The state of Cinema

J.R. Hudson

J.R. Hudson

Spirit Animal
Looks like Netflix is going to acquire Warner Brothers (Paramount is still in the chase).

And The new Hollywood era is disappearing right before our eyes.

It's looking sort of bleak.
 
I was expecting this to be a significant catalyst for NFLX moving this morning on the market but it went nowhere (actually went down a bit).

That's all I got...I haven't watched anything on a television or in a movie theater in years.
 
@J.R. Hudson Do you think it's looking bleak for theatrical or just in general for the state of movies?

I know this isn't an ideal state of cinema, but I'm consistently encouraged by some of the smaller films I see (truly independent), as well as foreign films.
 
I think it is more of an end to big budgets. If people consume movies at home right next to all of the other cannon fodder selections, the thrill is kind of lost and the studio will not see it worth the spend over time. Repeat customers will not have to pay each time to see it so it will be one and done for profits outside of the monthly subscription fees.

I would argue that a lot of major release movies are over produced anyway. Can you make the magic at 100 million instead of 300 million+? Most of the money is probably going to something computer related rather than traditional production but I am probably off on that. Anyway, Netflix has been quite an active creator of content over the years. So that might continue. The existing library is valuable to Netflix so people do not get bored with their choices and hop to another streaming service.
 
NorBro said:
I was expecting this to be a significant catalyst for NFLX moving this morning on the market but it went nowhere (actually went down a bit).

That's all I got...I haven't watched anything on a television or in a movie theater in years.
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Do you watch DVDs? This confuses me lol
 
drboffa said:
@J.R. Hudson Do you think it's looking bleak for theatrical or just in general for the state of movies?

I know this isn't an ideal state of cinema, but I'm consistently encouraged by some of the smaller films I see (truly independent), as well as foreign films.
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I think for cinema in general

I mean relatively speaking it's a very young art form compared to literature, music, and art


I just don't remember the last time I was completely geeked out on a movie or watched a movie that really thrilled me

I spend a lot of time going back to the '70s and '80s to watch things I've never seen
 
J.R. Hudson said:
Do you watch DVDs? This confuses me lol
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haha, no...I just don't actively watch films or shows anymore.

But will watch dozens of short videos on Threads and YouTube most days - 30 seconds, a minute or so.

With that said, I do like having the TV on in the background on mute and it's always set to AMC around this time of the year (Sep-Dec when they run lots of holiday movies which I like to glimpse up at here and there).
 
I was actually laughing mao during Planes, Trains, and Automobiles a few days ago when they're in bed and Del is making the nose/throat noises and he's like, "What, whaattt?" when Neal gets mad.

There are so many funny parts in that movie but I always find that brief moment hilarious.
 
I’m wary, but trying to remain hopeful. For those of us still making a living - or, at least, trying to - in the industry, this may or may not help.

On one hand, consolidation to a small handful of companies decreases competition, which lowers pay and increases prices to the consumers. On the other hand, Netflix says that they’re wanting to buy WB because they want to increase content production in the US.

We’ll see what happens. When Discovery acquired Scripps Networks in 2018, there was a huge press conference where David Zaslav stood here in Knoxville and spoke of the incredible staff and facilities and promising that they valued the Knoxville workforce and had no plans to abandon it. The stage governor, county mayor, and city mayor were also there, and it was mentioned that Discovery was on the hook for tax incentives that would realize only with targeted job growth over the following 10 years. The reality? The ink on the deal was barely even dry when the layoffs started. So I’m quite skeptical any time a major corporate acquisition like this comes with promises of investment and growth.
 
J.R. Hudson said:
I think for cinema in general

I mean relatively speaking it's a very young art form compared to literature, music, and art


I just don't remember the last time I was completely geeked out on a movie or watched a movie that really thrilled me

I spend a lot of time going back to the '70s and '80s to watch
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It’s been awhile but ‘Gravity’ on IMAX 3D was epic. I remember leaving thinking, that’s the first ‘edge of your seat thriller’ I ever saw.

‘One Battle After Another’ is excellent. I watched in Portland on 70MM and that anti authoritarian vibe really resonated with the audience, especially in light of the recent events in the area.

‘Dunkirk’, ‘Dune 2’…I don’t go to the movies often but these all were great.
 
Honestly the past 25 years of cinema have produced some absolute masterpieces. As Movies by Matt said, One Battle after Another is phenomenal, and probably will stand alongside films like Mad Max: Fury Road, In the Mood for Love, Long Day's Journey into Night, First Cow, The Green Knight, etc. etc. I'd say all of those are excellent (and many, many others).

Maybe we're at the end of that run, but I'd happily put the best of the 21st century up against the best from any other decade in movie history.

The output of the big studios may be suffering, in terms of quality, but there's lots of amazing cinema out there if you look.
 
drboffa said:
Honestly the past 25 years of cinema have produced some absolute masterpieces. As Movies by Matt said, One Battle after Another is phenomenal, and probably will stand alongside films like Mad Max: Fury Road, In the Mood for Love, Long Day's Journey into Night, First Cow, The Green Knight, etc. etc. I'd say all of those are excellent (and many, many others).

Maybe we're at the end of that run, but I'd happily put the best of the 21st century up against the best from any other decade in movie history.

The output of the big studios may be suffering, in terms of quality, but there's lots of amazing cinema out there if you look.
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This is the flip-side of the conversation. We just had our big film festival here at the beginning of November, and the festival's creative director curates some amazing indie features from across the country. As far as quality of film, indies are absolutely crushing it over big studio features. If you can find a place to watch it, look for "The Old Man and the Gun", Robert Redford's last starring role. Absolutely top-notch film. You can also find "Bob Trevino Likes It" on streaming, which screened a our fest last year. Superb.

Back to the economic side, though, budgets are small, rates are low, and chances of getting profitable distribution are relatively low.
 
The article below the film school article was about how Amazon is turning to AI in order to speed up the film making process. I guess we are doomed to see AI slop for the rest of our lives. But Amazon assured the press that real actors and writers would be involved every step of the way... for now.
 
You'll see about 5-15 articles about AI on Yahoo Finance every day. Currently the market is in one of its AI spending fear waves and it's wreaking havoc with the selling and rotation, the bubble continuing to grow.

I don't know if the concerns are real - although the amount of money the Mag 7 and others are spending on AI is something only out of a movie, and chips and parts shortage is a real concern - I'm saying that to say that I feel like there is a human talent bubble growing too.

Slowly...and might pop when humans have had enough and almost no people are in films anymore.

Probably a good amount of years away still but then it's also like...will those new future humans care?
 
I looked at SSD prices the other day and they were 2-3 times what I paid a few years ago, all thanks to the wave of AI hype that's being forced upon us.
 
Alex H. said:
Gotta say, “we didn’t win the bid so the process was obviously unfair” is quite the bold legal argument.
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Wasn't the situation that Paramount had made a superior all cash bid, and then released a letter to convince the shareholders to vote in favor of their purchase, and despite all that Warner was like "nah, we're going with Netflix"?
 
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