Father’s Day/Juneteenth Weekend Thread | Flash implodes with 55M, Elemental bombs with 29M, holdovers hold atrociously | Theaters are dead, streaming is dead. Everything is dead really.

[InVy]

5 minutes ago, dudalb said:

That Spielberg makes movies for 80 or 90 Million dollars that look like they cost twice that much proves to me he knows what he is talking about.

didn't his last 2 movies cost too much & earn pretty much nothing in cinemas? I know he is not on the level of Scorsese's latest movies but still.

[AJG]

40 minutes ago, ZattMurdock said:

On somewhat related news:

 

 

 

https://variety.com/vip/netflix-password-sharing-crackdown-working-now-what-1235647082/
 

I mean, look at this graphic:

 

 

Welp, although they won’t be having my money regularly any longer, it’s not like they won’t be having all the money. Hard to argue against the crackdown when it’s clearly working for them.

 

 

The only people upset that about the password crackdown were freeloaders using other people's accounts. I really wasn't that fussed that my cousins lost access to my Netflix, and they bought their own account damn near immediately. 

[dudalb]

2 hours ago, 21C said:

Also to be honest I'm questioning who would even buy WBD at this point.
NBC Universal is the guess but they also have a ridiculous amount of debt at the moment that makes the prospect of adding WBD's 40 billion dollar debt unenticing to say the least. Apple or Amazon are probably the only viable options but who knows if they really want to expand that much into the entertainment business.

I also think at this point antoher big merger between two media companies is going to trigger a huge outcry about monopoly, and it is going to a long,long, time to get Governemnt approval of any merger...and a chance it might be denied.

[ZattMurdock]

1 minute ago, AJG said:

 

The only people upset that about the password crackdown were freeloaders using other people's accounts. I really wasn't that fussed that my cousins lost access to my Netflix, and they bought their own account damn near immediately. 

I’m not a freeloader. Quite the contrary, I’m a provider lol. I kept my Netflix account all these years mostly because of my family and friends, but with the change there is no reason for me to continue, especially since I barely watch most of their stuff anyway. The only thing I actually watched since last year was the Kevin Smith’s Masters of the Universe cartoon and Glass Onion, which were amazing but I barely watch their stuff. 

[JohnnyGossamer]

4 minutes ago, ZattMurdock said:

I’m not a freeloader. Quite the contrary, I’m a provider lol. I kept my Netflix account all these years mostly because of my family and friends, but with the change there is no reason for me to continue, especially since I barely watch most of their stuff anyway. The only thing I actually watched since last year was the Kevin Smith’s Masters of the Universe cartoon and Glass Onion, which were amazing but I barely watch their stuff. 

Yeah. Same. Kept it for my parents. Cancelling now. Only recent original anything on there I wanted to see was Glass Onion which I actually caught in theaters during its limited release anyway.

 

EDIT - Beef was awesome. I watched that too. Think that's it though.

Edited June 20, 2023 by JohnnyGossamer

[ZattMurdock]

15 minutes ago, dudalb said:

Speilberg was not talking about super hero blockbusters but big budget movies in general.  There is a difference.

 

He has been saying for years that studios have gotten lazy and sloppy  and generally wasteful in the way they make movies, and they could make exactly the same movies for less money if they just cut out the waste and the inefficency. He is not the only one saying  this, many business analysts have been saying this.

That Spielberg makes movies for 80 or 90 Million dollars that look like they cost twice that much proves to me he knows what he is talking about.

Hollywood is headed for a major shakeup; they just cannot in the changed marketplace and permanent loss of ticket sales to Streaming spend money the way they have been.

 

I have mad respect for not only Spielberg, but all the old guard. But we are also talking about the director of Ready Player One and that thing had a budget of reportedly $155-175m. Spielberg directed some of my favorite films of all time, but I feel like his opinion and others from the old guard myopic. 
 

