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Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis

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Re: Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis

#241

Post by tombert »

longislandguido wrote: post #212
WarmWash wrote: post #96

My fiance mentioned we haven't gone to see a movie in theaters in years and it would be fun to go. I checked what was playing and: 2 tickets, 2 sodas, 1 popcorn. $86 dollars. Don't know if I'll ever go to a conventional movie theater again.

Most if not all the ticket price goes directly into the studio's pockets. So the theatres stay alive by selling concessions. I'd wager everyone here complaining about prices would also wax poetic about how theatres don't "pay a living wage" to the kids scooping popcorn and would immediately drive home in their $100k Rivians or Teslas so they can give a one star review on Yelp or complain on Reddit about the bathrooms…

The reasoning doesn't particularly matter to me, honestly. Whether or not it they need to charge a second mortgage to cover the cost of the theater isn't really my problem; these are for-profit companies, I don't need to do them any favor.

Popcorn cost basically nothing to make at home, especially if you buy the raw kernels and pop them yourself, and I can rent a 4k version of a movie for like three dollars on Amazon. My 85" 8k TV cost me $1200 (refurbished, but still). For the cost of going to the theater with my wife 15 times, I can buy that TV to watch movies but also use that same TV for many other things.

Even cheap shitty TVs are pretty ok nowadays, certainly better than the stuff when I was a kid, and after I have to question the point of going to an expensive physical theater where there's a risk of some teenagers talking over the movie and I can't pause if I need to use the bathroom. The theaters might not like it, but regardless of whether its fair, they are competing with TVs now.

Re: Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis

#242

Post by tombert »

longislandguido wrote: post #219
socalgal2 wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct, you can't give customers a horrible experience at the theater and expect the theater to do well.

Years ago I was in one of those old kitschy theatres. The seat was wet. I prayed it wasn't urine.

When my wife and I first started dating, we went to one of those cheap second-run theaters.

I liked that theater because it was super cheap (like seriously $1.50 for a ticket because it showed out of date movies). One time when she and I were watching The Purge, I hear this kind of squishy noise from right behind me.

I turn around, and a guy is getting a handjob. I motion to my wife that we need to move a few seats over.

You know, The Purge isn't the worst movie ever but I gotta admit that it's not a movie that ever really turned me on either. To each their own, I suppose.

From that point forward we always called that the Handjob Theater.

Re: Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis

#243

Post by xyzelement »

I started watching 1960s era movies with my kids and I understand why Hollywood had the power at the time. Entertainment and solid values crafted into a "picture".

I can imagine back then eagerly awaiting a new release. Now, who cares. Some depressing trauma story of someone I can't relate to or rehashed superhero flick. Yawn.

Re: Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis

#244

Post by msabalau »

epolanski wrote: post #194
delichon wrote: post #70

The little dinosaurs are ignoring the great big elephants in the room: gaming. The article doesn't mention it. The market for video games in 2024 was around $225B, compared to movies at around $33B. Hollywood has worked very hard not to realize that their industry has become niche and have succeeded. My last week may be an indicator. I've watched zero TV or movies but have spent about 40 hours helping a small colony…

The biggest competition for movies is actually from Youtube. While the streaming business led to a growth of the movie industry, pre Covid and pre strikes at least, it's difficult to compete when millions of people can produce good content for low prices. On top of that, it doesn't help that movies stopped innovating, 2025 box office was entirely dominated by prequels and sequels. I don't care about avengers, I reall…

Maybe one could reasonably blame on-line video and or video games if this were a global phenomenon.

But it isn't. China and India are going gangbusters. Japan is thriving and doing strong work. Nigerian cinema is projected to hit 3 million ticket sales for the first time this year. The UK--is at least stealing work from Hollywood with tax breaks. Korea had a rough patch, which they turned around by doing more mid-market films.

The US studios problems are unique, which at least suggests that the answer lies in the failures of their leadership. Perhaps their long project of abandoning original mid-market films to push bloated huge special effects heavy franchises was ill-advised. It's almost Like having a portfolio of 10-20 reasonable original bets is better than investing everything in a single expensive "sure-thing" sequel it increasingly seems like no one actually wants to see.

So I agree that Hollywood has stopped innovating, but am dubious that any other problems has much to do with Youtube (as much as I enjoy YouTube).

