Live data from Hacker News

Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis

theculturenewspaper.com

11–20 of 565 posts

Re: Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis

#11
post #7

$100 to go to the movies for a family of four. No thanks. There’s no mystery why the movies are dying. They’ve priced themselves out and then they give away the product on streaming several months later anyways. If they want theaters to come back then they’ll have to put movies behind a paywall again.

I doubt increasing the price of their goods will work when the supply of alternative ways to spend time at almost zero cost is near infinite.

Re: Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis

#12
post #7

$100 to go to the movies for a family of four. No thanks. There’s no mystery why the movies are dying. They’ve priced themselves out and then they give away the product on streaming several months later anyways. If they want theaters to come back then they’ll have to put movies behind a paywall again.

So do you want to pay more, or less? I am confused.

Re: Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis

#13

The Oscars are the heart of the problem. One definition of “celebrity” is “person who is celebrated” Hollywood is so used to getting high on its own supply that it really thinks we want to see an AI slop video of Brad Pitt fighting Tom Cruise. People there just don’t have any information at all about what anybody outside their bubble thinks so of course they make samey big budget pictures and samey small budget pictu…

"Hollywood" thinks we want AI slop in the way that hackers think we want video with unskippable ads.

Re: Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis

#14
post #10

The cultural relevance of movies, and American made movies isn't going anywhere anytime soon, but I think the economics of streaming is finally playing out in the loss of the geographical concentration of power in Hollywood and California. This is the endgame of the feedback loop of streamers causing industry consolidation... the direct connection of dollars people spend to sit in a theatre seat was slowly declining,…

As much as I support unions and labour rights, the last SAG-AFTRA strike mostly just helped the big studios realize they could do more with less.

Hollywood is a factory town at the end of the day, and we all know what happened to most factory towns in America. This one is just getting there a few decades after the others.

Re: Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis

#15
post #10

The cultural relevance of movies, and American made movies isn't going anywhere anytime soon, but I think the economics of streaming is finally playing out in the loss of the geographical concentration of power in Hollywood and California. This is the endgame of the feedback loop of streamers causing industry consolidation... the direct connection of dollars people spend to sit in a theatre seat was slowly declining,…

Cultural relevance of movies is already greatly diminished. Maybe these AI tools will trigger a reversion of movies to the days of the nickelodeons where plot, story, and character are irrelevant and people just shell out money (attention) as long as the moving image looks cool.

Re: Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis

#16
post #7

$100 to go to the movies for a family of four. No thanks. There’s no mystery why the movies are dying. They’ve priced themselves out and then they give away the product on streaming several months later anyways. If they want theaters to come back then they’ll have to put movies behind a paywall again.

The missing middle from 20 years back is rentals. That was $5-10 a pop, people rented almost weekly. The option is there digitally now but its not in the public conscience for the same reason as cinema, people can just wait for the streaming option as the turnover is so short. (And granted, more people went to the cinema back then)

Meanwhile consumers are whining about the increases in streaming cost and diffusion, and low quality content. It had to happen, the math wasn't working out. In the social media bubbles users argue they will "just pirate again", over and over as though those who would care to don't already do so. Its toothless. Average people are not going to pay for a VPN and navigate things they don't understand just to pirate. They will eat the cost, whether it be streaming or renting

Re: Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis

#17
There just aren’t as many good new movies. Most movies we watch at home are from decades ago. If we didn’t have streaming maybe we’d go to the movies more often, but it’s hard to say.

A few movies we watched are not worth the money. To stay afloat they have to raise ticket prices, but if we’re paying so much, the movie better be absolutely outstanding, and the are just not usually, so we stopped going.

Re: Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis

#18

I put more stock in the the Sundance and Cannes jury prizes: even if they're comprised of the elites who can afford to go to these festivals, they've still got far more artistic sense than the ossified corporate board that the Academy has always been.

Cannes is free to attend for film professionals. Always was. You only have to find a hotel.

At Sundance you could stay in Salt Lake City or Heber City and have fun. Free busses.

Oscars are not about the arts, nor about quality. Never was.

Re: Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis

#19
I haven't been in cinema in the past ~10 years and to be honest I wouldn't care if no more movies were ever made, simply because there are hundreds, if not thousands, amazing movies made since the beginning of the cinema that I didn't watch. Most of the new movies are crap anyways, so why waste time and money when I can watch a classic movie instead which has a much higher probability of me enyjoing it.

Re: Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis

#20
post #10

The cultural relevance of movies, and American made movies isn't going anywhere anytime soon, but I think the economics of streaming is finally playing out in the loss of the geographical concentration of power in Hollywood and California. This is the endgame of the feedback loop of streamers causing industry consolidation... the direct connection of dollars people spend to sit in a theatre seat was slowly declining,…

Cultural relevance of movies is already greatly diminished. Maybe these AI tools will trigger a reversion of movies to the days of the nickelodeons where plot, story, and character are irrelevant and people just shell out money (attention) as long as the moving image looks cool.

Can't it be both? In Marvel movies the plot, story, and characters are irrelevant and it's still the current greatest American cultural export.
Post reply on HN