US may strike down laws prohibiting studios from owning movie theatres!

[Batutta]

Huge news, and will pretty much be the death knell for theatrical distribution of independent films, which has been declining for decades anyway. Who knows what other consequences this will have on the business, good or bad?

https://deadline.com/2019/11/justice-department-paramount-consent-decrees-1202789185/

 

[Guest]

If you think about it,

Netflix, Apple, and Disney already own their production and distribution chains.

 

[Batutta]

If you think about it,

Netflix, Apple, and Disney already own their production and distribution chains.

Undoubtedly why they are pushing for the final piece of the pie, the theatres. They won't have to split the revenues with theater owners anymore. For big cities with hundreds of screens this might not have much impact, but for other places, where there are one or two multiplexes in a city it could severely limit the variety of films people get to see in theatres.

 

[Razz16mm]

What we get to see in theaters in a town dominated by Regal Cinemas is severely limited already. 36 screens showing the same 8 or 9 movies, mostly Marvel Comics productions. Don't see how it can get much worse.
Interesting original dramas with real character development seldom see the inside of a theater around here.
Streaming distribution has many more interesting choices these days.

 

[DLD]

...Interesting original dramas with real character development seldom see the inside of a theater around here. Streaming distribution has many more interesting choices these days.

I mentioned this on a related thread but streaming services (Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Apple, etc.) are slowly bringing back the $20M-$50M films that can't handle the $150M global promotion budget.

As to the prohibition on studios owning theater chains, it was a bad law to begin with.

 

[Greg_E]

With the kind of garbage being turned out to the theaters, their time is limited anyway. Been a year since I went to see a movie in a theater, there just isn't much of anything I find worthy of my money. Isle of Dogs was the last thing, rather unique, and the projection sucked and gave us both headaches.

 

[Grug]

Excellent! If there's one thing this world really needs more of, it's corporate monopolies.

 

[DLD]

Excellent! If there's one thing this world really needs more of, it's corporate monopolies.

It isn't a monopoly when you have a dozen competitors in the field.

And back in the 1950's, there were IIRC, seven Hollywood based companies (Universal, MGM/Columbia, United Artists, 20th Century/Fox, RKO, Warner Brothers, Disney). Nowadays, there are also "mini majors" like Lionsgate, Amblin, STX, etc.

And, at least, half a dozen streamers - Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Disney, Apple (with Peacock to launch in 2020)

 

[Run&Gun]

What we get to see in theaters in a town dominated by Regal Cinemas is severely limited already. 36 screens showing the same 8 or 9 movies, mostly Marvel Comics productions. Don't see how it can get much worse.
Interesting original dramas with real character development seldom see the inside of a theater around here.
Streaming distribution has many more interesting choices these days.

When I was a kid in the 80’s/90’s, we had five theaters in-town and two drive-ins very close by. Today it’s just one Regal Theater. So in that time span, the city population has increased by ~65% and the county population increased by ~31%, but we lost 80% of our theaters with the drive-in’s completely vanishing.

 

[markoconnell]

Pretty much the same argument as was used to take out the voting rights act. It's no longer needed because that evil no longer exists.

 

[Run&Gun]

Pretty much the same argument as was used to take out the voting rights act. It's no longer needed because that evil no longer exists.

And in the same vein, I've always loved the saying, "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it".

 

[Razz16mm]

And in the same vein, I've always loved the saying, "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it".

And those who know history are doomed to watch the rest repeat it.

 

[puredrifting]

And those who know history are doomed to watch the rest repeat it.

Truth.

 

[filmguy123]

These days I wait for home release to see the movies I really want to see, unless I’m terribly concerned of spoilers.

A good home theater these days > most theater experiences.

 

[Tamerlin]

These days I wait for home release to see the movies I really want to see, unless I’m terribly concerned of spoilers.

A good home theater these days > most theater experiences.

I pretty much only go to movies that I want to see in Seattle's Cinerama or the Crest in Shoreline, WA. Cinerama because... well, it's the Cinerama. The Crest for the beer + food, though the Cinerama has a pretty selection of beer on tap, good food, chocolate popcorn, Theo's chocolates, and huge, bright 70mm digital projection system with Dolby Atmos sound.

The only exceptions are film festival screenings during SIFF, though I tend to miss the best ones because SIFF takes place when production and backpacking season are spinning up...