Netflix CEO Says Movie Theaters Are Dead (semafor.com) 192
An anonymous reader shares a report: The post-Covid rebound of live events is all the more evidence that movie theaters are never coming back, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos told Semafor in an interview at the Paley Center for Media Friday.
"Nearly every live thing has come back screaming," Sarandos said. "Broadway's breaking records right now, sporting events, concerts, all those things that we couldn't do during COVID are all back and bigger than ever. The theatrical box office is down 40 to 50% from pre-COVID, and this year is down 8% already, so the trend is not reversing. You've gotta look at that and say, 'What is the consumer trying to tell you?'"
"Nearly every live thing has come back screaming," Sarandos said. "Broadway's breaking records right now, sporting events, concerts, all those things that we couldn't do during COVID are all back and bigger than ever. The theatrical box office is down 40 to 50% from pre-COVID, and this year is down 8% already, so the trend is not reversing. You've gotta look at that and say, 'What is the consumer trying to tell you?'"
Megaplex (Score:5, Insightful)
Films, not Cinemas (Score:5, Insightful)
If they started taking creative risks again and starting making films that, while still moralizing, did it in a way that blends into the story so it does not alienate the audience they'd be a lot more successful. Humans crave new experiences and watching the 10th sequel to Star Wars or the umpteenth super hero film is not going to cut it. I'll save those for a long plane flight not an expensive night out.
Re:Films, not Cinemas (Score:5, Insightful)
This is clear evidence that the problem is not that people are no longer interested in having a night out watching a film but that Hollywood is having real trouble making films that are popular.
The fact that hipsters are packing the local art house cinema doesn't mean Hollywood is neglecting some massive silent demographic. It'd be like seeing a packed furry convention and imagining that somehow furry fandom could go mainstream if the fur suit manufacturers could just come up with better designs.
Sometimes, supply and demand is actually in equilibrium.
Re:Films, not Cinemas (Score:4, Interesting)
This is clear evidence that the problem is not that people are no longer interested in having a night out watching a film but that Hollywood is having real trouble making films that are popular.
The fact that hipsters are packing the local art house cinema doesn't mean Hollywood is neglecting some massive silent demographic. It'd be like seeing a packed furry convention and imagining that somehow furry fandom could go mainstream if the fur suit manufacturers could just come up with better designs.
Sometimes, supply and demand is actually in equilibrium.
They are making movies for a demographic that checks off boxes, and doesn't go to Disney movies. The cratered Snow White live action film, all 200 plus million of it has returned only 80 million Worldwide, and in it's second week was beat by a budget film, "A Working Man".
I dunno, perhaps hiring people for their abilities rather than their politics might help?
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Disney has historically [thedisneyclassics.com] gone through off times where most of their films missed the mark.
I'd be willing to bet though that their Lilo and Stitch remake does well. Lots of nostalgic millennials with kids are going to connect with that in a way that they couldn't with a remake of something that originally came out in 1937.
Re:Films, not Cinemas (Score:4, Interesting)
Disney has historically [thedisneyclassics.com] gone through off times where most of their films missed the mark.
I'd be willing to bet though that their Lilo and Stitch remake does well. Lots of nostalgic millennials with kids are going to connect with that in a way that they couldn't with a remake of something that originally came out in 1937.
I have heard that Lilo and Stitch, and Moana should be pretty good.
But damn, it takes a lot of success to make up for Snow White. I have a real suspicion that Rachel Zegler might find it hard to get work in the future. When a person' attaches politics to the film, and those politics end up making Disney hire bodyguards for Gadot and her family, it isn't a good look.
Especially when a lot of people like Gadot. She seems like a decent person, as well as being really easy on the eyes. She isn't all that as an actress, but she is a professional.
Zegler's main talent is her voice, and she has a good one. I'm not wild about people attacking her ethnicity or skin tone. I don't know if you've seen the reboot, but why the hell did they put her in that Lord Farquar from Shreck hairstyle. He hair is beautiful. Her attitude, and loud mouth - not so much.
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Her attitude, and loud mouth - not so much.
What do you object to, her support for equality or her opposition to genocide? Or is it that a woman stated an opinion?
Re:Films, not Cinemas (Score:4, Funny)
Apparently the "Human Centipede" trilogy has a higher rating on IMDB than the new Snow White.