I don’t believe in Nostradamus prophecies, let alone Spielberg’ s or Scorsese’s. What I feel like is that whatever people see as the "golden age" of cinema isn’t coming back, and neither I believe it should. As long as creators are paid what they are actually worth, I’m good. I hold much more value to the opinion of the current generation of directors and actors working in the field than the old guard, to be honest. They are the ones keeping movie theaters open and the whole cinema experience going. They are the ones that are avoiding an absolute take over from streaming and that’s a future a lot more bleak than "oh my god superhero films have taken over, where real cinema is?". 
 

I love this Kevin Smith post from yesterday, btw:

 

For me, this is cinema. It’s what Spielberg did with the original Indiana Jones trilogy, it’s the OG Star Wars trilogy. I honestly don’t care what a bunch of old men that are far past their prime complaining about an era of cinema that was not nearly as inclusive and as diverse as what we are getting right now, and I mean this in more than one or two ways. If it’s hard for an ‘original idea’ to break out, it was also hard back in the day. I just think that for people that keep complaining about how nostalgia driven blockbusters are lately, there is a lot of nostalgia about a bygone filmmaking era that when I reflect hard enough, isn’t even my favorite era of films. 

[FunkMiller]

3 hours ago, 21C said:

Also to be honest I'm questioning who would even buy WBD at this point.
NBC Universal is the guess but they also have a ridiculous amount of debt at the moment that makes the prospect of adding WBD's 40 billion dollar debt unenticing to say the least. Apple or Amazon are probably the only viable options but who knows if they really want to expand that much into the entertainment business.

Amazon would probably happily spend billions just to own Batman. They’ve got so much money sloshing about, they’ll pay through the nose. And all that existing WB content for their platform would appeal a great deal, I’d say.

Edited June 20, 2023 by FunkMiller

[ZattMurdock]

12 minutes ago, JohnnyGossamer said:

Yeah. Same. Kept it for my parents. Cancelling now. Only recent original anything on there I wanted to see was Glass Onion which I actually caught in theaters during its limited release anyway.

 

EDIT - Beef was awesome. I watched that too. Think that's it though.

Heard good things about Beef too, the creator is working on Thunderbolts iirc. I will make sure of watching that on my way out. My way out list today consists of Black Mirror, Beef and Extraction 2, I used to dig Stranger Things but after season 3 I didn’t even bother watching the last season. Neither Wednesday, lol.

[dudalb]

11 minutes ago, ZattMurdock said:

I have mad respect for not only Spielberg, but all the old guard. But we are also talking about the director of Ready Player One and that thing had a budget of reportedly $155-175m. Spielberg directed some of my favorite films of all time, but I feel like his opinion and others from the old guard myopic. 
 

I don’t believe in Nostradamus prophecies, let alone Spielberg’ s or Scorsese’s. What I feel like is that whatever people see as the "golden age" of cinema isn’t coming back, and neither I believe it should. As long as creators are paid what they are actually worth, I’m good. I hold much more value to the opinion of the current generation of directors and actors working in the field than the old guard, to be honest. They are the ones keeping movie theaters open and the whole cinema experience going. They are the ones that are avoiding an absolute take over from streaming and that’s a future a lot more bleak than "oh my god superhero films have taken over, where real cinema is?". 
 

I love this Kevin Smith post from yesterday, btw:

 

For me, this is cinema. It’s what Spielberg did with the original Indiana Jones trilogy, it’s the OG Star Wars trilogy. I honestly don’t care what a bunch of old men that are far past their prime complaining about an era of cinema that was not nearly as inclusive and as diverse as what we are getting right now, and I mean this in more than one or two ways. If it’s hard for an ‘original idea’ to break out, it was also hard back in the day. I just think that for people that keep complaining about how nostalgia driven blockbusters are lately, there is a lot of nostalgia about a bygone filmmaking era that when I reflect hard enough, isn’t even my favorite era of films. 

