
Movie Business Scrambles to Adapt to Changing Consumer Demand - walterbell
http://variety.com/2017/film/features/movie-business-changing-consumer-demand-studios-exhibitors-1202016699/
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Animats
The proposal: "Premium video rental", at $30 - $50. Right. When VHS first came
out, the movie industry thought that a video rental should cost about as much
as a theater show for a family of 4, including popcorn. That didn't work,
although the reason was the First Sale Doctrine, which allowed video rental
without payments to studios and forced prices down. That doesn't apply online,
and all the players are now huge near-monopolies. They can push prices up, but
can't make people watch.

3D was supposed to save theaters. It didn't. (Incidentally, while "Ghost in
the Shell" is reasonably good, don't see it in 3D. The director likes blurry
backgrounds. 3D has negative value for blurry backgrounds.)

Lack of originality remains a big problem. "Four of the top 10 highest
grossing films last year were based on Marvel or DC Comics characters." In
theaters now, the Lego Batman movie. There are currently 69 more comic book
movies in the pipeline.[1] Even the duds, such as Ant-Man, are getting
sequels. Variety says consumers may be getting tired of comic book movies.

Some original ideas do make big money. Last year, "The Secret Life of Pets" —
$875.4 million, "Zootopia" — $1.023 billion, "Finding Dory" — $1.027 billion,
were in the top 10. They're all animated. Not one of the top 10 highest
grossing movies of 2016 was a live-action non-sequel/remake. Maybe originality
now requires a longer format than the one-off film. Consider Game of Thrones.

Meanwhile, I'm watching Korean drama and Japanese anime.

[1] [http://www.denofgeek.com/uk/movies/comic-book-
adaptations/32...](http://www.denofgeek.com/uk/movies/comic-book-
adaptations/32829/69-upcoming-comic-book-movies-and-when-to-expect-them)

~~~
poppysan
"Not one of the top 10 highest grossing movies of 2016 was a live-action non-
sequel/remake."

Actually 1 was: Suicide Squad. It was indeed a live-action non-sequel/remake.

~~~
Animats
It was, though, based on a comic book.

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TheAdamAndChe
This doesn't surprise me. With all the good jobs drying up and wages
decreasing, young people can't afford to go to the theater when the price of
attending has been going up. On top of that, it seems like most big movies are
formulaic, following the same pattern and not eliciting anything more than
mild amusement. It's just not worth it anymore.

~~~
FullMtlAlcoholc
Hollywood seems content to continue milking comic books and lately anime for
storylines instead of coming up with anything original and then applying the
same, cliched formula.

I can't wait for the demise of this system so that we can see fresh, original
approaches to film-making where the starring actor/actress is the biggest
expense.

Did they learn the lesson from the music industry? Namely, not to attack the
consumer as the cause of its downfall before it was eventually swallowed up by
a tech company (Apple). Perhaps if they transition graciously, Amazon or other
firms will offer them a better deal. Or, preferably, they take the route used
by Veronica Mars by getting funding through kickstarter, indiegogo or some
other fundraising platform. This way, maybe fans won't be severely
disappointed and movie adaptations of popular franchises aren't dumbed down
and white-washed to appeal to as broad an audience as possible.

And, yes, I'm a bit upset after seeing the treatment Ghost in the Shell, one
of my favorite franchises, received. Akira and Cowboy Bebop are next, but I
actually like Jordan Peele and Keanu Reeves so I'm crossing my fingers.

~~~
kosei
I think part of the problem is that the cost to produce a movie is so
expensive and the risk of creating a new story/IP is large enough that few
studios are willing to take that chance. Pixar is one of the few.

~~~
ams6110
How can movie production be costly, at least in comparison to decades past? No
film, no processing, no laborious cutting/splicing.... with CGI no model-
making, much less set-building, no stop-motion, no special frame-by-frame
retouching. Must be much cheaper today at least in terms of the infrasturcture
required.

~~~
Animats
Watch the credits of thousands of animators and technicians at the end of any
major animation project. Yes, you can now put anything on screen, but somebody
has to create all that detail.

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chiph
I see two things they can change to improve.

\- Make going to the movies more of an event. Alamo Drafthouse understands
this. Don't tolerate disturbances. Sell food and alcohol. Don't run ads for
the local mattress store before the film.