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Disney has historically [thedisneyclassics.com] gone through off times where most of their films missed the mark.
I'd be willing to bet though that their Lilo and Stitch remake does well. Lots of nostalgic millennials with kids are going to connect with that in a way that they couldn't with a remake of something that originally came out in 1937.
They'd make more money just re-releasing the old movies to the big screen. You want maximum Boomer, Gen-X, Millenial, and Gen-Z nostalgia money? Re-release the things some of them remember from the theaters, and some never got to see in the theaters. Loose the good stuff or lose the fandom. Best part? Doesn't cost nothin' for production value. You can put a little more in advertising and watch the money roll in.
Re: Films, not Cinemas (Score:3)
Re:Films, not Cinemas (Score:5, Insightful)
Disney historically had bangers with the 2D Animated Musicals targeted at children. But these live action films are not targeted at children, they are targeted at nostalgia seeking 40 year olds, who don't actually want to see their memory tarnished of a new version of their beloved film as a child.
That is the problem.
Sometimes something is interesting, like the Lilo and Stich film is one of the few they can remake and not ruin the original, because the original was literately marketed by "Get your own movie" cross over trailers with Aladdin, The Little Mermaid and a few others. But most of the time, Disney flops are because they put all the budget into an Animated feature, and then immediately went and made two sequels using their television show animators (so you'd end up with a television series AND a sequel also animated by the television crew, but without the original voice actors.) Did you know that Aladdin and The Little Mermaid had TV shows and two sequels?
Disney still does this to some degree (Tangled had a TV series which is actually reasonably good, but it's not the same visual look as the film) but now it seems like they make a "shot for shot" copy of the 2D film with different voice actors and fail to understand why those shots works. The Lion King was actually endorsed by the people who made the 2D animated version. Not so for The Little Mermaid which looks like it had all the creative choices nerfed to save budget costs.
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That's a well thought out and completely detached from reality comment ya got there.
16/20 of the top 20 box office releases last year were sequels or remakes. You may not like sequels and remakes, but the general public clearly does and the Hollywood studios will always go where the money is.
Inside Out 2 $1,698,863,816.00
Deadpool & Wolverine $1,338,073,645.00
Moana 2 $1,059,247,895.00
Despicable Me 4 $969,126,452.00
Wicked $744,164,780.00
Mufasa: The Lion King $719,984,192.00
Dune: Part Tw
Profit yes....but for how long? (Score:5, Informative)
16/20 of the top 20 box office releases last year were sequels or remakes. You may not like sequels and remakes, but the general public clearly does
I did not say that such films are not popular nor did I even say that I did not like them - just not enough to want to pay cinema prices. I merely pointed out that the cratering attendance figures for cinemas were related to the fact that Hollywood is not producing highly original, creative new films. The fact that 80% of the top films were remakes or sequels actually directly supports that point!
The effect is really easy to see: just look at the figures compared to the 2019 box office figures. Back in 2019 the top 9 films each made over a billion dollars with the top one making $2.8B. Last year only 3 films made over $1 billion and none made $2B and that's ignoring inflation which was quite high over some of that 5 year period. Even the 50th top film in 2019 made almost twice as much as the 50th in 2024. So yes, they can still today make a profit by mining old IP for sequels and remakes but it's clear that people are getting more and more fed up with that approach because they are going to the cinema less and less hence the reduction in box office numbers even when ignoring inflation. However, this approach is clearly not a sustainable business model.
Re:Profit yes....but for how long? (Score:4, Interesting)
The effect is really easy to see: just look at the figures compared to the 2019 box office figures. Back in 2019 the top 9 films each made over a billion dollars with the top one making $2.8B. Last year only 3 films made over $1 billion and none made $2B and that's ignoring inflation which was quite high over some of that 5 year period. Even the 50th top film in 2019 made almost twice as much as the 50th in 2024.
I wonder if part of this effect is due to the worsening economy. Restaurants and retail are also not doing as well. Economic sentiment is decreasing. When people feel this way, discretionary spending, like for movies, is the first to go. Blockbuster movies can counteract the economic trend, but we haven't had such movies lately. The super big question is whether theater attendance will return once the economy comes back.