Nice buy you  miss the pont. It is not about any type of film being made, but that Hollywood is following a business model that will lead to a major shakeup.

And you might be satsified with nothing but geek genre  movies getting greenlit, I am not. I think the death of the mid budget seroud film is a disaster for film as an art form

As for Kevin Smith, don't make me laugh. he is everyghing I dilike about current fandom.

 

Edited June 20, 2023 by dudalb

[GOGODanca]

13 minutes ago, ZattMurdock said:

I have mad respect for not only Spielberg, but all the old guard. But we are also talking about the director of Ready Player One and that thing had a budget of reportedly $155-175m. Spielberg directed some of my favorite films of all time, but I feel like his opinion and others from the old guard myopic. 
 

I don’t believe in Nostradamus prophecies, let alone Spielberg’ s or Scorsese’s. What I feel like is that whatever people see as the "golden age" of cinema isn’t coming back, and neither I believe it should. As long as creators are paid what they are actually worth, I’m good. I hold much more value to the opinion of the current generation of directors and actors working in the field than the old guard, to be honest. They are the ones keeping movie theaters open and the whole cinema experience going. They are the ones that are avoiding an absolute take over from streaming and that’s a future a lot more bleak than "oh my god superhero films have taken over, where real cinema is?". 
 

I love this Kevin Smith post from yesterday, btw:

 

For me, this is cinema. It’s what Spielberg did with the original Indiana Jones trilogy, it’s the OG Star Wars trilogy. I honestly don’t care what a bunch of old men that are far past their prime complaining about an era of cinema that was not nearly as inclusive and as diverse as what we are getting right now, and I mean this in more than one or two ways. If it’s hard for an ‘original idea’ to break out, it was also hard back in the day. I just think that for people that keep complaining about how nostalgia driven blockbusters are lately, there is a lot of nostalgia about a bygone filmmaking era that when I reflect hard enough, isn’t even my favorite era of films. 

why does everything come back to comic book movies with you? Spielberg didn't even say anything bad about your precious cape movies, all he said was that an industry reliant on only massive blockbusters would someday collapse  and lead to a change, you can't keep relying on 200m+ movies when half of them won't make money especially now with china no longer subsidizing them with hundreds of millions

[ZattMurdock]

Just now, dudalb said:

Nice buy you  miss the pont. It is not about any type of film being made, but that Hollywood is following a business model that will lead to a major shakeup.

And you might be satsified with nothing but geek genre  movies getting greenlit, I am not. I think the death of the mid budget seroud film is a disaster for film as an art form

 

That’s not something anyone could blame superhero films or blockbusters in general. That’s on streaming, and I don’t see Spielberg or Scorcese trashing as hard as they should. Do you want to blame the lack of diversity on cinemas these days? The death of mid budget action flicks or hell, the romantic comedies being literally extinct? That’s on streaming, and Netflix should get more of the blame and have the old guard far more vocal then they actually are. 
 

Do you know which director who isn’t from the old guard but is arguably the most respected director of the generation that seems to understand what I’m talking about and actually uses his hype to fight back against streaming take over and it’s highly vocal about what I’m talking about? Christopher Nolan. That’s one motherfucker that knows to use his own hype and clout for good. I see Nolan being extremely vocal against streaming, while I see Scorsese and Spielberg actually working for them. Which is sad and at same time understandable, but if Nolan is capable of using his own hype to come up with Oppenheimer, what is stopping Spielberg and Scorcese of doing the same?

[ZeroHour]

15 minutes ago, FunkMiller said:

Amazon would probably happily spend billions just to own Batman. They’ve got so much money sloshing about, they’ll pay through the nose. And all that existing WB content for their platform would appeal a great deal, I’d say.

I'm not so sure. Amazon didn't make a play for WB either of the last two times it went up for sale and they could have, instead opting for MGM (which they probably overpaid for). WBD comes with some of the same issues as Disney, a dying linear TV business that includes assets that Amazon surely doesn't want like CNN.

