Where have the blockbusters gone?

[SimonDoom]

It’s because they have actual mass. Often CGI characters even now feel too light. They lack mass and it’s very hard to fake. When I think of amazing CGI characters that work as massive I tend to think of the Big Orc in fellowship of the ring and Kong in the recent Kong movies. But they are the exception not the rule.

This is one of the reasons (along with bad writing and simple characters) I cannot enjoy the Avatar movies. I'm watching a cartoon the whole time.

 

[MajorRewrite]

What killed the movies was covid which they never recovered from because three years later people still don't want to leave their house, but now out of laziness.

I think not. Swarms of people are out and about in downtown Knoxville every night. Concerts and plays sell out. UT football fills their 100,000 seat stadium. The local minor league baseball and soccer teams draw crowds.

The movie theaters … not so much. People are eager for entertainment and are willing to pay for it. Hollywood is just not making attractive movies. And the publishing industry isn’t much better.

 

[RejectReality]

This is one of the reasons (along with bad writing and simple characters) I cannot enjoy the Avatar movies. I'm watching a cartoon the whole time.

One that impressed me was in Infinity War, and I'm not sure whether it was primarily CG or there was some stunt work involved, but that scene of Vision slamming into the fence after coming through the glass ceiling. That had weight and mass. I could and still can feel that every time I watch the scene of his head slamming.

Then there's Banner's head floating around in the Hulkbuster... D'oh!

Plenty of questionable CG throughout the movie, but that one bit of a scene feels painfully real.

All I've ever seen of Avatar I saw on televisions at Walmart. It wasn't even the CG part, it was the scenes on sets, and in HD, they just looked ridiculous to me. Everything screamed fake at the top of its lungs. Looked like a set for a school play. The same scene playing on a lower definition set a couple down actually looked better to me.

 

[lovecraft68]

I think not. Swarms of people are out and about in downtown Knoxville every night. Concerts and plays sell out. UT football fills their 100,000 seat stadium. The local minor league baseball and soccer teams draw crowds.

The movie theaters … not so much. People are eager for entertainment and are willing to pay for it. Hollywood is just not making attractive movies. And the publishing industry isn’t much better.

Movies are what I'm talking about, people didn't really get back there. Its also a case now where a new release will cost you $19.99 to stream....two tickets are more than that in many places and its a lot for soda/popcorn. My daughters and son in laws went out to a movie a couple weeks ago while we watched the little ones and they said for the four of them it was a $100+ event.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

One that impressed me was in Infinity War, and I'm not sure whether it was primarily CG or there was some stunt work involved, but that scene of Vision slamming into the fence after coming through the glass ceiling. That had weight and mass. I could and still can feel that every time I watch the scene of his head slamming.

Then there's Banner's head floating around in the Hulkbuster... D'oh!

Plenty of questionable CG throughout the movie, but that one bit of a scene feels painfully real.

All I've ever seen of Avatar I saw on televisions at Walmart. It wasn't even the CG part, it was the scenes on sets, and in HD, they just looked ridiculous to me. Everything screamed fake at the top of its lungs. Looked like a set for a school play. The same scene playing on a lower definition set a couple down actually looked better to me.

I know what you mean.

I think something that has not helped Hollywood is it’s over-reliance and under-paying of artists who do the work, this has resulted in more slap-dash effects and people notice. Recent marvel films have had sone shocking CGI (Quantumania) and this also puts people off.

 

[lovecraft68]

My idea of a blockbuster was Evil Dead Rise

 

[MajorRewrite]

Movies are what I'm talking about, people didn't really get back there. Its also a case now where a new release will cost you $19.99 to stream....two tickets are more than that in many places and its a lot for soda/popcorn. My daughters and son in laws went out to a movie a couple weeks ago while we watched the little ones and they said for the four of them it was a $100+ event.

You said people aren’t going to movies because they became lazy after staying home during Covid. I pointed out that people have returned in droves to sporting events and concerts.

UT football tickets and concert tickets cost 5 times as much as movie tickets, so price isn’t the reason people aren’t going to movies.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

It’s not cost. Many cinemas are showing films at lower prices. The problem is Hollywood has decided putting their eggs all in one basket is the best option. Warners almost entire slate this year is Superhero movies.