Re:Films, not Cinemas (Score:5, Interesting)
You hit the nail on the head. I hadn't been to the movies more than a handful of times in the last 10 years until I got a Regal Unlimited membership last summer. Sorry, but movies aren't worth $15 per seat. By the time two people go and get a couple of drinks and some popcorn, you're easily at $50 or $60. That's just not affordable for many people, especially when most of the movies these days are retreads of old movies that shouldn't have been remade.
Since getting the unlimited membership, I've seen an average 10 movies per month. Can I wait a few weeks and see most of them on whatever digital platform they come out on? Yes. What I like about going to the theater is it forces me to engage with the movie better. At home, I'm more likely to pick up my phone during a slow point of the movie, sometimes missing out on nuances that matter for the overall movie. At the theater, I just sit and enjoy the movie. I think there is also something to be said about the experience with other people laughing at the funny parts, letting out small shrieks during jump scares, etc. Thankfully I haven't really had trouble with people talking or cell phones ringing. It occasionally happens, but not nearly to the extent that I hear people talking about online.
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This is clear evidence that the problem is not that people are no longer interested in having a night out watching a film but that Hollywood is having real trouble making films that are popular. They seem to have lost their creative abilities and focus almost exclusively on rehashing old films or making endless sequels to former successes. They also seem to have lost their ability to include moral messaging in a natural and often subtle way - it's not that such messaging is new, things as old as fairy tales are built on it - but what is new is that now it is delivered with all the subtly of a 2x4 to the head, breaking stories and characters to do it, destroying the entertainment value of the film in the process.
If we take th recent cratering of the Live action reboot of Snow White, with its loudmouth Star Rachel Zegler, who even after she was admonished, Still wouldn't shut up, even her connecting the movie with her far left ideaos, aligning it with with Palestine. Her antics had her followers making death threats against Co Star Gal Gadot and ms Gadot's children making it necessary for Disney to hire round the clock Bodyguards for Gadot and her children Gal is an Israeli citizen.
THIS is what the movie indust
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They've been recorded sating that they don't hire the dreaded enemy "white males, even have some rumors that their DEI demands no less than half their film crews be "non white".
Give me a break, Disney films are FULL of white males. Or how about Disney leadership? https://thewaltdisneycompany.c... [thewaltdisneycompany.com] Whole lot of white guys there! How about the company as a whole? https://www.google.com/url?sa=... [google.com] Looks inline with the US population in general.
Or how about Hollywood in general? https://www.google.com/url?sa=... [google.com] More white dudes than their share of the population!
It cracks me up how often this white male persecution complex the right has so often doesn't even hold up to casual observat
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This is clear evidence that the problem is not that people are no longer interested in having a night out watching a film but that Hollywood is having real trouble making films that are popular. They seem to have lost their creative abilities and focus almost exclusively on rehashing old films or making endless sequels to former successes. They also seem to have lost their ability to include moral messaging in a natural and often subtle way - it's not that such messaging is new, things as old as fairy tales are built on it - but what is new is that now it is delivered with all the subtly of a 2x4 to the head, breaking stories and characters to do it, destroying the entertainment value of the film in the process.
If they started taking creative risks again and starting making films that, while still moralizing, did it in a way that blends into the story so it does not alienate the audience they'd be a lot more successful. Humans crave new experiences and watching the 10th sequel to Star Wars or the umpteenth super hero film is not going to cut it. I'll save those for a long plane flight not an expensive night out.
I'm inherently skeptical of arguments that rely on an entire sector losing its creativity. The industry has definitely been overwhelmed with superhero movies, but that's what the public wants.
I'm not sure you can blame declining box office receipts on the movies that people are actually going to.
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but that Hollywood is having real trouble making films that are popular.
I don't think that's accurate... It really depends on the movie. There's lots of stuff that's "popular" once it hits streaming that doesn't have a theatre draw. I know my wife and I do that - we only go to the theatre for very specific types of movies. There's other stuff we're definitely still interested in, but would rather watch at home because it doesn't warrant a monster screen and a bucket of popcorn.
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I'm not convinced that's a profitable business model.
If they pack 6 showings a week, that's about 900 customers.
If they clear $10/customer that's $9,000/week.
Call it 3 salaries at $52/k year (low pay and all other costs), they're down to $6,000/week.
Medium to largish commercial space is going to be about $10,000/month or so, that gets them down to $3,000/week
I don't know what other costs are associated, but I suspect it adds up and makes things pretty tight.
I suspect movie theaters going forward will be lik
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The money in movie theaters has always been the REFRESHMENTS.
