I'm not mad at him. His company needs to figure this out, though. This whole pandemic was the perfect test case to try new ideas and they didn't do it.
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Deadline: AMC CEO Slams Warner Bros HBO Max 2021 Theatrical Window Concept: Studio Sacrificing “Considerable” Profit
- Thread starter Saucycarpdog
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To be great the centralized chain might be going away, but the movie theater is going nowhere. People want to watch tv in their home and outside their home (especially when they have kids or in general do not want to talk).
What do you want from me? I judge this is not the right thread to talk about the need to overthrow capitalism but if you want to talk about systemic issues... fine. I certainly don't think bailing out dying industries is the proper way of overthrowing capitalism. I learned my lesson from 08, fuck corporate bailouts, let dying industries die. This CEO in particular can get his wealth expropriated. Warner Bros should be nationalized and it's library made free to download online. No I'm not going to do the thing where we prop up one capitalist to fight off another, it never works and disgusts me. If that's what y'all want knock yourselves out.
Don't fret, in Soviet America there will be state owned theatres within biking distance of every state dormitory, I have decreed it.
Nope. 4 rows of seating ensure that I can enjoy those social elements with up to 20 of my friends and their friends. I'm not missing ANYTHING at the theater. Generally, the theater is a downgrade for me.
100%.
But the post I responded to suggest that *nobody* has a home theater experience that can rival a theater.
I beg to differ.
Theatres will still be around, they just wont be as big as they have been in the past.
Times change, and being upset that it will reduce jobs doesn't stave off that change either. Ask automation if you want receipts, because that one is coming too regardless of how many jobs it eliminated.
Movie theatres have BEEN struggling. Im not sure how people havent noticed. Prior to Covid everyone was laughing about the failure of the membership pass thing and how poorly it was handled. Even as movies set new record the theatres were struggling.
Look at this:
That is a 5 year chart for AMC.. Does that trend look healthy to you? Does that look like something Covid is solely responsible for? Or something Covid merely accelerated? Keep in mind, this 5 year timespan is during the years where companies like Disney are putting up record numbers from movies and basically printing 1 billion dollar box office returns on a Xerox machine with the Marvel franchise and yet... look at that trend.
This was heading this way regardless. Also, here is Netflix for contrast over the same date range:
Times change, and being upset that it will reduce jobs doesn't stave off that change either. Ask automation if you want receipts, because that one is coming too regardless of how many jobs it eliminated.
Movie theatres have BEEN struggling. Im not sure how people havent noticed. Prior to Covid everyone was laughing about the failure of the membership pass thing and how poorly it was handled. Even as movies set new record the theatres were struggling.
Look at this:
That is a 5 year chart for AMC.. Does that trend look healthy to you? Does that look like something Covid is solely responsible for? Or something Covid merely accelerated? Keep in mind, this 5 year timespan is during the years where companies like Disney are putting up record numbers from movies and basically printing 1 billion dollar box office returns on a Xerox machine with the Marvel franchise and yet... look at that trend.
This was heading this way regardless. Also, here is Netflix for contrast over the same date range:
mine can. setup is similar to this:
except I have 4 rows of seating and the screen is 152" w/4K projector.
when the fuck did you become rich? let me see your setup
I think theaters will be OK, if Warner wants to cripple their theatrical releases, it's just going to mean that Disney, Universal and others will clean up with less competition as the vaccines become widespread by next summer.
It's only a matter of time before something like a new Avatar movie or a Marvel movie makes $900-$1 billion+ WW again while still maintaining lucrative opportunities afterwards to also come to streaming later.
For Warner Bros. I think this is actually about HBO Max being a disappointment. It has not racked up subs in the COVID19 pandemic the way Netflix and Disney Plus have and with the pandemic having a finish line to it they were running out of time to make head way.
Game of Thrones destroying it's brand rep badly damaged HBO's appeal because not only do people not care for the last season it soured a lot of people on the back catalog of older seasons to go with it, so $15/month for what they offer as it stands simply wasn't a great deal if you take GoT out of the equation.
Like who's paying $15 a month for Barrie (great show, but lets be real, it's not a blockbuster hit). Watchmen was acclaimed but not really a huge pop culture break out blockbuster.