\- Price B movies lower than tentpole releases. Guardians of the Galaxy I'll
gladly pay $10-12 for. Some romantic comedy that will quickly be forgotten and
the studio only spent $30 million on ought to be priced less.

~~~
anigbrowl
So your plan is to price movie tickets in accordance with their production
budget? That's a great way to select for lower quality.

~~~
chiph
That's only one indicator of it's potential quality. You can also judge (and
price) a film by the caliber of actors in it.

But sometimes that doesn't work - Kevin Spacey, Jennifer Garner, and
Christopher Walken -- should be a total winner, right? Not always...

[https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/nine_lives_2016](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/nine_lives_2016)

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M_Grey
I just lost interest in virtually all movies in my mid twenties. They're too
short, too alike, to predictable and frankly boring most of the time. There
are very _very_ occasional exceptions, but for me, movies just stopped being
entertaining at some point. I don't know if movies changed, or I did.

A friend of mine and I marathoned two seasons of Game of Thrones; that was _by
far_ a better experience than any movie has ever provided. Movies are the
abridged books of the audiovisual world, in my opinion, with some notable
exceptions. Those exceptions seem (to me at least) to be getting incredibly
rare compared to the deafening background noise of cynical money grabs, re-
makes, sequels, and highly compressed storytelling bolstered with sfx.

What I'm saying is, if I'm not just some oddity in this (and I don't think
that I am) then over time people are just going to _mostly_ outgrow movies.
It's not that movies are pro tanto bad, it's just that _most_ movies don't
play to the strengths of the medium; they exist as remnants of a time when the
options were: Book, Broadcast TV, Movie. Frankly, the writing has been on the
wall since 'The Sopranos', DVR brought closer, and Streaming means it's
actually here, now.

~~~
Unkechaug
There is definitely a place for movies, but I think a lot of people really
enjoy longer spanning series. In the past TV shows were largely episodic in
format and with lower production values compared to movies. But now there is
less of a difference in the quality of the medium and the difference becomes
long va short format. There are definitely some stories that are best told in
one brief sitting, but there is a large market for longer running storylines
that you can consume an hour at a time, or binge all day.

Great point about the Sopranos and how that was a forerunner to these
successful shows that act as today's benchmarks.

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brohoolio
What's with the comic book movie hate? Most of the Marvel ones are pretty
good.

I'd say the one exception is the soundtracks. Movies used to have memorable
soundtracks. Nowadays the soundtracks are pretty boring. They use a process of
filming using another movies soundtrack nowadays and then going back and
recording a soundtrack afterwards. It makes movies sound the same. It's
cheaper to make but it makes the movie going experience cheaper too. It
reduces one of the best parts of going to the theater, the sound system.

I'm pretty sure that Marvel used the soundtrack to Mad Max for the filming
Winter Soldier and then went out and recorded for the winter soldier.

~~~
Joeboy
Tony Zhou did a video about this:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vfqkvwW2fs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vfqkvwW2fs)

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OliverJones

        There is a belief, accepted as dogma in some studio
        boardrooms, that streaming services like Netflix have
        conditioned consumers to access content whenever and
        wherever they would like it.
    

Huh. Boardrooms doing dogma about customer preferences, in 2017, eh?

Makes me think of a very silly kids' book from a few years back. The title was
The Stupids Die.

If the multiplex movie theaters can't come up with ways to measure customer
preferences and insist on relying on preconceived notions, investors should
simply abandon them.

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evolve2k
I think what is also broken, and surprisingly not mentioned, is the broken
theatre licensing model that the large studios impose on theatres to be able
to show their blockbusters. Blockbusters are sold in packages that require a
certain number of screenings throughout the day as well as mandatory screening
of their B grade movies also. Theatres aren't free to just show what they
want, when they want, and pay per screening fees. Innovation here would help
create more intimacy in local movie theatre communities and also mean crap
doesn't get screen time just because it's from a big studio.

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njharman
I have so many entertainment choices at home. I can't imagine ever paying $30
or more! for a movie.