Let's go out to the lobby.
Let's go out to the lobby.
Let's go out to the lobby,
and have ourselves a snack.
Economics (Score:2)
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Nobody wants to pay $100 for the privilege of sharing a stinky theatre anymore, whodathunkit.
These movie theatres did it to themselves. If you want to see the future of microtractions in games, look no further than the 30 dollar hotdog and the 20 dollar soda. No I'm not kidding.
the consumer is tell you... (Score:5, Interesting)
That the content in the move theatre is not usually worth the expense.
Make good movies that are worth the experience and people will show up.
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I agree. Hollywood is gonna have a really tough time making a movie good enough for me to want the experience of paying $22 for 50 cents worth of popcorn again...
Maybe (Score:2)
The movie theatre experience isn't very good. Sound quality seems to be oddly bad these days, and of course the prices are high, and it's full of strangers who make noise and spread diseases and so on. It is much more comfortable and affordable to watch movies at home.
Of course I am an antisocial geek. Maybe normal people like being in crowded rooms full of noisy strangers.
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I feel like an old man because the last few times I've been to a theater I have found the sound to be a few notches too low, like below that loudness threshold you can hear, I'm here for the big screen I kinda want to be pummeled by the sound system as well.
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^ This.
Really big TVs have become cheap (Score:3)
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Well you can get overpriced popcorn with so much salt and artificial butter-flavored oil that you'll get a stroke and heart attack at the same time, an overpriced watered-down half-gallon of the vague semblance of a soft drink, and a half-melted box of expired Milk Duds. No way to replicate that at home.
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Also if you do like the popcorn you can make it pretty close to the theaters with coconut oil and Flavacol [amazon.com]
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Also if you do like the popcorn you can make it pretty close to the theaters with coconut oil and Flavacol [amazon.com]
Like the cliched reviews say, this stuff is a game changer for making popcorn at home.
It's also a game changer for clogging your arteries, so, probably don't eat it with every movie.
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Oh for sure, oil cooking popcorn like this pretty much ruins any small health benefit it would have had but it's so damn good sometimes.
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I bought some Flavacol a few years ago based on some comments I read saying how great it was. Really, it's pretty meh - mildly buttery flavored yellow salt - but I didn't think it replicated movie theater popcorn flavor very well. Maybe it did in the 70's? Also it comes in a huge container. Mine is still like 95% full and is free to anyone who wants to come pick it up.
If you really want to have movie theater popcorn at home, it's about buttery-flavored oil. Cook your corn in coil, top it off with more
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Really, it's pretty meh - mildly buttery flavored yellow salt - but I didn't think it replicated movie theater popcorn flavor very well.
Movie theater popcorn really does just mostly taste like slightly buttery salty popcorn. The trick with Flavacol is that it's a very finely ground salt, but it otherwise really doesn't taste like much else. The theaters generally also use a popping oil (typically processed coconut oil) with added yellow food coloring, but that's a matter of visual presentation rather than how it actually tastes. The real get-your-heart-surgeon-on-speed-dial super buttery flavor comes from adding some of the artificial bu
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Challenge accepted.
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Well you can get overpriced popcorn with so much salt and artificial butter-flavored oil that you'll get a stroke and heart attack at the same time, an overpriced watered-down half-gallon of the vague semblance of a soft drink, and a half-melted box of expired Milk Duds. No way to replicate that at home.
True, but you and your lady can bang on the couch if the movie sucks
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True, but you and your lady can bang on the couch if the movie sucks
Directions unclear, accidentally banged the couch instead.
-JDV
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Prices and convenience are not helping.
The fact that you have to take at least an extra hour to watch a movie in the theatre is a deal breaker when I'm busy. Drive 15m to theatre, 30m round trip, find parking, wait in line to get the ticket, find a seat ... it might not be a good spot if the room is full, wait through all the ads, finally watch the movie and hope other people keep their phones turned off.
At home, if you run out of popcorn you can always pause and get more for cheap.
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wait in line to get the ticket, find a seat [,,,]
Meanwhile, in the 21st century, I can buy tickets on-line and even choose my seat. And if I can't get a seat I like, I can always reserve it for the next showing.
Re: Really big TVs have become cheap (Score:2)
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Says the person who lives in a house, likely in the suburbs.