Re: Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis

#245

Post by lotsofpulp »

longislandguido wrote: post #238
wat10000 wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why can’t I have it both ways? If all of those things are true, then the conclusion is that theaters can’t operate in a way that wins my business. That would be unfortunate, but it’s not contradictory. It also seems to be that pretty much true, as I see a movie in a theater maybe once a year.

Extending this logic, Netflix should be able to lower prices to $1.99 if they stopped paying staff $800k/year... After all, they move 1s and 0s at the end of the day. No screens or customer-facing capital equipment to maintain outside of DCs.

That is not the logic used by wat10000.

I believe they wrote that it is consistent to find sufficient utility from a $14 grilled cheese sandwich and also find insufficient utility from a whatever price movie theater experience.

It isn’t written out, but when people complain about the price of anything, they are complaining the price to utility ratio. Not exactly profound stuff, but that is basically what it is, most people don’t get a sufficiently better experience in theaters in today’s world.

Re: Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis

#246

Post by projektfu »

WarmWash wrote: post #96

My fiance mentioned we haven't gone to see a movie in theaters in years and it would be fun to go. I checked what was playing and: 2 tickets, 2 sodas, 1 popcorn. $86 dollars. Don't know if I'll ever go to a conventional movie theater again.

Where I go it's about $33 for two tickets bought online and probably $20 for those snacks, though we usually share a drink and a popcorn. The theater is still usually empty.

The market-clearing price is nearly zero except for some new releases. Oppenheimer was sold out in its first weekend, for example.

Anyone who went to movies before about 1999 remembers them being a lot more popular.

Re: Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis

#247

Post by fraXis »

delichon wrote: post #70

The little dinosaurs are ignoring the great big elephants in the room: gaming. The article doesn't mention it. The market for video games in 2024 was around $225B, compared to movies at around $33B. Hollywood has worked very hard not to realize that their industry has become niche and have succeeded. My last week may be an indicator. I've watched zero TV or movies but have spent about 40 hours helping a small colony…

That game sounds interesting. What is it called? I only saw Beavers Be Damned when I searched Steam.

Re: Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis

#248

Post by wat10000 »

longislandguido wrote: post #238
wat10000 wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why can’t I have it both ways? If all of those things are true, then the conclusion is that theaters can’t operate in a way that wins my business. That would be unfortunate, but it’s not contradictory. It also seems to be that pretty much true, as I see a movie in a theater maybe once a year.

Extending this logic, Netflix should be able to lower prices to $1.99 if they stopped paying staff $800k/year... After all, they move 1s and 0s at the end of the day. No screens or customer-facing capital equipment to maintain outside of DCs.

What?

The extension of my logic to Netflix would be, if I think their prices are too high and that causes me not to subscribe, and their prices are so high because they need to pay very high salaries, then there’s just no way that Netflix can exist in a form that I would subscribe to.

Re: Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis

#249

Post by Yokohiii »

rimbo789 wrote: post #228
Yokohiii wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Terrible historical practices/immoral productions shouldn't the reason alone for such dismissal. Every industry had it's fair share of terrible things. Sometimes, we learn to do better. There are also enough ongoing things to be worried about. Hollywood should implode and hopefully the art form will resurrect for the better. But for me the primary reason is that they don't live up to what they are supposed to do. Cre…

Hollywood was never about making art. It was about making money. That some good art came out of it was an accident of the process. Do I want movies to survive? Sure. But Hollywood as a thing was about vacuuming up every penny it could and that I do not grieve.

The greed is the same for all players and industries. I don't see why hollywood's situation is different. They just failed to adapt to new conditions.

I agree that the good stuff is just a result of shotgunning, for every great movie, there are 100 that are forgettable. But we have the habit of concentrating power in one place, so I have no clue how it could be otherwise. Sure youtube is an alternative with myriad of independent creators, but it produced totally different outcomes.

Re: Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis

#250

Post by lordmoma »

WarmWash wrote: post #96

My fiance mentioned we haven't gone to see a movie in theaters in years and it would be fun to go. I checked what was playing and: 2 tickets, 2 sodas, 1 popcorn. $86 dollars. Don't know if I'll ever go to a conventional movie theater again.

if you love cinema enough
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