New Media giant Netflix has made an offer to buy Old Media giant Warner Brothers for seventy-something BILLION dollars. Many are bemoaning it as ‘the end of the movies as we know them.’ But ‘the end of the movies as we know them’ is not due to some corporate acquisition: the problem is much, much deeper than that.
Listen here on Soundcloud:
I don’t go to theaters at all for movies anymore. Well, very rarely anyway. I did go see “Warfare” in the theater and enjoyed that but I think that’s the first time I went to the movies in several years. I’d say “Warfare” was a good movie but I’d also say it’s something you’d have to have had experience with to really, fully appreciate the movie. We have a “Cinema Cafe” very local to me. One of the newer type theaters with more amenities than sticky, folding seats. It’s quite nice with larger seats that recline, snack tables and all… Read more »
Every once in a while I hear about a great movie, and want to see it in a theater. Trouble is, the movies just don’t stick around. By the time I here about it, it’s gone. This happened with Sarah’s Oil.
Hollywood figured out too late that Streaming revenue < Theater revenue
As for the theater experience, one of the best movies I ever saw was “Halloween” in one of Atlanta’s premier movie houses with a packed audience of mostly screaming, underage, shouldn’t have been there girls. They screamed from the opening music to the end. One of the worst movies I ever saw was “Halloween”, in a deserted theater along with my Medical School roommate who I had convinced was entertaining. Movies are dying partly because of just this fact. A packed house of people hanging on every scene creates a good bit of the “lightening in a bottle” that Bill… Read more »
Back when The Onion was actually funny, they had a post about some anniversary for Rocky Horror and had some list of top ways fans were commemorating. The one bullet point I remember was “Watches at home. Realizes it sucks.”
I wonder if the solution for Hollywood isn’t history rhyming. The people that moved to California to get away from (was it Edison?) on the east coast are replaced by the people that move to Nashville (was that just DW or Angel Studios too? was Keven Sorbo involved with them or was he a 3rd? group) along with any pajama wearing loser in his basement (as the blogs supposedly started) being able to get creative with the help of AI. I suspect not everything can be done with AI but if that gets people’s feet in the doors, a new… Read more »
AI has turned Hollywood into a a dead man walking. The porn movie industry will be the first to die. And for the sake of the actors and actresses in that particular business, I’m glad
Executive: “Stephen, how about Schindler has a talking dog?” Stephen stares at the executive, nods slowly and replies, “I think we could work that in.”
In the film’s opening scene we see Oskar getting ready to schmooze some Nazis. We hear a bark. He leans down to listen to the dog, nods and opens the door. The dog dashes out and gets run over by a Volkswagen. Problem solved.
I love dogs, but let’s be real.
Did everyone hear of the destruction of Animal Farm? It sounds like they completely destroyed the story and somehow made the bad guys capitalists.
I heard that too. I would have been surprised by anything else.
Yep, funny how Leftists think they’re Orwell’s heirs as they completely subvert his meaning
It’s insidious. Anyone who hasn’t read the book and sees the movie will think they know what the Animal Farm story is all about. They will forever after associate that drek with Orwell’s work. I don’t think this is an accident. I think this is an intentional destruction of one of the great author’s message in the 20th Century. There are few individuals whose influence is as dangerous to the Left as George Orwell. The man was nearly a prophet. The Left has a message too. The difference is Orwell was truthful and sincere and the Left is hollow and… Read more »
Not sure if you saw my reply to John Sullivan, but I was not surprised by the making of the capitalist the villain. I sort have expected it. The Left is constantly making the villain the good guy or at least misunderstood, and the real good guy evil. Its on purpose. However, there’s this: Isaiah 5:20-21: Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. 21Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.… Read more »
Back in the days of VHS recorders and tapes that could be purchased, it occurred to me that once you own a film, you have no desire to watch it anymore as opposed to when we were kids and a movie would come on and everyone would sit down to watch it because it might be the only time you can see it.
That’s not quite true. There are several movies that I like to watch and have repeatedly. For instance, “Young Frankenstein,” “The Princess Bride,” “Santa’s Slay,” and the original “Black Christmas” And there are others. I watch them over and over because I enjoy them whether I have them on VHS, DVD or Blue Ray, or find a streaming service to watch them (and maybe have them saved to my list/favorites). Yes, the movies I mention are decades old, but there are some newer ones, like “Train to Bussan” (thanks to Steven Green for mentioning it) and “The Lovebirds.” To your… Read more »
It occurred to me that several of the iconic movies on my shelf have not stood the test of time. “Blazing Saddles”, that I quote off the cuff or reference frequently, is barely watchable now to me. My grown children walked out of a “showing” of Monty Python’s “Holy Grail”, one of my holy grail movies. It seemed to have resonated perfectly for those of us watching in the 1970’s.
Movies like “Fight Club”, Edward Scissorhands”, and “Snatch” have, at least for now, improved with time.
True–everyone’s movie tastes are different–and even change over time. Like you, I watched “Blazing Saddles” recently and was not as entertained as I once was.
And because tastes in movies are so diverse and change is why picking to make only the hits is such a silly statement. Hardly anyone can predict a winner.
Always thought Blazing was overrated. As for Snatch you’ve got to check out Snatch Wars, featuring Brick Vader:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDKiQfBs9lo
The great irony with some bad versions of existing books: I.E. Rings of power or Wheel of Time, is that if they just gave it an unrelated name and ran with what they had it would be an OK fantasy world. A bit woke but woke is a contrast. You don’t notice woke as much in some formats like anime or Chinese drama. If you changed the place names and people a little then those that like girl bosses etc will buy and we would not care.
In Asian drama and anime they get away with girl bosses, Mary sue, Marty stew, and girls disguised guys in Asian Robes (How could it possibly not work with everyone in a robe?!?) Meanwhile western censors still can’t get over Japanese bath houses in anime even though they have been there since the 1850’s.
don’t get me started on Wheel of Time. I knew it was toast when I saw the race swapped cast before it was released. Great series, even if it stalled big time in the middle
We are perhaps six months away from having a UI on AI art, video that allows you to fix the glitches in each shot so there are no morphing, teleporting or ‘getting run over’ people and vehicles. That’s a memory & interface problem. Then end to end editing can be done. Its available now but you have to bunce between apps on different tabs. Screen shot the last frame of scene one and the first if scene two and do a transition AI animation. All the anatomy for artists books are being fed to AI now to fix the weird… Read more »
Um, Steve, some of us still have VHS tapes! I have DVDs as I do not have a Bluray player.