Because a large TV, nice sound system, etc, are much less possible if you live in the city, so you're likely watching movies on a 50" TV with TV speakers or a soundbar turned on low.
Megaplexes might be hard to get to since they're almost always located out of the area, but smaller theatres are located in many urban centers offering people who prefer to walk or
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Because a large TV, nice sound system, etc, are much less possible if you live in the city, so you're likely watching movies on a 50" TV with TV speakers or a soundbar turned on low.
Unless you're renting somebody's closet, you can still mount a decent sized TV right to the wall. Bluetooth headphones are also a thing, so you don't necessarily have to rattle the walls to get decent audio, either.
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TIL that 50" TVs are small laughable things. Geez, I remember 24" or so TVs being an above average home viewing experience.
Now get off my lawn.
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So maybe it's dying in the US, but if your apartment's the size of a shoebox, they aren't going anywhere yet. And yes, there's always the option of moving, but then you often need to then acquire a car, with maintenance, insurance, etc, and then sit through long commutes often in bad traffic. So there are tradeoffs.
I think that it really isn't dying here - but in need of different films. The recent Disney megaflop of Snow White, a 350 million dollar production (before at least that much in Marketing- only grossing 80 million worldwide has sent Disney and those in Hollywood who support politics over content into a panic. Si it's a Chicken little "The sky is falling lament.
They need writers, directors, and crew who want to tell a good story, rather than the hamfisted guano they are serving up for a while now.
The
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You can probably find the space to hang a 85" TV even if you have an apartment the size of a shoe box.
Shoeboxes have room for necessities. (Score:2)
I must have hallucinated all the military dorm rooms with large TVs and sound systems (the sound systems long predate the internet).
I still have mine but my PC feeds it instead of a tape deck. (During other peoples sleeping hours headphones work nicely
Walls are dead space nicely suited to large TVs and sound systems take a trivial amount of space even using bulky vintage equipment.
Theaters have problems like sharing space with crowds of yowling cretins, people taking calls and general nonsense hardly worth
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Except for the experience of going with a group, I don't see a reason to go to a theater.
Unless the group is insanely huge, just invite them to your home ... so still no reason to go to a theater.
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Even including both candy bar purchases AND a somewhat-nice meal while I am out, the amount I have spent on going to the movies in the last few years or so is nowhere near the cost of a TV and surround sound system good enough for me to not want to go to the movies anymore.
To be fair though, the cinema I go to doesn't have the problems oft-cited here on Slashdot. The ticket prices and candy bar costs aren't obscene, the seats are comfortable and I have never once been in a session where other patrons have r
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What an asshole (Score:4, Interesting)
I do understand that a lot of the crowd here is anti-social and hates the thought of going out to see a movie with other people. That's fine, you can stay at home and let Netflix track and catalogue all of your viewing habits. Not everyone likes that though, some people do actually enjoy theaters, and there's no reason why Netflix needs to be such assholes on this.
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That's fine, you can stay at home and let Netflix track and catalogue all of your viewing habits.
You really think movie theaters aren't doing that through your credit cards [California excepted]? Unless you are paying cash, of course you are being tracked. Even with cash, they are now deploying facial recognition systems to track your responses to movies.
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I suppose you are paying for everything with cash? Otherwise everything you purchase is being "tracked and catalogued".
Have they tried (Score:4, Insightful)
Making movies that people want to see in a theater?
Re: Have they tried (Score:3)
They have tried that -- hence the 167 comic-book-themed special effects spectaculars on offer.
The only problem with that is that even grandiose over-the-top special effects on a giant screen with amazing sound gets repetitive eventually, and then you have to come up with some other draw that can't be replicated in peoples' living rooms for less money. That's not so easy anymore.
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What you don't want to see the 4th iteration of Superman on screen? The 4th attempt at a Fantastic Four series (they'll get it this time for sure!)? The 7th (or is it 8th) Jurassic Park film? (this time we'll make one even approaching the first)
RedLetterMedia predicting this 8 years ago, evergreen video: F**k You, It's January! (2017) [youtube.com]
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People generally don't want to see ANYTHING in the theater - if the problem was lack of quality streaming services would be dying too. They're not. Most people just wait to stream the movies at home rather than to go to a theater.
