Academy Awards adding a "Best Popular Film" category. Good or bad idea? Academy walks it back, won't be presented this year

[Barnack]

3 minutes ago, franfar said:

Who knows, they could end up buying movie theaters like the good old days

Would it not be still clearly illegal for them to have a relevant amount of theater ?

 

That said, now that studio are own by people that own TV channel and streaming service (that are not yet under some syndication type of law to help competition), that little old United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. antitrust law could feel outdated.

[franfar]

 

1 minute ago, Barnack said:

Would it not be still clearly illegal for them to have a relevant amount of theater ?

 

That said, now that studio are own by people that own TV channel and streaming service (that are not yet under some syndication type of law to help competition), that little old United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. antitrust law could feel outdated.

http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-doj-paramount-decrees-20180802-story.html

 

Quote

The decrees banned multiple studio practices that were found to be anti-competitive. Those included “block booking,” in which studios leveraged their most popular movies to boost the box-office receipts for their worst films, and the setting of minimum prices for movie tickets.

The review, the department said, is part of a broader deregulation initiative to kill old antitrust judgments it says are outdated.

“The Paramount Decrees have been on the books with no sunset provisions since 1949,” the Justice Department’s antitrust chief Makan Delrahim said in a statement. “Much has changed in the motion picture industry since that time. It is high time that these and other legacy judgments are examined to determine whether they still serve to protect competition.”

The Justice Department cited numerous changes in the motion picture business.

For now yeah, it would be illegal. But if the SCOTUS case is overturned, then.... 

Edited August 9, 2018 by franfar

[Barnack]

If they would go to be fully deregulated, with Disney owning 50% or so of the box office,

 

If they would be ready to take an short term hit by refusing every theater to play their movies (while offering good money to buy them out if they want), they could own most of them rapidly I would imagine, then give terrible exhibition deal to everyone else.

Edited August 9, 2018 by Barnack

[franfar]

2 minutes ago, Barnack said:

If would go to be fully deregulated, with Disney owning 50% or so of the box office,

 

If they would be ready to take an short term hit by refusing every theater to play their movies (while offering good money to buy them out if they went), they could own most of them rapidly I would imagine, then give terrible exhibition deal to everyone else.

when I saw this story I did some googling, and I think Disney made more in profit last year than Cinemark's total market cap. or at least pretty close. if (and this is a big if) it's ever overturned, then yeah I imagine Disney could consolidate pretty quickly.

[dxmatrixdt]

"The decrees banned multiple studio practices that were found to be anti-competitive. Those included “block booking,” in which studios leveraged their most popular movies to boost the box-office receipts for their worst films, and the setting of minimum prices for movie tickets."
 

what is this statement supposed to mean in the business world?

[Barnack]

9 minutes ago, dmatrixfilmdx said:

"The decrees banned multiple studio practices that were found to be anti-competitive. Those included “block booking,” in which studios leveraged their most popular movies to boost the box-office receipts for their worst films, and the setting of minimum prices for movie tickets."
 

what is this statement supposed to mean in the business world?

In the old days theater were forced to play a bunch of movies contractually before they were made/seen in exchange of the right to play any movie from a studio at all.

 

They were sold in a package deal, you will play 15 movies from us this year.

 

Minimum price ticket setting was a popular method before the first Godfather broke records at the box office without using it (even if it was officially illegal the tradition was kept in indirect/unofficial ways for a long time).

 

Originally by forcing the competition to not go under a certain price for the movie ticket of your movies, it made it easier to charge what you wanted in your own owned movie theater studio had at the time.

Edited August 9, 2018 by Barnack

[filmlover]

Have they released any info yet for the guidelines that define what a "popular" movie is?

 

If it's reaching $100M domestic mark I have to imagine Dwayne Johnson is calling up WB like crazy telling them to put Rampage back in theaters so that it can make it past the mark and qualify. 

[Barnack]

1 minute ago, filmlover said:

Have they released any info yet for the guidelines that define what a "popular" movie is?

 

If it's reaching $100M domestic mark I have to imagine Dwayne Johnson is calling up WB like crazy telling them to put Rampage back in theaters so that it can make it past the mark and qualify. 

I do not think so.

 

There is 4 possible way I would imagine

 

1) Simplest, at a defined date top X movie at the domestic box office are in the running, make it easier to keep the same rules over time regardless of inflation and so on. Say top 50.

 

2) Something base on world box office, seem complicated and usually they do not care much about outside the US stuff, so unlikely.

 

3) Some form of committee that decide, without a clear rules a top 20 short list that tend get voted down to 5 then voted by everyone for a win a la best SFX.

 

4) People voting online on an ABC/Ampas website leading up, deciding the first short list with a top something.

 

A mix of those above.

[MovieMan89]

This was a stupid idea. They should have just divided BP into independent and major studio categories. This just makes it seem like they're snobs who really don't believe great film can come from a blockbuster anymore and are just trying to relegate them to a category without much prestige in a desperate attempt for viewership. 