[ZattMurdock]

1 minute ago, GOGODanca said:

why does everything come back to comic book movies with you? Spielberg didn't even say anything bad about your precious cape movies, all he said was that an industry reliant on only massive blockbusters would someday collapse  and lead to a change, you can't keep relying on 200m+ movies when half of them won't make money especially now with china no longer subsidizing them with hundreds of millions

I’m not talking about superhero films per se. I’m talking about Avatar. I’m talking even about the films made by those that I actively dislike, like Top Gun Maverick. Me going back to the point of talking about the superhero genre of films is because of how dominant they are throughout these years. And while I agree that you can’t keep relying on 200m+ budgets breaking out, the end result of trying to do differently will result in two things: more superhero films or whatever blockbusters are currently hot, with more mid budget films going to streaming. There is no "going back" from this, even with how bloated the streaming bubble is, what will happen is that it will blow up, but it will still keep growing.

[dudalb]

3 minutes ago, GOGODanca said:

why does everything come back to comic book movies with you? Spielberg didn't even say anything bad about your precious cape movies, all he said was that an industry reliant on only massive blockbusters would someday collapse  and lead to a change, you can't keep relying on 200m+ movies when half of them won't make money especially now with china no longer subsidizing them with hundreds of millions

This,

I think that the CBM fans have gotten so defensive tells me they, deep down,know that CBM fatigue is real. Yes, a Spidey:NWH  can still make huge bucks, but people are not flocking to CBM's the way they used to. They have become more selective. it is CBM fatigue, not CBM exhaustion. The won't vanish, but they won't dominate  the way they used to.

And I think this dimissivie attitude toward any director over the age of 50 is really stupid. Looks as if Scorsese will have the heavy favorite come award time this year with "Killers Of the Flower Moon",

And I don't get the hate for Netflix. If you don't like the content, fine, but allow those of us who like that Netflix is one of the few placed where more serious, non geek genre stuff can get made makes me support it. 

I will stuck with it for ' The Light We Cannot See" alone.

[ZattMurdock]

1 minute ago, dudalb said:

This,

I think that the CBM fans have gotten so defensive tells me they, deep down,know that CBM fatigue is real. Yes, a Spidey:NWH  can still make huge bucks, but people are not flocking to CBM's the way they used to. They have become more selective. it is CBM fatigue, not CBM exhaustion. The won't vanish, but they won't dominate  the way they used to.

And I think this dimissivie attitude toward any director over the age of 50 is really stupid. Looks as if Scorsese will have the heavy favorite come award time this year with "Killers Of the Flower Moon",

And I don't get the hate for Netflix. If you don't like the content, fine, but allow those of us who like that Netflix is one of the few placed where more serious, non geek genre stuff can get made makes me support it. 

I will stuck with it for ' The Light We Cannot See" alone.

I am not hating on Netflix. Neither Scorcese. Or Spielberg for that matter. Neither I believe that there is ‘superhero fatigue’, what I actually see is paying to watch movies at movie theaters fatigue. And that’s on two things in my opinion: the change of habits thanks to the pandemic and how insanely large streaming is right now. It’s too many options, with films being available at home way too fast. I think that’s likely the future, with the movie theater becoming far more scarce and premium, which is actually something that will sting for me. And I’m not talking about ageism.
 

Nolan is the best and most respected director of his gen and still uses his hype to get people at the movies, Tom Cruise for better and for worse, does the same. And let’s not even mention Cameron. My point is, the death of mid budget isn’t thanks to the superhero genre. It’s streaming. Romantic comedies still exist, but they are turned into series that people obsess over on social media. The way I see it, the moviegoing experience unless we start listening more to the Cruises, Camerons, Nolans and yes Feiges and now Gunns of the world, it’ll unfortunately become more and more prestige, expensive and featuring only mega blockbusters, from whatever is hot these days. Demanding for better release windows for their films, making them a spectacle that you must watch at the biggest screen possible is what is keeping movie theaters as we know it alive, imho. 

