Live data from Hacker News

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

npr.org

461–470 of 492 posts

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

#461

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> In every one of these theaters I am always shocked to see how few people a classic pulls in. Went to see Blade Runner “Final Cut” at AFI on a huge screen and there were like 40 people. 2001 in a 70mm print was about half full. Inception or Interstellar in IMAX (the real one, 70 ft tall screen) was less than half full. Maybe you chose bad examples.. but all of these movies are movies I like quite a lot and I would n…

I have to imagine an obscure 1970s sci if film is almost certainly going to get a smaller audience than Blade Runner.

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

#462

I think this interview that gets at a broader point that I find depressing/scary: that the availability of so much data and analysis has ended up "quantizing" creative endeavors to the point where formulaic output is just much, much easier, and that any truly innovative or "misunderstood" productions become much harder to sustain. I really see this issue everyone nowadays, from movies, TV and music to things like the…

The average age of the female Olympic gymnast is significantly older than the age requirement of the senior elite international gymnast. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320508493_CHRONOLOG...

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

#463

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Placer is able to track cell phones that have an app installed that uses their SDK. They currently have their SDK in over 500 mobile apps. The data is anonymized, but it would probably shock people how much information I can get from this system. I just pick a location and I can see how many people walked into that location over any time span in the past 4 years, where they live, how much money they make, where else…

I'll bite. Where I live and where I shop, I can understand. But how does my cell phone know how much money I make?

There are other companies that keep track of that (experian, trans union, quick books, etc) that get this from everything from your employer's bookkeeping software to your credit applications. And they sell your data. So if they know where you live and an app knows where you live ...

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

#464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Android requires location services enabled to do ambient WiFi scans: https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/connectivity/wifi... However, I believe connected WiFi information can be obtained on Android without location services enabled. On iOS, I believe an app needs special permission even to fetch connected WiFi, and I believe you are correct that there is no way to access ambient WiFi scans.

> However, I believe connected WiFi information can be obtained on Android without location services enabled. Correct, you need the "Access network state" permission (renamed to a more sensible "View network connections" in more recent versions of Android). However, to my knowledge neither the play store or Android system warn/ask you about this permission so to avoid it you have to explicitly check every app you ins…

I believe the function is "Wi-Fi scanning" in the networking settings tab on Android 11.

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

#465
post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on your home setup, a big screen and some big speakers go a long way

How big is your screen? I bet cinema screen is bigger.

I bet you don’t sit as close to a cinema screen as you do a tv

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

#466
post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is why I've been struggling with finding good films to watch nowadays. Shows are doing great but movies have been suffering. Take the movie "Nobody" for instance. How the hell that movie got the ratings it did I will never know. Not only is it not good, but it was nothing what it was marketed as. My solution to this is to watch actual films that are made with artistic intent or to see certain things that…

Isn't it said that there are only seven actual stories? That every story is a variation of those seven plots with different names, places, times, etc?

There are only seven if you insist on being very general and vague. Skimming I didnt see any thing about things getting worse or not changing. Tragedy story is about something being the protagonist’s undoing. However in films like Man Push Cart or Big Fan. The protagonist didn’t do anything to make their lives worse. It either just sucked more or always sucked from the beginning.

There are other examples too, but this is one immediate one.

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

#467

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…

There was a thread[1] earlier in the week lamenting how tough it is to make modern comedies. Between the Twitter mobs scrutinizing anything for insensitivity and the need to appeal to international markets, it's really hard to come up with a universally funny and PC-acceptable comedy anymore. You can't do slapstick or silliness. You can't (even gently) poke fun at "groups" anymore. Best you can do is a cynical "dark…

Like the other said, Sunny is long running. Curb, South Park are around too. I’m sure there’s more. This is off top of my head fav shows that aren’t abiding by what you’re saying are the rules now.

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

#468

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…

>lowest-common-dementor Don't give them any ideas about more Potter films, even if Rowling has been canceled

Harry Potter is my favorite book series in terms of personal enjoyment and memories, and one I re read every so often still. Is the author really cancelled if I’ve never heard about it?

I’m going to assume Rowling isn’t “cancelled”, but has a strong tiny population very upset at her. That’s usually how it goes for most “cancelled” people who aren’t already pretty old and retired instead of trying to continue in any limelight.

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

#469

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…

>lowest-common-dementor Don't give them any ideas about more Potter films, even if Rowling has been canceled

> Rowling has been canceled

That's probably the prime demonstration of the sillinr ess of cancel culture complaints; yes, people have criticized Rowling's gender essentialist views, but she clearly has not been, in any meaningful sense, “cancelled”.

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

#470
post #400

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 think this model works for classical music and opera because there just aren't that many works worth performing. How many operas are there that are still performed? 80% of performances are probably of the top twenty operas, certainly under a hundred. 99% of performances are covered by maybe a few hundred. How many good old films are there? An order of magnitude more than that! So what do you put on? Whatever you ch…

> How many operas are there that are still performed?

I hate opera but I googled it and got:

"According to Operabase* there were 2662 different operas performed over the last 5 years." (2017)

As to other classical music, I suspect very many times more.

I know opera fans and they would only go to see The Magic Flute again if there was a special reason.

Post reply on HN