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Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis

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Re: Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis

#371

Post by spc476 »

spc476 wrote: post #362
jrowen wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently watched A League of Their Own and Die Hard . In my opinion, these movies are just categorically different from what's being made today, are still totally compelling start to finish, and really capture the magic and the high art of the golden age of cinema. I truly believe movies were just better 30-40 years ago. That was the era of "every second counts." Every second has meaning and purpose and adds someth…

Survivalship bias. Here's a list of movies released in 1985: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_films_of_1985 >. How many of those are good? How many have you heard of? Here's a list of movies released in 2025: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_films_of_2025 >. Same questions.

I went through the lists. In 1985, of the top 10 movies, you had two direct sequels, two adaptations, leaving six original movies. In 2025, of the top 10 movies, you had two direct sequels, two remakes, three franchises (maybe sequels?), one that is a part II (so sequel?, also an adaptation), one adaptation and it seems one original movie. My, how times have changed.

Re: Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis

#372

Post by SV_BubbleTime »

vachina wrote: post #36
pkorzeniewski wrote: post #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.

There is very little incentive to make good movies now, especially when zoomers' attention spans are maximum 2 minutes. I still enjoy a classic movie or two but I'm running out of movies to watch even then.

“Second screen viewing” that there is a term for it and they’re writing for it… is a real problem.

Re: Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis

#373

Post by mcphage »

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…

I remember Joel Spoksky talking at a conference when YouTube was new, and media companies were suing it for pirated content, and Joel said that media companies were afraid of users sharing media content, but what they should be afraid of is users sharing their own content and everyone liking that better. Which has steadily come to pass.

Re: Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis

#374

Post by treis »

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.

This isn't why Hollywood is dying. Hollywood is dying because it's cheaper to make movies elsewhere. We're (probably) still going to have movies for a long time. In the same way that we still have cars long after Detroit "died".

Re: Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis

#375

Post by [deleted] »

cloche wrote: post #199
ks2048 wrote: post #145

Everyone is complaining about movie theater prices. But, I'll also complain about streaming prices. I want to watch The Secret Agent and it's $9.99 to rent on Apple TV. It doesn't seem to make sense in comparison to month all-you-can-watch subscription prices.

This is one thing I really despise about the streaming world. When rental stores were a thing you could grab older movies from the bargain bin to rest for $1 or less. Now all movies are the same price no matter if it's new or 30 years old.

[deleted]

Re: Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis

#376

Post by dyauspitr »

treis wrote: post #374
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.

This isn't why Hollywood is dying. Hollywood is dying because it's cheaper to make movies elsewhere. We're (probably) still going to have movies for a long time. In the same way that we still have cars long after Detroit "died".

I wouldn’t even say that. It’s dying because people are spending a lot of time watching YouTube, instagram and TikTok. A lot of people now just don’t watch a lot of long form content.

Re: Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis

#377

Post by danbolt »

Telemakhos wrote: post #364
mosura wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back pre digital I was once lucky enough to see Aliens on one of the private cinemas at Fox, and it was astounding. I think people underestimate how poorly operated most normal cinemas used to be, combined with maybe not the best prints etc.

I remember seeing In the Mood for Love on the big screen in my local arthouse cinema back around 2000. It was shot with analogue film and projected as such, and the sheer details of the textures were astounding. It's not a bad film on my 4k monitor, but I don't feel the same awe.

I’ve only seen that movie on an old MacBook about a decade ago, but I can certainly believe it’d be a treat seeing it the way you mention.

Funny enough, I want to see a version of Chungking Express that feels processed to look like an early-2000s digital camera.

Re: Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis

#378

Post by danpalmer »

People like to point at prices and bad audience behaviour for the downfall of cinemas, but I'd suggest that it also comes down to availability and home experience.

When I was growing up we went to the cinema regularly, but the only options for watching a film were VHS rentals and the cinema, both of which required going out. Films were rare. Sometimes there would be a film on TV, but it would have ads every 20 minutes, and our TV was a relatively small CRT.

Now I have nearly every film made available to me to watch within minutes on a huge screen, in a quiet room, that doesn't smell, with no ads, at the time I want, without going out, and I can pause it to go to the toilet or get a drink rather than having to hope I don't miss anything. And I don't have a home cinema setup, I have a The only time I go to the cinema now is for IMAX because that passes the bar of better than I have at home as a whole package.

Cinemas just suck.

Re: Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis

#379

Post by alsetmusic »

tyjen wrote: post #157
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.

The last movie we attended people were incredibly disruptive throughout the film, to the point that it was difficult to focus on the film. Some people enjoy screaming, laughing, and talking as part of the experience, but it's apparently been normalized beyond my tolerance threshold. Add in the cost and overall movie quality decrease of Hollywood productions, and it's difficult to justify. Presently, we watch foreign…

This is why I strongly endorse buying a projector if the space allows for one. Changed the home experience. I thought I might be making a mistake when I bought my first (720p) years ago but I'd never go back to a traditional television.

Re: Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis

#380

Post by JKCalhoun »

danpalmer wrote: post #378

People like to point at prices and bad audience behaviour for the downfall of cinemas, but I'd suggest that it also comes down to availability and home experience. When I was growing up we went to the cinema regularly, but the only options for watching a film were VHS rentals and the cinema, both of which required going out. Films were rare. Sometimes there would be a film on TV, but it would have ads every 20 minute…

And yet I have no interest in watching any of the current few decades of superhero crap that Hollywood has been grinding out—at home or anywhere else. Maybe movies also suck these days.
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