Entertainment Forum General Chat Thread • Page 250

Box office grosses were climbing before Netflix and other streaming services started to eat away at their profits. The U.S. box office more than doubled between 1999 and 2009, but 2009 to 2018 growth (2019 isn't over yet) went from 10.5 million to 11.8 million. When you factor in inflation and a rising population, they are making less money. That is because of streaming services. The recession was blamed at first, but even as the economy has recovered theaters haven't been able to recover.

During this same time, way more movies were released (578 to 921) while a handful of blockbusters break records, which means that unless a film is an event (superheroes or lightsabers) people decide to watch what is already available on streaming and wait for it to come to that service, if they even remember it.

Netflix isn't doing it to save communities. They decided that they want one hundred percent of the gross rather than what they would split with theaters. Every dollar spent at a Netflix theater reduces the likelihood those people spend it at a normal theater, which means it becomes less profitable for an aspiring filmmaker or small distributor to release in traditional theaters. At the same time, Disney is making insane demands on theaters for the right to show their films, requiring longer release windows and a bigger percentage of the gross, forcing out more small films. What used to be a creative new way to release films becomes just another studio giant that controls not only production but the entire distribution process.

This stuff is moving so fast that we lose sight of how much has changed. It was such a crazy story when you heard that a major filmmaker was making a television show with a famous actor and it was going to be on Netflix. Just a year or two later you started to see movies starring Adam Sandler and Will Smith. We are taking it for granted that they aren't going to do what all corporations do when their monopolies become closer to reality.

What happens when an actor badmouths a Netflix film on Jimmy Fallon or Stephen Colbert? We saw how everyone tripped over themselves to run to Disney's defense when Martin Scorsese offered the most mild of criticism of Marvel films. Now you are in a situation where Netflix (and Disney and others) will finance the production of the film, distribute the film to their theaters, and control the streaming rights. It is a terrible arms race that is going to crowd out a lot of independent work.

 

I’m okay with being wrong but I don’t think streaming services are responsible for movie theaters failing, movie theater prices are responsible for that. People were held hostage by theaters before and had to pay insane prices just to see a movie so of course they are going to jump on opportunities to see quality movies at home for free/cheap


I’m not commenting on the vertical integration stuff bc honestly I’m not nearly educated enough to make an intelligent statement about it. I’m just speaking as a layman moviegoer.

 

That is how it always starts. Walmart and other big box companies undercut their competitors and drove them out. Amazon undercuts Walmart and drives them out. Netflix flourished because of the price and convenience. That is how it demolished the video rental store. Why drive to Blockbuster and hope they have a copy of what you want and pay 5 dollars or so when you can pay Netflix to deliver anything you could think of to your door? Why drive to a movie theater and pay for expensive tickets and popcorn when you can watch it at home and have your own food or pause it or do whatever you want?

Ticket prices haven't really been the issue. From 1999 to 2009, the average ticket went from $5.06 to $7.50, almost a fifty percent increase, but from 2009 to 2018 it went from $7.50 to $9.11. Adjusted for inflation, a movie ticket in 1969 was $10.14.

Annual Average U.S. Ticket Price

 

Theaters are too expensive and audiences are too obnoxious. I'm a shut in millennial who wants to watch movies from the comfort of my home in my PJs and some takeout.

 

Like I said I don’t really know enough to have a stance so much. I just don’t know if it’s fair to demonize companies for taking an industry and making it “better”. I’m NOT making a stance on which is better just that clearly people think convenience and cheap cost trumps all else, which is what I mean by “better”.
But it’s deff important to talk about the implications of all those things too

I think so much has happened in the last few decades (like you said now we have the power to watch at home and pause like never before) there’s no tangible way to say how these things affected the shifts from theaters to home streaming/Netflix.

but I do know one thing tickets are more than that here ha and of course it makes sense to include snack prices in the cost because for many years that was the standard/expected moviegoing experience. Literally any time I’ve talked to someone about going to the movies they say they don’t go anymore because for a date or even worse family affair it’s like a $50-$100 experience. People flat out can’t afford that. That’s not on Netflix lol

 

I can only think of maybe like 3 times when the audience negatively impacted my viewing of a movie. And in the case of comedies, crowds are basically always a net positive

What’s always weird as shit is when the audience claps at the end of a movie for whatever reason. Or when everyone in my theater ceremoniously stood up for the ending of American Sniper. Hard second hand embarrassment

 

How is the first one weird?

 

I love watching movies at home and the theater, they just serve different functions and a very different experience. It’s the idea of a few companies controlling every aspect of how movies get made and released that’s really troubling on a bunch of levels.

 

I always clap at the end of an album to show my respect to the artist. My co-workers hate me, but fuck them

 

Netflix's goal isn't to make the industry better, it is to ruthlessly destroy the competition and increase market share. It is much more convenient to buy electronics from Amazon rather than going to Radio Shack, but Amazon is still extremely dangerous.

If your ticket costs more than the average, you probably live in a pricier part of the country which means the tickets probably always cost more than the average. One of the real reasons people can't afford movie theaters as much is that wages have not kept up with inflation, but that is another topic.

 

Movie theaters, especially independent ones, have been dying my whole life, especially during the hight of illegal downloads. Also, even if they die because of streaming, so what? I don’t see anyone crying over factories that made VHS tapes. If people want to stream movies instead of going to to the movie theater, then that’s how it’s going to be. It might negatively affect the quality of movies going forward, but that’s a different story. I don’t see why any of that means that streaming companies deciding to buy some movie theaters to keep them open is a bad thing. It’s a least not worse than have no movie theaters.

 

If you don’t do it after each song you’re still being disrespectful.

 

None of the people can hear you

 

Yes and that is the part I don’t rly grasp so I’m not trying to make statements about it. It’s a really nuanced topic I think

 

This is also happening at the same time that Netflix canceled BoJack Horseman because the animation studio unionized.

 

Netflix’s cancellation policies are going to get them in trouble, I think. They cancel shows like they’re a linear TV network when instead they should be building a portfolio that includes loss leaders and niche products.

 

Yep, and not just the first time I listen to an album but every single time. If I like it more than the previous time I clap louder. If it doesn’t age well then I still clap out of respect for the effort

 

Oh for sure. It’s a good example of something not being obviously troubling in a vacuum, but there’s so much else going on that it can’t be separated from the bigger picture. Netflix is a huge source of making decisions that are either good for consumers in the moment (or at the very least neutral) while also implementing things that are really bad in the long run.

 

I mean now that’s their goal sure but when it was invented it was deff invented because it was an idea to make how we view movies..better. Obviously everything becomes evil under capitalism. But I see what you’re saying.

I don’t live in a pricier part of the country but sure maybe above average. However tickets here used to be affordable and that’s why people stopped because it’s no longer affordable. Definitely true that a lot of that has to do with wage/inflation tho!!

 

Totally

 

One of the most depressing conversations is when people are talking about a movie they like and a person asks if it is on Netflix and you know they won't try to watch it when they hear it isn't. The same will be true for Disney+ once it becomes normalized.

It's sad to see because my film education relied heavily on the old Netflix-by-mail days. So much of what I saw came from having access to almost any movie I can think of, from old classics to foreign films to new independent films.

 

I don't know, when clapping happens it's not for the people on-screen, I always see it as more of a group agreement that we really enjoyed that movie.

 

That's how I viewed it as well. I think it's kind of nice sometimes.

 

Everything you’ve ever posted that I disagreed with.....now lost like dust in the wind. Good post Steve. I legit chuckled

 

You and I are keeping them in business.