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mark_l_watson
My wife and I go frequently to our local movie theater, even though our small
town multi-theater lacks some of the tech available in large cities. Sitting
in a theater with a few hundred people all enjoying a movie is a positive
human experience. At home we cut out cable TV and have so much good content
available on Netflix, Hulu Prime, and HBO Now that we don't need anything
else.

I think the interesting story is many more smaller productions done by
Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, HBO, etc. It almost feels like genetic algorithm
optimization - running lots of small experiments, measure viewers, and
repeat...

We live in Sedona Arizona and every year we have a fairly large film festival
(for a small town), and getting to meet and hear from directors and producers
of lower budget productions is more than interesting.

Working on games for Nintendo and VR for Disney in the 1990s provided a view
to very well funded development. I think a lot has changed, and lowering costs
producing content is much more important.

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bartvk
I personally think that there's a new way. On Kickstarter, Arrowstorm
Entertainment regularly launches new campaigns for movies. One of the more
succesful ones is a fantasy movie series called Mythica, already at part 5:
[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arrowstorm/mythica-5-th...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arrowstorm/mythica-5-the-
godslayer)

One of the more recent ones is 626 Evolution, a science fiction movie:
[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arrowstorm/626-evolutio...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arrowstorm/626-evolution-
scifi-feature)

These are low budget movies aimed at a specific crowd. You join in for $15 or
more. I love them.

~~~
petra
The first 2 films in this series recruited about $80K. How is that enough for
producing a movie ? does anybody know how their business model works?

~~~
anigbrowl
You can make a feature very cheap but it's difficult to make a profit on it,
plus there's a big trade-off between the quality of work you get if you pay or
not. Film people help each other out for free frequently cause they're
artists, but sadly the model for micro- and no-budget films has shrunk by
about half over the last 15 years, so it's very difficult to make a living on
small projects compared to even a decade ago.

~~~
petra
The production values are quite good,at least according to promos , that's
what's surprising about this.

~~~
anigbrowl
It's absolutely doable on a small budget. The tricky part is bootstrapping
that to get to a higher budget. When you produce a great product at a low
budget there's some pressure to promote the cheapness/economy angle as a
selling point. But as you go for a higher level of quality, whether technical
or aesthetic, the costs don't scale linearly with the budget. So above a
certain budget you might come under pressure to sign industry agreements on
guild membership or labor contracts in order to be able to hire the people you
want, so the financial calculus changes.

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frik
Adapt? Really? It doesn't seem so. They are in their own world, and don't
care.

But no wonder when you read about the crazy head of Sony Pictures, the woman
that got kicked because of the scandals that got made public (emails leaked).
For example we can "thank" her for that the Steve Jobs movie lost the The
Social Network director and is now such a boring piece of movie.

We don't need hundreds of super hero movies, such a mass is stupid. Where are
the funny movies, the action movies, the adventure movies? We want less CGI
and more real action, or CGI looking like real action.

We want movies not boring hour long series, we have no time to waste hours for
a stretched story arc.

The Accountant, (second half of) Bourne 2016, Jack Reacher 2, Mission
Impossible Rogue Nation ... were good movies. But it gets harder and harder to
find a few movies per year that are watchable. The last two X-Men movies were
so bad, so many CGI effects, so dark, so little content that made the previous
X-Men movies great. Were are the Die Hard 1-2, Air Force One, first three Tom
Clancy movies of this decade - right, directors and script writers forgot how
to pace a movie, as constant action is just wrong, you need intense action
then calm situations and then action again and a bit humour does't hurt
(something almost completely forgotten). I just saw a 1968 action movie and it
was so much better (Steven Spielberg mentioned it's his favourite movie he
sees up to), this decades Hollywood is in a sad state.

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rabboRubble
For Hollywood movies, I only do matinees. Frack paying $20+ for a single
ticket. At that price point, if the movie sucks, it generates massive
butthurt. These days I only go to a nighttime movie if somebody I like wants
me there. Maybe 2 a year?

Art house tickets are like 5-10 bucks on smaller screens. I can buy pizza and
beer at these places. There is a narrow table to hold my pizza and beer. This
is my price point for a nighttime movie.

Good luck to Hollywood at those dollars.

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smaili
Would be interesting if theaters find a way to reduce audience interference
while still capturing the audience atmosphere. The last couple of outings have
had me sit next to people playing with phones or talking during the movie.

