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Posted by RickJWagner 10 hours ago

Hollywood Enters Oscars Weekend in Existential Crisis(www.theculturenewspaper.com)
96 points | 315 commentspage 3
t1234s 5 hours ago|
Most recent in theater movie I was was "F1" because I thought the audio experience would be worth the ticket price. While the audio was good, seat quality was sub par, popcorn stale and soda was from a Freestyle machine (YUK!)
chuckadams 9 hours ago||
I put more stock in the the Sundance and Cannes jury prizes: even if they're comprised of the elites who can afford to go to these festivals, they've still got far more artistic sense than the ossified corporate board that the Academy has always been.
rurban 8 hours ago|
Cannes is free to attend for film professionals. Always was. You only have to find a hotel.

At Sundance you could stay in Salt Lake City or Heber City and have fun. Free busses.

Oscars are not about the arts, nor about quality. Never was.

eitau_1 8 hours ago||
Here's a great video-essay on adjacent topic: Why The Movies Don't Feel The Same Anymore

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoldOz5YyAw

thefounder 9 hours ago||
The main issue was the content the movie industry produced which looked like a lot like some AI slop. I think the DEI lecturing was another nail in the coffin. Unless that changes and they magically add something new to the cinema experience I think they will keep diving into irrelevance because now everybody can produce AI slop.
raw_anon_1111 7 hours ago|
Yes they should never had a Black lady playing an orange alien from Tamarin on the Titan TV series. It just wasn’t realistic.

We should just have all White males leading movies

the__alchemist 6 hours ago||
Could you please explain this? I'm having a hard time following. Ty.
raw_anon_1111 6 hours ago||
https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-44966851

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfire_(Teen_Titans)

righthand 2 hours ago||
The promise er sorry propaganda used to be “attend the big blockbuster movies so they can spend the extra money on riskier indie films”. Essentially trickle down for the movie business. Here we are.
woeirua 9 hours ago||
$100 to go to the movies for a family of four. No thanks. There’s no mystery why the movies are dying. They’ve priced themselves out and then they give away the product on streaming several months later anyways.

If they want theaters to come back then they’ll have to put movies behind a paywall again.

FreeKill 8 hours ago||
Yeah, I think the prices also have resulted in a massive change in how consumers decide to go to movies as well. With the price so high for a family of four, people rely much more heavily on positive word of mouth/reviews before making a decision.

So people are much more risk adverse. I've never understood why they don't do tiered pricing based on the type of movie it is. If it's not a mega blockbuster type film, reduce the price a bit to make it easier for people to take a risk and try out a movie without it being a 90%+ rating on rotten tomatoes. I'd personally probably go a lot more if a movie like say Marty Supreme was $10 instead of $20.

johnnyApplePRNG 8 hours ago|||
So do you want to pay more, or less? I am confused.
delecti 4 hours ago||
I think it's more about being unwilling to pay so much when a free version is just a few months away. Streaming is too good and too cheap compared to the theatrical release.
righthand 2 hours ago||
“Free” but you pay a monthly subscription. No one seems to know what free means anymore.
dgrin91 8 hours ago|||
And its $100 minimum... at least in NYC. Right now its 20-25 a head and that doesn't include transportation or food.
lanfeust6 8 hours ago|||
The missing middle from 20 years back is rentals. That was $5-10 a pop, people rented almost weekly. The option is there digitally now but its not in the public conscience for the same reason as cinema, people can just wait for the streaming option as the turnover is so short. (And granted, more people went to the cinema back then)

Meanwhile consumers are whining about the increases in streaming cost and diffusion, and low quality content. It had to happen, the math wasn't working out. In the social media bubbles users argue they will "just pirate again", over and over as though those who would care to don't already do so. Its toothless. Average people are not going to pay for a VPN and navigate things they don't understand just to pirate. They will eat the cost, whether it be streaming or renting

lotsofpulp 8 hours ago|||
I doubt increasing the price of their goods will work when the supply of alternative ways to spend time at almost zero cost is near infinite.
xp84 8 hours ago||
You’re probably right. Big franchises would survive, a bunch of people would pay modestly for each new Marvel movie if it were never coming to streaming. But the films that do still exist that have no marketing, would probably do even worse without having any streaming release.
dominotw 6 hours ago||
thats so much cheaper for a family of 4 for 3 hrs compared to other options.

what are the other cheaper options? going to free parks and museums? i am sure going to free museum will be a big hit with the kids :]

lucaspm98 5 hours ago|||
People are living in entirely different cost of living realities outside of NYC and the Bay Area.

Within 5 miles of me with 2 adults and 2 kids and $100, you could go to a trampoline park, ropes course, bowling, hours at an arcade, water park, race go-karts, several months of pool membership, or 5+ museums. Possibly 2 of those activities.

For free there’s dozens of playgrounds, courts and fields for any sport, community and religious-sponsored events, and after you can get a nice sit down meal with money leftover from your $100 budget.

$100 would be above many families entire entertainment budget for a week.

derwiki 5 hours ago|||
Even not free parks. Our Zoo and Cal Academy memberships amortize down to $50/trip for 4.
dominotw 5 hours ago||
yes we have those too but you can go there only so many times.
willmeyers 7 hours ago||
I mean when you have Larry Ellison and other goons pledging investments in these major studios, it's no wonder people who actually enjoy watching movies don't want to give their money+time to watch some dumbed down bottom of the barrel slime that AI has decided people will sit through.

Thankfully, filmmaking is becoming more and more independent. It's never been easier and cheaper to make a movie and share it to millions of people on YouTube or Vimeo. Why go through Hollywood, investors, or give money to festivals for a chance at success when you can just upload the thing and see what happens?

Apocryphon 2 hours ago||
Every time there’s an article about the “good ol’ days of Hollywood” I like to trot out this comic strip- looks like last time I posted it was five years ago:

https://web.archive.org/web/20201112024059/https://www.gocom...

Hollywood has been a franchise and licensed IP sequel/remake/reboot farm since the ‘80s, since Star Wars and Jaws blockbusters killed off the experimental period of New Hollywood. And even before that it was Cecil B. DeMille bombastic productions and westerns and musicals everywhere. The movie industry has always been characterized by crowd pleasers.

cubefox 5 hours ago||
The most interesting part:

> North Americans are going to the movies about half as often as they used to a decade ago, based on the number of tickets sold at cinemas in the US and Canada.

50% down in just 10 years is massive.

throwaway81523 3 hours ago|
I can hardly wait for "vibe cinema". Type in a prompt and a 2 hour epic AI slop film comes out. Not much different from Hollywood is now making the hard way.
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