Edited August 9, 2018 by MovieMan89

[redfirebird2008]

4 hours ago, CoolioD1 said:

they could nominate the five highest grossing movies for best picture every year and the ratings would still be dipping cos that's just the way shit is going. they're never gonna get it back up to 40 million again probably not even 35.

 

I'd be cool with a 10 minute press conference announcing the winners for each category. We don't need a 3-4 hour TV show. 

[filmlover]

26 minutes ago, redfirebird2008 said:

 

I'd be cool with a 10 minute press conference announcing the winners for each category. We don't need a 3-4 hour TV show. 

That's basically what happened with the Golden Globes in early 2008 when they were cancelled because of the strike. Kinda sad that they've become better entertainment than the Oscars, although that's because they 1) don't bombard us with performances/montages over 3+ hours and 2) often treat us to the sight of obviously wasted stars. 

Edited August 9, 2018 by filmlover

[grim22]

56 minutes ago, filmlover said:

That's basically what happened with the Golden Globes in early 2008 when they were cancelled because of the strike. Kinda sad that they've become better entertainment than the Oscars, although that's because they 1) don't bombard us with performances/montages over 3+ hours and 2) often treat us to the sight of obviously wasted stars. 

There’s at least 4 pointless montages at the Oscars every year. Cut those first. The LLL/Moonlight ceremony was actually one of the best paced and fun ceremonies in a while, too bad it was mostly forgotten thanks to the ending. That ceremony should have been the template to follow. Ignore all Meron and Zadan produced musical ceremonies - for 2 guys who love musicals, they suck at actually staging them.

[KeepItU25071906]

this nomination looks like a charity

Edited August 9, 2018 by KeepItU25071906

[Spidey Freak]

2 hours ago, filmlover said:

Have they released any info yet for the guidelines that define what a "popular" movie is?

 

If it's reaching $100M domestic mark I have to imagine Dwayne Johnson is calling up WB like crazy telling them to put Rampage back in theaters so that it can make it past the mark and qualify. 

Also, does it mean awards circuit films like The Revenant that manage to break out aren't eligible for BP (the actual, "unpopular" category) anymore?   

[MovieMan89]

7 minutes ago, Spidey Freak said:

Also, does it mean awards circuit films like The Revenant that manage to break out aren't eligible for BP (the actual, "unpopular" category) anymore?   

Lmao, damn I hope something like a gross cutoff is how they're doing this. Would serve them right to have this backfire. 

[Cooper Legion]

2 hours ago, MovieMan89 said:

This was a stupid idea. They should have just divided BP into independent and major studio categories. This just makes it seem like they're snobs who really don't believe great film can come from a blockbuster anymore and are just trying to relegate them to a category without much prestige in a desperate attempt for viewership. 

I mean.... it could be pretty tricky not to seem like "snobs who really don't believe great film can come from a blockbuster anymore and are just trying to relegate them to a category without much prestige in a desperate attempt for viewership" if you are, in fact, snobs who really don't believe great film can come from a blockbuster anymore and are just trying to relegate them to a category without much prestige in a desperate attempt for viewership. 

[AndyK]

12 hours ago, Barnack said:

How does one could possibly devise something to make any movie not win (and we are talking in one case about a major MPAA studio movie, why would the industry make a device for is own studio movie not be available to win an Oscar)

By increasing the length of time it has to be in cinemas, increasing the location count and setting a minimum BO income.

[Water Bottle]

Everyone's acting like the popular movies are the ones getting slapped here. Let's face it: it's really the Best Picture Award that's getting slapped here because it's just about to become the Best Unpopular Movie award in practice. 

 

Look at it this way:

 

"Okay so the award for the best movie that people actually saw and liked in 2018 is...Black Panther! The award to the movie that most people didn't see and that most people didn't even even know existed in 2018 goes to...Boy Erased!"

 

Oh yeah, like Black Panther was really the loser here.

 

(Yes I know this isn't being implemented until 2020 I think).

[filmlover]

3 hours ago, Water Bottle said:

Everyone's acting like the popular movies are the ones getting slapped here. Let's face it: it's really the Best Picture Award that's getting slapped here because it's just about to become the Best Unpopular Movie award in practice. 

 

Look at it this way:

 

"Okay so the award for the best movie that people actually saw and liked in 2018 is...Black Panther! The award to the movie that most people didn't see and that most people didn't even even know existed in 2018 goes to...Boy Erased!"

 

Oh yeah, like Black Panther was really the loser here.

 

(Yes I know this isn't being implemented until 2020 I think).

No, it's being implemented this year.

 

Although given the unpopularity of all this, watch them "retire" this category next year due to no one caring. Black Panther being the one and only winner of this category would be truly embarrassing for them.

[CoolioD1]

3 hours ago, Water Bottle said:

 

 

(Yes I know this isn't being implemented until 2020 I think).

this year's Oscars