.

Re: Reel Inequality: Charting the Vanishing Middle Class of Movies

#16

Post by lapcat »

I think that the data is missing something crucial, because it only talks about percentages. It's also important to know the total absolute (inflation-adjusted) revenue for each year. I'd like to know if the non-top movies are doing worse than before, in absolute terms, which we can't tell from the charts.

Re: Reel Inequality: Charting the Vanishing Middle Class of Movies

#18

Post by metabagel »

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #11
intalentive wrote: post #6

I miss “smart” mid-budget movies of the kind Miramax used to put out in the 90s. With a few exceptions they don’t seem to be as prevalent. The market has changed.

I miss the cheesy but wholesome comedies and parodies of the 1990s and 2000s: Anger Management, Rush Hour, The Cable Guy, American Pie, Scary Movie, Bruce Almighty, Eurotrip, Tropic Thunder, Hot Shots, Borat, Idiocracy, How High, White Chicks, etc. We can't have any like those in this age because someone on Twitter will claim to be offended. Good thing to back-up those old gems as well before they get cancelled/edite…

> We can't have any like those in this age because someone on Twitter will claim to be offended.

I think this is mostly an exaggeration. I think there will always be an audience for tasteless and raunchy movies. It might be a good long while before we see another white actor in blackface though, I'll grant you that.

Re: Reel Inequality: Charting the Vanishing Middle Class of Movies

#19

Post by PreachSoup »

mjr00 wrote: post #5

2023 had a lot of big-budget bombs. Ant-Man, Indiana Jones, Mission Impossible, Transformers, The Flash, Fast X, Blue Beetle, Elemental, Shazam!, and the Marvels all underperformed somewhere on the scale from "disappointment" to "disaster". On the other hand, aside from the massive big-budget hits of Barbie and Mario, there were also a number of mid-budget films that did very well: John Wick 4, Sound of Freedom, Five…

I agree. The opposite seems to be happening. This trend has been a while and this article is REALLY late

Re: Reel Inequality: Charting the Vanishing Middle Class of Movies

#20

Post by EarthLaunch »

EA-3167 wrote: post #15
g9yuayon wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 2023 had a lot of big-budget bombs. Ant-Man, Indiana Jones, Mission Impossible, Transformers, The Flash, Fast X, Blue Beetle, Elemental, Shazam!, and the Marvels all underperformed somewhere on the scale from "disappointment" to "disaster". And rightly so. The so-called special effects in those superhero movies are really getting exhausting. What's the point of having superpower yet battling like a peasant in medie…

If you haven't already read Mother of Learning you really should, you would absolutely adore it.

And Torth series. No punches pulled on the logical outcomes of superintelligence and powers.
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