SnokesLegs

I highly doubt that happens. This is the jewel in MGM’s crown, even $600 million would be leaving money on the table for a potential billion dollar post pandemic gross, they’ll just keep pushing it back if they have to. Netflix and Apple can make all the offers they want, but it doesn’t mean MGM is seriously considering any of them.

I encountered this exact issue with the subtitles, I was well over half way through the film before I realised that I needed to enable the subtitles, up to that point I assumed it was a stylistic choice to not let us understand the terrorists. You get the general gist of what they’re saying, but particularly towards the end you’d be lost if you didn’t have them enabled.

I loved Hill House and I love all of Mike Flanagan’s work so far, but I completely agree about Bly Manor, I’m on episode 6 and it’s just so dull. None of the characters are particularly likeable or interesting and the whole thing just has an utterly depressing atmosphere to it. I can’t stand the housekeeper and the chef, they’re just the typical stoic, stiff upper lip British caricature that Americans seem to think anybody who lives in the British countryside act like. It feels like a really poor Downton Abbey clone with a few background ghosts thrown in. And speaking of the background ghosts, they felt much more like a gimmick this time compared to Hill House. There never seems to be any point to them being in any particular scene other than for the viewer to play “spot the ghost”. I’m not against a slow paced show that focuses on characters, and they made it clear that it was more of a gothic romance story this time so I wasn’t expecting a rehash of Hill House, but the story itself feels like it’s been stretched to its breaking point to fill 9 hours. A 3-4 episode mini series may have served it better and cut out a lot of the filler.

I’d love for them to somehow keep it under wraps if that is indeed what they plan to do with Maguire and Garfield, it’d be a Cap wielding Mjolnir level scene in terms of audience reaction. I’m sure it’d be practically impossible for them to keep it a secret until release though.

We used to do the same and I agree. Most games do not look particularly great when blown up on a screen that size. If you’re renting a screen I’d recommend either watching a Blu Ray on it or paying for a film that they have available. I once put the Battle of the Bastards episode of Game of Thrones through our IMAX and it was glorious.

Got to admit, while the local VUE has admirably programmed in a lot of horror classics throughout October (that in any other year I’d have been immediately booking tickets for), I just don’t feel like driving to the cinema and putting myself in a situation where I could potentially contract COVID just to watch something that I could watch at home on Blu Ray. Given the performances of these re-releases, it seems like a lot of people feel the same. At this moment, I just don’t see a way forward for cinemas if they keep clinging to these antiquated theatrical exclusivity windows, it doesn’t have to be forever, but if they want new content then they’ll have to change their ways in the short term. AMC has the right idea when it comes to the Universal deal where they at least see a cut of the PVOD to see them through, although I think someone needs to take a risk on a bigger film with the three week window, but we all know that none of them will. Distributors won’t want to risk a tentpole on an unproven system, and exhibitors like Cineworld are too stubborn to see the forest for the trees.

I’ve noticed that too, along with a lot of people trying to guilt trip others for not going to the cinema in the middle of a pandemic... This isn’t Bond’s fault. The Deadline article itself even says that distributors have tried agreeing new terms with Cineworld including shorter windows for films like Freaky, but Cineworld chose to be stubborn. This is all on Cineworld’s choice to not budge. I feel terrible for the cinema staff (some of whom are people I used to work with), but that company is run by total clowns who put profit over their own staff.

Honestly, Regal/Cineworld getting hit badly is karma. It’s an awful company run by an awful man. Back in 2017 they underwent a series of redundancies among the cinema management and supervisor team, all so they could save enough cash to buy Regal, and more recently they laid off all their cinema team members mere days before the UK government announced the furlough scheme (they took them back, but not after showing their true colours). In its current form, Cineworld doesn’t care about their staff or the cinema experience. I sincerely hope that Mooky Greidinger has to sell.

I had a look at my local Cineworld the other day and they’re not opening until 2pm on weekdays and seemingly only operating 7 out of their 20 screens. The Light Cinema are starting to allow Netflix films on their screens which is nice (they’re showing The Trial of the Chicago 7 as of yesterday), I think that’s the only way forward for UK cinemas at the moment, there has to be some kind of allowance for films to have a brief theatrical window before streaming, surely some new content on their screens is better than showing Tenet to empty screens until December.

With Bond being Universal outside the US, I’d take that as a hint that F9 will be moving further into the summer.

Makes you wonder what logic there was in releasing the Billie Eilish video and Hans Zimmer album pre-order *yesterday*, a move like this was obviously on the cards, you’d think they’d pull the trigger on the delay before releasing anything so significant. Now they can’t rely on the theme tune at all to build hype.

I booked tickets for this the day it went on sale back in March, then a day later I was getting refunded, so I’ll be skeptical of it staying put until I’m in my seat actually watching Daniel Craig walking across the screen. There’s still time to move it if things keep getting worse, particularly in the UK, whether marketing is kicking in to higher gear or not.

The adult storylines are what keep me interested. I’m ridiculously invested in Daniel and Johnny hopefully becoming friends. The episode in season 1 where they go for drinks and the double date restaurant episode in season 2 were both joyous. Watching them bounce off each other is great. I get why the kids are there (and the school fight in season 2 was great), but it’s all about the adults for me.

I think a lot of apprehension around returning to movie theatres stems from the fact that it’s seen by a lot of people as a disposable activity that’s potentially not worth the risk. While I personally won’t eat in a restaurant at the moment, I can understand people who do, we all have to eat, whereas nobody NEEDS to see Tenet.

Honestly I think if it gets that bad in the UK that they have to consider PVOD then it’ll definitely get delayed. If they stick to November it’s going to make a fraction of what Skyfall and Spectre made. It’ll do well for the current climate and I’m sure it’ll far surpass Tenet, but I doubt MGM/Universal will call that a win. If it’s a choice between UK PVOD and delaying, they surely delay it.