Did no-one tell WB that lack of diversity in product might harm them?

In the past comedies were a great way of getting people to the pictures but the comedy films I’ve seen on streaming that were not theatrical releases were shit. Take THE OUT-LAWS on Netflix, it’s shockingly bad with only about 4 LOL moments. Compare that to EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE and also the excellent THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF MASSIVE TALENT (why are these titles so long?!) and you can see the effect bad streaming movies are having.

Add to that the streaming services are all battling each other to see who can pick up the newest product for the cheapest and you have a race to the bottom on quantity over quality where nobody wins.

I was looking over the next few months of movies and it’s quite frankly dog-turd this year with OPPENHEIMER and MEG 2 being the only things catching my eyes. I might have to go and see the BARBIE movie out of boredom.

EEESH!

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I can only say why I won't go to the cinema anymore. It is because I expect to be disappointed. New blockbusters are mostly just a mash of CGI and teenage-level humor. The story doesn't exist. I literally walked out of Avatar 2 after an hour or so, when I realized that it is practically the same story as in Avatar 1, which wasn't good as well, it was just the amazing effects of the time that elevated the movie to what it was. The effects in Avatar 2 were also amazing, but insufficient as the awe of special effects is long gone, for me at least. I also went to the cinema for John Wick 4, and boy was it a cringe-fest. I expected mostly brutal action, but some decent story and more character development as well. The movie delivered none of that to me. Those guys shrugging off bullets and the use of bows and arrows made me feel like it was a parody instead. Also, the story was non-sensical and bland, to put it mildly. No character development at all.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

You said people aren’t going to movies because they became lazy after staying home during Covid. I pointed out that people have returned in droves to sporting events and concerts.

UT football tickets and concert tickets cost 5 times as much as movie tickets, so price isn’t the reason people aren’t going to movies.

Cinemas no longer have a USP. In their heyday, people didn't have TV at home, so would come to watch newsreels and anything. Then they had the big screen, so movies that made use of that did well, because watching at home on your 15-inch wasn't the same.

Recent years, people have 50-inch TVs at home, and can make their own popcorn and have ice-cream. And the multiplexes tried to squeeze in too many screens - I resented paying big-screen prices to see what was just a big telly.

Then add the total lack of service as the multiplexes cut down on staff, walking past unstaffed dark ticket booths, buying from a machine or the stressed kid trying to sell tickets, popcorn, hotdogs and run to the other counter to scoop ice-cream, and one kid is trying to test tickets for 16 screens.

Cue laughter when the ad comes to report piracy to a member of staff - what staff? And then there's invariably some people talking loudly through the film and no staff to shush them or thrown them out.

Not worth it. The Kids Club mornings for a fiver are cheap and fun (and frankly better behaved), but the multiplexes are over £30 for a couple, and snacks are extortionate and you just feel ripped off. The small luxury chains tend to be the same price, excellent seats, a more interesting range of films and more subtitled showings, and they'll sell you wine and cake. Our nearest old cinema has had a revamp and is trying to copy that model, only they still prefer to leave half their screens empty and have few films showing. Driving to a Picturehouse is much better.

 

[SimonDoom]

I can only say why I won't go to the cinema anymore. It is because I expect to be disappointed. New blockbusters are mostly just a mash of CGI and teenage-level humor. The story doesn't exist. I literally walked out of Avatar 2 after an hour or so, when I realized that it is practically the same story as in Avatar 1, which wasn't good as well, it was just the amazing effects of the time that elevated the movie to what it was. The effects in Avatar 2 were also amazing, but insufficient as the awe of special effects is long gone, for me at least. I also went to the cinema for John Wick 4, and boy was it a cringe-fest. I expected mostly brutal action, but some decent story and more character development as well. The movie delivered none of that to me. Those guys shrugging off bullets and the use of bows and arrows made me feel like it was a parody instead. Also, the story was non-sensical and bland, to put it mildly. No character development at all.

I agree with all that. I rented John Wick 4 at home, against my better judgment, and didn't get through it. Dull. Nothing new, and the action sequences are stylized and stupid. I feel like I'm being treated as an idiot by the filmmakers.

I believe there IS an appetite for movies that are both good and entertaining, but moviemakers don't want to make them.