Home screens have consistently gotten bigger and bigger. Almost everybody has at least a 65" screen at home now and if you really want it you can get 85" TV's for less than $1k and 98" TV's for about $1.5k. That's not cheap but its also well within the "I like movies as a hobby
Generally Agree (Score:3)
End of the day, the people have largely spoken. Theaters are struggling because people are choosing not to go to them. Now, that could also be because theaters are charging insane amounts for the ticket, popcorn, etc, but that's all part of wha the theaters sell. If they can't do things to entice people to come in, that's on them.
Growth of large home theaters, streaming services producing movies straight to streaming, and more have certainly sealed it for theaters.
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I haven't seen a movie in the theater since the last remake of Top Gun.
I'm not into the succession of comic book movies. Most of the releases are pure garbage. Add to that, some coughing, wheezing cretin sitting behind me spewing how virus, ridiculously expensive concession items, ridiculously expensive tickets, twenty or thirty minutes of commercials before the move begins.
I stay home and watch the stuff on our LED TV connected to my stereo and some great speakers.
The two movie theaters in my down have b
Or maybe movies just suck nowadays? (Score:2)
They're pretty bland. Movies have gotten bland and boring not to mention too full of themselves.
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Yeah can't say much for the stuff on Netflix either.
We want "proof of humans" (Score:2)
Netflix is on life support (Score:2)
Seriously, I'm not seeing anything really interesting or original coming from Netflix at this point. Most of what they put out is just formulaic mass market crap lately. Anything they're licensing will be available on other services eventually. The cutting edge days of Netflix are behind them. They aren't taking the risks they used to. Now they just blow the production budget on big name stars, maybe the SFX, and hope nobody notices they skimped on the writing again.
No good movies (Score:2)
The Theatre is an in person experience (Score:2)
If Broadway is flourishing, (Score:2)
Can't tolerate the 45min Preview/Ads (Score:2)
What is the consumer trying to tell you? (Score:4, Insightful)
Very simply, by staying home we're telling them "STOP WITH THE BULLSHIT MOVIES."
It's telling my shelf has a dearth of post-2010 films. Why? Something snapped in Hollywood around that time. Shit story writing. Writing that tries to pound a certain, unwelcome, unwanted agenda into our heads with a railroad spike and maul. Writing that treasures shiny CGI and mindless action and virtue-signalling over storytelling.
If i wanted to be preached at I'd go to church or join a Democrat rally or something.
Fuck off, Hollywood. You died sometime in the mid-2010's. You've become as irrelevant, intolerant and incoherent as those who you try to prop up politically.
You know what? Fuck it. Keep digging. Keep digging your own grave 'til you can fit all of Hollywood in it. I will not cry or moan when you get buried under your own hubris. I will roast marshmallows over the glowing embers of your burnt, charred corpse.
*spits on Hollywood's grave, and then takes a piss on it.*
A smaller part of staying home instead of going to a movie house is -- at least around here, the amount of decent, well-ran, clean, well-EQ'd movie houses with crisp projection and great sound are so slim I built my own 20 years ago.
But that's a different problem than making shit movies.
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Or just that people don't have the disposable income to blow on entertainment when they're already having to put their weekly grocery run on their credit card. Could also be that...
Ya'll are laboring under the delusion that most of what Hollywood produces hasn't always been crap. As time passes, we tend to forget the garbage that was released years ago and focus only on the garbage being released today. We'll fondly remember the original Star Wars, but does anyone else remember any of the other movies re
Sonic 3 just grossed 489 million (Score:5, Insightful)
Just because Disney made a stinker doesn't mean movies are dead.
Now if you keep trying to take movies for little girls and turn them into big blockbuster marvel movies yeah you're going to have problems.
Fun fact that's why Snow White was such a shitshow. They wanted to turn it into a big blockbuster with a huge action scene at the end that obviously wasn't going to work with the existing story. Sleepy and dopey weren't going to be busting heads hulk style.
So they took the dwarves out and replaced them with thieves and that pissed everyone off because of course it did it's Snow White in the seven dwarfs not Snow White and The Avengers. So they reshot the entire movie to put the dwarves back in and kept the thieves because they still wanted that marvel movie money.
This is what happens when you make a business plan first and a movie second.