[The Horror of Lucas Films]

21 minutes ago, GOGODanca said:

why does everything come back to comic book movies with you? Spielberg didn't even say anything bad about your precious cape movies, all he said was that an industry reliant on only massive blockbusters would someday collapse  and lead to a change, you can't keep relying on 200m+ movies when half of them won't make money especially now with china no longer subsidizing them with hundreds of millions

 

I've never seen him talking about anything that is not SH related. It's actually bizarre.

[JustLurking]

6 minutes ago, ZattMurdock said:

I am not hating on Netflix. Neither Scorcese. Or Spielberg for that matter. Neither I believe that there is ‘superhero fatigue’, what I actually see is paying to watch movies at movie theaters fatigue. And that’s on two things in my opinion: the change of habits thanks to the pandemic and how insanely large streaming is right now. It’s too many options, with films being available at home way too fast. I think that’s likely the future, with the movie theater becoming far more scarce and premium, which is actually something that will sting for me. And I’m not talking about ageism.
 

Nolan is the best and most respected director of his gen and still uses his hype to get people at the movies, Tom Cruise for better and for worse, does the same. And let’s not even mention Cameron. My point is, the death of mid budget isn’t thanks to the superhero genre. It’s streaming. Romantic comedies still exist, but they are turned into series that people obsess over on social media. The way I see it, the moviegoing experience unless we start listening more to the Cruises, Camerons, Nolans and yes Feiges and now Gunns of the world, it’ll unfortunately become more and more prestige, expensive and featuring only mega blockbusters, from whatever is hot these days. Demanding for better release windows for their films, making them a spectacle that you must watch at the biggest screen possible is what is keeping movie theaters as we know it alive, imho. 

Sure, if you believe the streaming industry which is quite a while away from even just stopping being in the red (and this is while basically scamming writers out of their money with muddy financials) is going to sustain all the mid budget films while you happily swim in superhero films in theaters I guess.

[ZattMurdock]

Just now, JustLurking said:

Sure, if you believe the streaming industry which is quite a while away from even just stopping being in the red (and this is while basically scamming writers out of their money with muddy financials) is going to sustain all the mid budget films while you happily swim in superhero films in theaters I guess.

For streaming, it’s not even worth it to make mid budget films unless you get a Hemsworth, a Gadot or Evans and De Armas for them. It’s much more profitable to turn what could be a romantic comedy into a teenage series, or a Family Addams remake into the new hottest streaming show. If wasn’t superhero films, it would be another type of blockbusters. And if they keep fading, then we are well, fucked. I really wouldn’t like not going to the movies, but I feel like the more we fight back against blockbusters, the faster we will get there. 
 

And yes, streaming will fuck creators and artists over. Just like Hollywood. It’s a big bubble operating in the red yes, but it’s not going away. 

[ZeroHour]

Netflix has played a huge role in devaluing the mid-budget movie by providing them to subscribers for free and Netflix is not in the red these days. 

[The GOAT]

38 minutes ago, GOGODanca said:

why does everything come back to comic book movies with you? Spielberg didn't even say anything bad about your precious cape movies, all he said was that an industry reliant on only massive blockbusters would someday collapse  and lead to a change, you can't keep relying on 200m+ movies when half of them won't make money especially now with china no longer subsidizing them with hundreds of millions

This year we have about 8 superhero movies. i expect it to be 4 in about a few years. 

Successes 

1. Guardians 3

2. SpiderVerse

 

Flops/Bombs/Disappointments 

1. The Flash

2. Shazam 2

3. Antman 3

 

Coming Later This year

1. Blue Beetle  (Hydrogen Bomb)

2. Kraven (Regular Bomb)

3. The Marvels (Major Underperformer)

4. Aquaman (Potential Hit)