Nightmare Alley (Guillermo del Toro, December 17, 2021) Movie • Page 3

This was totally fine.

 

Even though I wasn't a fan, sad to see this is tanking hard. They picked a terrible release date and with this clearly aimed at an older audience that is not coming back to the theater, does not inspire great hope about the fate of non-Marvel movies for the future.

 

The real problem is older audiences being less likely to risk exposure to Covid to go to the movies than the younger-skewing audiences of superhero movies. Or, if they have kids, they’re going to take them to see Spider-Man as opposed to going to Nightmare Alley alone. I know it’s fashionable to blame Marvel for this stuff but there’s still a pandemic raging out there and people are becoming even more selective about what they see in the theater than they already were. Covid is accelerating trends that started years ago with the rise of digital distribution and subscription streaming platforms. People were already saving their theater dollars for big blockbusters and waiting to see smaller movies at home pre-2020, now they have even more of a reason to keep doing that. It sucks but that’s the reality we’re living in. At least theaters are making money right now after we all spent the last year and a half wondering how much longer they’d be able to survive.

Luckily there’s also never been a better time for audiences in terms of access to independent, foreign, and lower budget films ever. The digital distribution thing has at least democratized access to movies like that for people who previously never would have ever been able to see them, or at least would have had to wait a very long time to see them.

 

it's "fashionable" because it's a good reason that is correct and based on wanting the medium to not disappear

 

I'm friends with a couple movie theater owners and they're overjoyed that "Spider-Man" is doing well. They've been eating shit for months, so I understand what you're saying. But stuff like big-budget Steven Spielberg movies tanking is not normal, even with the accelerating trends. I guess my thoughts are kind of in line with the Blank Check guys - it's depressing to see. So many movies are getting thrown to streaming and lost in the algorithm, while Marvel takes up most of the air. I get the reality of the situation, but I also loathe it.

 

Yeah it definitely sucks and is profoundly disappointing to see but the pandemic and prior trends are far more to blame here. You could take Spider-Man out of every theater in America and the only significant thing that would happen is theaters would be taking in far less money than they are. The theater-going experience would be much closer to dying for good. And great movies like West Side Story (as well as decent movies like this one) would probably be making a bit more but still not be making nearly as much as they would have pre-pandemic (let alone pre-Netflix).

 

it's more than movies like the MCU, and other large IP properties since it isn't only just them, completely monopolizing the box office has pushed movies that previously would have made decent money onto tv or direct to VOD. it isn't really a like/dislike, opinion type thing. just look at the box office top 25 results for each year. you can track a huge shift in the types of movies that make money and tend to get made around 2008-2010, when these universes take off. we used to have a movie like this, or frankly smaller since this is still a movie by one of the bigger directors around, pretty much every week, or at least a few a month, and now we get maybe five or six and they're all lumped in the final five or six months of the year and get phased out after a week or two because of poor results and then next big IP movie needs the screen space in the theaters. it's amazing directors like mike mills even get one-week runs for their movies anymore, when directors like him and movies like cmon cmon used to have two month+ runs.

i feel like it comes off like I hate movies like spiderman on this site. i really don't. i tend to see them the weekend they come out with my wife and have a good time. but they aren't anywhere near as good as, and are a direct threat to, the movies by directors like GDT, who I don't even love, that are becoming few and far between

 

There’s no evidence whatsoever those movies are becoming few and far between in terms of getting made. There are tons of movies like C’mon C’mon getting made every year from all over the world. Also, idk about anyone else but mainstream theaters weren’t really showing movies like that around me pre-pandemic or pre-MCU. I always had to either drive a significant distance to a random arthouse theater or go to the city. I can’t even count how many times I’ve had to go into NYC to see a movie because literally no theater in NJ was playing it (again, pre-pandemic and pre-MCU). Digital distribution has allowed movies like that to reach a wider audience than ever before, and make money doing it.

As hard as it is to admit, most general audiences don’t want to go to a theater to see movies like that anymore and also most of them never did in the first place. Besides, I would actually say the niche status (at least in the USA) of what are generically referred to as “arthouse films” has actually improved over the last ten years as more people than ever actually get to *see* those movies.

Again, it truly sucks that those kinds of films don’t get played in every AMC or Regal or Cinemark in the country. I wish they would, it’d make it a lot easier for even someone like me, who lives close to NYC, to see things. But that’s not the reality we’re currently living in and it’s also not really the reality we were ever living in, at least since the rise of national multiplex theater chains.

 

Also if the choice is between either the closure of 90% of movie theaters in this country or having them stay open but be largely dominated by big budget blockbusters and name directors like Spielberg making mid-to-large-budget movies, I know which choice I’m picking personally. Theaters would truly die out if it weren’t for movies like Spider-Man and No Time To Die and F9.

 

what on earth are you talking about, there's no evidence. have you looked at/listened to interviews with directors, where almost to a one, many of them have said they can't have an original story for a movie without tying it to a property owned by the studio? have you looked at movies going direct to VOD? have you looked at showtimes to see movies playing in theaters?

honestly one of the more baffling posts you've made recently on the subject, which is saying something

 

no one is arguing theaters wouldn't die without those movies in 2021. they obviously would. because of a decade+ of the industry being pushed to this point and ruined by movies exactly like the ones you mentioned. that is what I was saying. look at the movies that would make good money prior to that period. it was full of movies closer to cmon cmon than spiderman no way home and the f9

 

It’s like PTA said recently in Indiewire:

 

yes, one director saying that he doesn't care about superhero movies is proof that no one has had issues making original stories without it being shoehorned into IP

what lol

 

That specific quote isn’t about superhero movies but ok!

The bottom line is, movies like C’mon C’mon are getting made in droves all over the world now and they’re easier than ever for people to access, especially the foreign films. They should get more time in the theaters than they do, but that’s not what most general audiences want from the theatergoing experience anymore and business is business. Another problem caused by capitalism.

People have been heralding the death of film for nearly a decade now. It’s not happening any time soon. The death of the theater experience specifically was and is a far more imminent threat than the death of film as a medium/art form.

 

the theater experience directly correlates to the kind of movies that get funded. absolutely baffling from you.

 

In 2021, with VOD being widely available and streaming platforms funding their own original content, that just isn’t the case anymore. The theater experience directly correlates to what kind of big-budget movies get funded, for sure. It doesn’t directly correlate to anything else anymore, really. That’s an outdated way of thinking.

 

really? Didn’t seem that bad

what’s up btw, been ages

 

Thought this was only ok… really well made and the acting is great but it felt a little half baked as far as plot. Blanchett’s character felt underwritten, her motivations in the final act are not really set up very well and feel pretty sudden.

Also I feel like a lot of reviews / press clippings hyped up the ending as “the wildest in years” (paraphrasing) and “unexpected” set you up for a huge disappointment. Wasn’t a bad ending by any means but was hardly a fireworks display.

 

Felt like the ending was really dragged out. I do like the final scene, just wish it was tighter leading up to it.

 

Really not feeling this one. The first hour was a meandering, dull set up for a pretty obvious end punchline.

also thought it looked absolutely terrible

 

sicko kind of performance from Bradley. loved it. some of the others felt woefully miscast though, and I didn't love the last 45 or so before the final scene. shoutout to tim blake nelson showing up for two minutes.

 

hulu & hbo max 2/1

 

Hell yes, I really wanted to see this but missed the chance to see it in theaters

Is it true Cooper hangs dong

 

no lol