I frankly think it’s too late.
I think they’ve successfully rewired the American demographic to only want Iron Man 8 and the Minecraft-Star Wars crossover. I talk to people in my family and they just cannot show any interest in films outside these major franchises. I think even something like Oppenheimer was only popular because Nolan did it and they know him from Batman. It’s like their brains are broken to the possibility of anything else or a new story.
But also theaters suck now, people show no consideration for others in the audience.
The bigger my TV gets, the less likely I’m going to the cinema. But I do actually prefer original films and I pay to rent them digitally once they release. The FOMO is not as strong anymore, I can wait. Letterboxd will remind me when it’s time.
They keep dancing around the obvious. No one wants to go to theaters anymore for various reasons; too expensive, people on their phones, people talking, head lice, and oh, too expensive.
Have they tried putting a tariff on them to motivate the public?
China’s announced reduction in big studio releases can place a positive influence on original/independent films.
Back when I was a kid, if you didn’t see it in the cinema you’d have to wait 6 months to a year for the VHS to come out and then you’d watch it on a tiny poor quality TV. Cinema was amazing.
Now I have big enough TV and surround sound and I can watch whatever is released a few months later in the comfort of my own home for practically free. The huge amount of content now means unless I really really want to see it in cinema there’s just no point. Most movies aren’t worth it.
When I was a kid you saw it on the big screen or you waited several years for a truncated version to hit one of the three networks. Saw Star Wars in 1977 at 6-yo, didn’t hit broadcast TV until 1984.
Movie theaters are really expensive, so I’m not paying attention to what Hollywood is making right now.
The Ballad of Wallace Island is really funny. Y’all should go see it.
This is one of the main reasons that I started the trailers community. There absolutely are unique, original films being released all the time, they just rarely get noticed. I hope that surfacing their trailers right along side the big boys will help get them in front of curious audiences.
That’s pretty cool.
Our instances are not federated because ideas are scary and people shouldn’t have free will. /s
The lemmygrad account I’m replying to is not going to see this comment: I’m permabanned from lemmygrad for fielding ideas that are scary to them. Like it being a bad thing that Russia invaded Ukraine.
Thank you for your work on that community!
Tbh, I don’t even hear about any movies anymore unless something happens, like Snow White bombing. I run an ad blocker, so most of what I get is just word of mouth.
Hollywood needs to step up their game
I see the same with adblock. I don’t watch TV, see no ads in youtube. How could they up their game and reach me?
ok
It drives me nuts when people complain there are no original movies. If you care enough to complain, you should care enough to be informed about what movies are out
So they are just making original movies bcs their franchises are failing and only want an original hit to start a new franchise.
You’re right they should just give up and stick with marvel #37
Maybe they need to tell theaters to calm the fuck down with their pricing and ads. Do one or the other. If I’m paying $15+/ticket to see a show, then don’t lie to me about the showtime and include half an hour of commercials.
Yeah this feels like another thing that’s downstream from low wages.
Movies are a luxury. If most people are struggling to get by in debt, they’re less likely to splurge.
Basically everything that made being middle class fun has turned into another race to the bottom in terms of quality and enjoyment because of capitalism.
It’s at least $100 bucks to take the family. More if the kids want popcorn.
Awhile back, I started tracking the time between the listed showtime and the actual start time of the movie. I logged them all and I would post it on Twitter. Then, Elon bought Twitter and I sort of abandoned the project (and Twitter).
At AMC (where I see most movies because it’s near me and they have a monthly pass), pre-roll/previews are 15-30 minutes long. The bigger and newer a movie is, the longer it is. Most tend to be around 20-25 minutes.
I started showing up 21 minutes late to most of them but I would usually be right on time for the start of the film.
I used to like trailers. But just as I was starting to feel like the trailers were getting too long, the new thing became to splice the trailers with ads. So you think you’re watching trailers and then suddenly there’s a Ford commercial. So now they’re too long AND they’re less entertaining and relevant.
Movie trailers playing before a movie made sense to me. You like movies? Here’s some that are coming up, in case you’re interested.
It was a movie trailer that made me go all-in on adblockers. One of the Mission Impossible movies, I forget which one, I lost count after the third. This trailer had that annoying “Ready or not, here I come” “song” in the background. And it played ahead of every single Youtube video I watched for a week.
I will never watch a Mission Impossible movie ever again, old or new. I will never watch another Tom Cruise movie ever again. Old or new. I might avoid the spy/action/thriller genre entirely for the rest of my life. I won’t go see James Bond ever again because of Mission Impossible’s marketing. There’s a strong and growing possibility I’ll never walk into a movie theater ever again. And I aggressively block ads now.
They went from letting me know what movies were going to be released soon to trying to beat my personality out.
I used to be a movie buff. I grew up in a house with a lot of VHS tapes, movies were important to my social life in my teens and early twenties, I went to work for a couple years basically living at the airport and sleeping at home, and when I came up for air it was all a cancerous mass, a tumor of its former self.
I would rather watch RedLetterMedia make fun of 40 year old movies than go watch a new one.
Insane response to mild annoyance honestly
I also haven’t bought a game made by EA since 1992. I don’t like their behavior as a company so I have completely stopped buying anything from them. This you label “insane.”
Yes
Does the phrase “vote with your wallet” mean anything to you?
Don’t let the irritation take that away from you. I used to be a movie buff. But I also still am. My solution is just to ignore the previews. I don’t let it bother me because I am in control of my own life and feelings. So if I am going to a theater with someone, I wait outside until the movie starts (if possible… hard to do with kids). Otherwise I’m fine with streaming.
And even though Tom Cruise is the public face of shitology, those Mission Impossible movies are pretty good. Better than the last few Bond movies for sure. Learn to find things that you like. stoicism
My local cinema now plays older movies too. I got shocked by walking in a few minutes late to the opening of LOTR: The Fellowship of The Ring because it started at the listed showtime! So I’ll support them by going to their older movie showings now. It’s nice to not get ramrodded with ads and movie spoilers.
Cinemas absolutely should be going semi-arthouse at this point in time. You don’t have to cater to a high-brow crowd to not constantly swim with the latest big-studio mainstream, plenty of people who’d totally go to a screening of Reservoir Dogs and you could actually make money off the tickets. The whole back-catalogue of popular stuff, especially so if it benefits from a big screen. Play it again, Sam.
That said I’m totally a fan of shoddily produced local ads. Like a (back in the day) 9mm recording of the interior of a local hair stylist and some cheesy dialogue so bad it could be from porn. Replace 9mm with a phone camera, same thing.
Also, throw in some student project short films. Do list the proper starting time, with a different starting time for the pre-show, “you won’t be bored if you come early and won’t miss anything when not”, avoids everyone rushing to their seats at the same time.
Side note why aren’t there drive-in cinemas with EV chargers.
I don’t mind going out to a theater on occasion, but honestly I usually prefer to watch films at home. I can start them whenever I feel, pause if needed, have plenty of food/drinks, and can invite a friend or two over if they’re interested.