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I actually just got around to watching that movie. Holy shit, that flick was awful. Yeah, my fault for thinking a movie geared towards children might be even slightly entertaining to a middle-aged adult (at least I didn't pay for it). Seems like the peanut gallery here complaining about Hollywood not making anything "good" seems to be forgetting that Hollywood only cares about profit (which yes, you pointed out). Hollywood will happily turn Sonic the Hedgehog into a never ending franchise if they were s
It was literally two films hastily cobbled togethe (Score:2)
The way you know Disney new that wasn't going to work was when they didn't put any toys out. They knew they had a disaster on their hands. But they couldn't resist chasing marvel money. A movie for little girls was never going to bring in half a billion dollars.
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Not the Snow White reboot, I was referring to Sonic 3. I don't know what I was expecting, but it was like a movie made under the assumption that everyone over 13 will just be futzing on their phones for the duration of the film. I was watching the damn thing at home and still felt the urge to pick up my phone and start browsing Amazon.
I'm sure I could spend way too much time over-analyzing why it was a bad film, but most of it just boils down to it being entirely targeted towards Children. Usually older
You know I kind of hate that (Score:2)
It's not like something like from studio Ghibli where it really does appeal to any age. The American cartoons just kind of shoehorn in adults crap that they know is over the kids head so they can get away with it. But it feels lazy and like they're talking down to the kids...
On the other hand you're t
Re: (Score:2)
I'm referring to more than comedic elements. Take The Secret of NIMH for example. There were no fucks given that some of the content would go over children's heads or be a bit too frightening. The end result was a film you may have not fully grasped the first time you saw it, but as you developed a greater understanding of literary concepts, you'd likely find an appreciation that the story wasn't "dumbed down" for kids. I didn't feel like having to write it myself, so I asked everyone's favorite LLM to
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Won't be missed (Score:2)
I stopped going to the regular movie theaters decades ago when they stopped having very large screens and the audio was often too-loud, clipped-to-hell garbled rubbish. I've gone to imax theaters a few times since then, since they're worth it: very large screen and pristine (loud, but good) sound. There are also still a few independent owned theaters around that I would still go to, since they have 75+ year old 50 foot screens. If I want to watch a film on a small screen, I'll stay home. My cheesy little
The experience used to be better (Score:2)
I want to watch a film, not be distracted by some idiot messing with their phone or chattering away to their friends.
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Dinner & Drinks on Movie Night @ Movie Theater (Score:2)
CEO is a dumbass if he said that and is just blowing hot-air out of his ass.
We go for Dinner & Drinks on Movie Night at movie theaters in my area and we always shop around for the best dinner and drink experience. We eat good salads, pizzas, burgers, wings, and other semi-bar like foods and there with pretty decent drink and alcohol choices with plenty of specials and good variety.
Studio Movie Grill [studiomoviegrill.com] which was popular for a decade but then went down-hill fast in quality got replaced by a few of the othe
I'm not in disagreement, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
Need confirmation by another source (Score:2)
I don't believe anything is dying until NetCRAFT confirms it.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't believe anything is dying until NetCRAFT confirms it.
One of the cinemas near me turned into this weird combination sports bar and virtual shooting range place. Yeah, I'm completely serious - it's a place for people to play with pretend guns and then drink, perhaps not in that exact order. A bit prior to the election, they also hosted a watch party for the current president. That's gotta tell you something about the sort of demographic they tend to attract.
Our previous closest movie theater became a gym sometime back in 2008. This has been going on for way
Re: (Score:2)
One of the coolest theaters I've been to was this weird thing in Asheville, NC (go figure) where they replaced every other row of seats with tables and served pizza and beer.
Again (Score:2)
Studios tie the hands of most theaters (Score:5, Informative)
Ad fatigue (Score:2)
We've gone to the movies a few times in the last year, and I mostly hated it. Ads go on for 15-20 minutes after the listed start time, then you get a bunch of trailers for another 10 minutes that are so spoiler heavy that they ruin any desire to see those movies. So by time the movie even comes on I am out of both snacks AND patience.
Given the shrunken audience I am guessing this is all a desperate money grab to make up for the tiny audiences, but it is resulting in a death spiral where their few remainin
Abysmal Experience (Score:2)
To add to the issue of movies that really just aren't worth our time to watch, the biggest issue I have
with Movie Theaters would be the theater itself and the people who are still there.
People are disruptive as hell.
Talking / texting / playing with their phones during the entire show.
The family who is letting their four year old run up and down the isles, screaming the entire time.