 

[HordHolm]

It’s not cost. Many cinemas are showing films at lower prices. The problem is Hollywood has decided putting their eggs all in one basket is the best option. Warners almost entire slate this year is Superhero movies.

Did no-one tell WB that lack of diversity in product might harm them?

In the past comedies were a great way of getting people to the pictures but the comedy films I’ve seen on streaming that were not theatrical releases were shit. Take THE OUT-LAWS on Netflix, it’s shockingly bad with only about 4 LOL moments. Compare that to EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE and also the excellent THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF MASSIVE TALENT (why are these titles so long?!) and you can see the effect bad streaming movies are having.

Add to that the streaming services are all battling each other to see who can pick up the newest product for the cheapest and you have a race to the bottom on quantity over quality where nobody wins.

I was looking over the next few months of movies and it’s quite frankly dog-turd this year with OPPENHEIMER and MEG 2 being the only things catching my eyes. I might have to go and see the BARBIE movie out of boredom.

EEESH!

I would argue (and with little actual evidence, I admit, but this is a thought I've had for a decade or more) that studios increasingly see the teenage and young adult market as their cash cow, and there's a logic to that: the studios figure that adults are going to sit their fat arses on the sofa watching HBO and Netflix, and any meaningful attempt to combat that is going to be simply hurling good money after bad. But teenagers and young adults, on the other hand, want to go on dates with members of the opposite (or same) sex, and in the US those dates will be, legally speaking at least, away from the bar/pub until they're both 21. Cinemas are the next best option as a means of getting together in the dark and away from parents' oversight. The studios know this, and will tailor the output for this demographic as it's the one that promises the easiest returns. There may also be some fan output, see Star Wars, but the relative poverty of those offerings has hurt the overall idea of pumping out adult material to legacy fans.

Which is why, IMO at least, the superhero genre and stuff like Barbie, occupies the bulk of the budget, and mental attention, of Hollywood. They will, of course, produce some other stuff (they want something 'meaningful' to push forward in awards season), but this won't get the same budget, and won't carry the same importance.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

I would argue (and with little actual evidence, I admit, but this is a thought I've had for a decade or more) that studios increasingly see the teenage and young adult market as their cash cow, and there's a logic to that: the studios figure that adults are going to sit their fat arses on the sofa watching HBO and Netflix

Funnily enough you’ve hit the nail on the head but not in the way that you think.

What you’ve described is lazy Hollywood executive thinking. They don’t want to try anything new and instead want to just buy up established IP’s and retread old franchises, but, there comes a time when that eventually falls flat. Who is it that Hollywood then blames

The audience, that’s who?

There are dozens of not hundreds of great scripts out there that will not get looked at or picked up because they don’t fit into this category. FREE GUY took years before it was looked at precisely for this reason. You see older people don’t want to go to the pictures? Who was it seeing Mamma Mia and who spent most of the nearly $1 billion dollars going to see Bohemian Rhapsody?

The older generation want something to see, give them something good and they will, the problem with Hollywood is the problem where seeing across many strands of business.

A lack of creativity and ambition by executives, a race to the bottom in terms of cost for those doing the work and unquenchable greed at the highest level.

GET OUT cost around $5 million to make and made over $300 million worldwide and took an Oscar home with it. Give the audience a good film, well scripted, well acted and they'll show up (GAME NIGHT was also excellent).

 

[HordHolm]

Funnily enough you’ve hit the nail on the head but not in the way that you think.

What you’ve described is lazy Hollywood executive thinking. They don’t want to try anything new and instead want to just buy up established IP’s and retread old franchises, but, there comes a time when that eventually falls flat. Who is it that Hollywood then blames

The audience, that’s who?

There are dozens of not hundreds of great scripts out there that will not get looked at or picked up because they don’t fit into this category. FREE GUY took years before it was looked at precisely for this reason. You see older people don’t want to go to the pictures? Who was it seeing Mamma Mia and who spent most of the nearly $1 billion dollars going to see Bohemian Rhapsody?

The older generation want something to see, give them something good and they will, the problem with Hollywood is the problem where seeing across many strands of business.

A lack of creativity and ambition by executives, a race to the bottom in terms of cost for those doing the work and unquenchable greed at the highest level.

GET OUT cost around $5 million to make and made over $300 million worldwide and took an Oscar home with it. Give the audience a good film, well scripted, well acted and they'll show up (GAME NIGHT was also excellent).

Oh yes, I wouldn't say that studio thinking is necessarily correct, and there's plenty of cinema around the world that proves the fallacy of their thinking. But they've spent so long thinking that they have to make stuff for Homer and Bart Simpson that they can't get their heads around any other way of thinking when Homer decides he doesn't like what they're offering him anymore. Hence the streaming studios stealing a march on them.

 

[MajorRewrite]

“Barbie and Oppenheimer energized theatergoers, helping cinemas turn in the best weekend since Avengers: Endgame made its debut in April 2019”

All it took was Barbie and the Bomb!

 

[Duleigh]

Note the sign in the window...

 

[SimonDoom]

I just saw Oppenheimer. It's a rarity: a summer blockbuster with intelligence. I'm sure it will be a top candidate for the Best Picture Oscar, and Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey, Jr. are sure to be nominated as well. Downey does so many superhero movies that it's easy to forget he's actually a very good actor.

It's an interesting (and enjoyable) movie about an interesting man and one of the great historical/scientific events of the 20th century. It's very Christopher Nolanish: long, intense, and with a very loud musical score. I won't say any more to avoid spoilers, but I recommend it.

It looks like Barbie is going to be the big blockbuster of the summer, but I doubt I will see it.

 

[alohadave]

I won't say any more to avoid spoilers, but I recommend it.

Let me guess, they get the bomb to go kablooey?

 

[Trionyx]

I’ve skimmed most of this thread and may have missed this issue: movie theaters have the volume turned up so high it can be painful. Making it loud doesn’t make it better. I refuse to pay $25+ to have my ears assaulted for an hour and a half when I can wait a few months and stream the movie for less cost and less cochlear damage.

 

[SimonDoom]

Let me guess, they get the bomb to go kablooey?

 

[MajorRewrite]

I’ve skimmed most of this thread and may have missed this issue: movie theaters have the volume turned up so high it can be painful. Making it loud doesn’t make it better. I refuse to pay $25+ to have my ears assaulted for an hour and a half when I can wait a few months and stream the movie for less cost and less cochlear damage.

True. The theaters are always freezing cold too, which is bizarre. Many women bring a sweater to the movies in the summer! So weird.

I guess theaters are pandering to old fat people who can’t hear and sweat if the temperature is above 60F (15C).

 

[Duleigh]

Let me guess, they get the bomb to go kablooey?

Better yet - we win the war!
OOOPS! Didn't mean to spoil ya. Sorry

 

[SimonDoom]

Anybody seen "Barbie" yet? I haven't seen it yet but probably will at some point. I'm curious to see what all the fuss is about and form my own judgment. Plus, Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling are usually enjoyable actors.

 

[Duleigh]

Anybody seen "Barbie" yet? I haven't seen it yet but probably will at some point. I'm curious to see what all the fuss is about and form my own judgment. Plus, Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling are usually enjoyable actors.

I'll see it when I don't have to shell out a shocking percentage of my dwindling income. I have already spent a terrifying amount on dolls, doll clothing, doll houses, doll cars, doll accessories, doll beach houses, etc. for daughter and nieces in Christmases and birthdays past, I can wait.

 

[Bamagan]

For a good part of my early adulthood, seeing movies in the theater was fun and nostalgic. I gradually aged out of that, possibly because I never had kids and thus no one to try passing the habit or tradition to. Things like Christmas and other holidays atrophied as well, likely for similar reasons. I think some of the remarks above about the relatively high cost of bringing a family to the movies may be contributing to people losing the nostalgic phase more rapidly than I did. I don't have data to back it up and my own experience is too narrow to be useful, but I get the impression that families do fewer such 'movie night' events now than they did twenty or forty years ago. Yes, there are other things families do that are more expensive, like sporting events and theme parks, but even 'back in the old days' those were events that were typically much less common than going to the cinema. So maybe blockbuster summer movies withered on the vine because that's what Millennials decided to give up in favor of avocado toast and lattes. Changing technology is likely a contributing factor as well. Is the movie itself any better in a theater, or is it just the experience or ambiance? If the experience doesn't feel like a ritual to enjoy, just a boring habit of an older generation, why not jettison it in favor of watching the movie when and where you want?