Poor maintenance. Theater smells like mold, floors are rarely clean, speaker systems aren't maintained
and barely work, half an h
Once upon a time (Score:2)
Theaters were necessary because of the tech of the day.
Today, there is nothing enjoyable about going to the theate.
Drive across town, pay to park, wait in line, buy overpriced snacks, sit in a very uncomfortable seat and watch endless commercials.
Once the movie starts, the sound effects are too loud and the actors mumble or whisper and there are no subtitles.
Worse than that, it's impossible to pause for a restroom break or rewind to catch something you missed.
Theaters are dinosaurs that deserve to die.
Live
Lack of etiquette killed theaters for me (Score:3)
Especially the use of smartphones. I have had to request a refund many times when other patrons wouldn't stop using their phones. Or smoking weed. Without any enforcement from the theater. I still have some unused tickets from those refunds.
That said, I'm also not subscribing to Netflix. The movie catalog is pisspoor. Only some series are worth watching. The audio compression is intolerable in a good home theater.
It's all Blu-ray, Torrents, and OTA DVR for me.
These (Score:4)
>'What is the consumer trying to tell you?'"
1) Most of the movies being made now suck.
2) The prices are too high.
3) I don't want to be forced to buy and reserve seating online (which seems to be the norm here now).
4) Patrons are tired of 20+ minutes of forced ads and other nonsense at the start.
5) It could be just my imagination, but it seems like people at the theaters are just ruder than ever with their damn phones and talking and children screaming.
What I really want back is a service like Netflix disc rental (Bluray). But, apparently people of like-mind are not enough to sustain that either. :(
Re: (Score:2)
What I really want back is a service like Netflix disc rental (Bluray). But, apparently people of like-mind are not enough to sustain that either. :(
Do you have slow internet?
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>"Do you have slow internet?"
No. Unless you think 300 Mb/s down and 30 Mb/s up is slow for a single user. I could easily get much higher, but it is way fast enough to do anything I have needed.
I don't want to pay monthly for endless various and changing services that MIGHT have something I want to watch and then it disappears. That MIGHT have full HD audio but probably doesn't. That MIGHT have a decent video bitrate, but doesn't.
I will admit that things have improved a lot with streaming over the yea
Re: (Score:3)
Netflix was good 20 years ago, but it's kind of pointless now that gigabit internet isn't obscure anymore.
Netflix isn't really the problem, it was their success with their online service. All the studios wanted a piece of it, so started up their own service, and stopped distributing their content to Netflix.
If Netflix started up their disc service again and it gained popularity, the other studios would probably stop making discs for new content, or delaying it to boost their online streaming services.
Of cou
Selection (Score:3)
The DVD/BluRay service had so many more titles available than the streaming service side provides. Was really sorry to see it go, and cancelled Netflix as a result. The only streaming service I use now is Amazon Prime, and that's pretty much only be default.
What made this newsworthy and why? (Score:2)
No shit they're dead but water is wet and (so far) that hasn't made Slashdot.
"Post-COVID" (Score:2)
There's no such thing as "post-COVID." COVID remains a global pandemic.
We're post-emergency, for sure. But COVID remains.
Wrong. 20$/seat and obscene amounts of ... (Score:2)
... cash for some generic snacks served by unmotivated min-wage staff for a cookie-cutter superhero movie or bazillionth woke-trash or faceless peer-group adjusted adoption somewhere at the ass end of town only reachable by car are dead.
I'm pretty sure some artsy well managed movie theatre with live at-the-seat service, a good local bistro/restaurant and reasonable pricing could still very much attract a solid audience. The arthouse theaters here in Duesseldorf, Germany are doing pretty well AFAICT. They're
Dear Movie Theater Operators, Fix These Things (Score:3)
Others here are saying the same things, I'm just here to dumb down the TL;DR
- People on phones: Don't let people be on their phones during a show. Provide an adjacent "phone lobby" or something for people who genuinely need to interact with their device during a show. Have motion-tracking spotlights illuminate offenders with the beam of shame. DO SOMETHING
- Your sound is bad: There's a sweet spot between too loud and just loud enough. When it's too loud, it's painful on top of bad.
- Commercials before the show: Fine, but keep the sound down so people can chat (and be on their phones), but then start on time.
- Gross theaters: Design some kind of theater that cleans itself like a dishwasher if you have to. The floors are sticky and it smells weird.