It's only a matter of time before something like a new Avatar movie or a Marvel movie makes $900-$1 billion+ WW again while still maintaining lucrative opportunities afterwards to also come to streaming later.
For Warner Bros. I think this is actually about HBO Max being a disappointment. It has not racked up subs in the COVID19 pandemic the way Netflix and Disney Plus have and with the pandemic having a finish line to it they were running out of time to make head way.
Game of Thrones destroying it's brand rep badly damaged HBO's appeal because not only do people not care for the last season it soured a lot of people on the back catalog of older seasons to go with it, so $15/month for what they offer as it stands simply wasn't a great deal if you take GoT out of the equation.
Like who's paying $15 a month for Barrie (great show, but lets be real, it's not a blockbuster hit). Watchmen was acclaimed but not really a huge pop culture break out blockbuster.
You might want to wait until Disney unveils their plans in the next week for 2021, Warner revealed first but others are going to follow.
Disney sees Streaming to be the important thing for them, they have movies and can't hold off on them.
The vaccine wouldn't be available to everyone until fall of next year, until the majority of the population get it, people still have to wear masks and have social distancing even after you take the vaccine.
If you want to make this argument, at least pick something vital and necessary, like a grocery store or pharmacy.
Then we can move on to how movie theaters are not vital or necessary and therefore not worth the risk and should not have reopened yet.
I love going to the cinemas. I have since I was little and there is no possible way to emulate that at home. a 65" 4k TV is not the same as a 15 meter high screen with booming audio. I hope they do return.
Others don't have incentive to follow. No other studio dug themselves into a multi-billion dollar hole building a streaming platform. They'd be losing massive amounts of revenue for trivial gains over current performance.
You could pour soda over your floor, make homemade popcorn then flush $10 down the toilet, and play this in the background to replicate that.
This post makes the most sense.
Theaters need to offer more than exclusivity and the ones that adapt the quickest will be the ones that survive.
Reasonable defense by the CEO, but it just comes off as salt given how badly AMC is doing this year.
I'm glad I invested in a home theater instead. I don't have to pay to go to the theaters and I can eat my own food and invite friends for free when I have Atmos and an OLED. It's especially handy during pandemics when you're just at home all day with nothing but things to play/watch on your home theater
I'm glad I invested in a home theater instead. I don't have to pay to go to the theaters and I can eat my own food and invite friends for free when I have Atmos and an OLED. It's especially handy during pandemics when you're just at home all day with nothing but things to play/watch on your home theater
We'll see but if Mulan did so great in VOD why didn't Disney release Black Widow the same way? Because they don't want to throw away the money they know it can make theatrically AND also getting benefits from Disney Plus later (this is not the either/or scenario).
Quite frankly Disney Plus sub growth is already great and you have to sub to Disney Plus if you want to watch a movie regardless of it's theaterical window unless you are willing to pay VOD per film or buy the Blu-Ray individually. They know people will pay to watch an Avengers movie in the theater, but will want it later at home too which leads them to Disney Plus, so why should a company like Disney give that up.
Disney Plus will still get the benefit from things like the Avatar sequels, future MCU films, future big ticket animated family films even under a traditional model with a traditional theater release window first. Because you're not going to get those films on any other service but Disney Plus down the line.
Dr. Fauci has already said that by the start of the NFL season next year (August) the vaccine will be widespread enough to allow for fully packed football arenas ... we're talking 60,000-80,000+ people packed into an arena, walking the indoor concourses, etc. What's a movie theater with a couple of hundred people compared to that.
HBO Max has not been doing great relative to other services, so Warner needed to do something more drastic, if they came out of the COVID pandemic not really having made much head way they would have missed a big window.
They did though. They offer full movie theater rentals for absurdly low amounts of money. Again, I'd love to see something more like that in the future. Offer us a private theater: smaller space, seats up to 30 or so, our choice of movie and what not. Sell alcohol. Actually make it a premium experience.
We'll know what happens in the next two weeks, everything is pointing to Disney doing something, Warner took the first step forward and all the other studios payed attention.
everyone who's richer than me in this thread needs to give me a hundred bucksmine can. setup is similar to this:
except I have 4 rows of seating and the screen is 152" w/4K projector.
I'd imagine anyone would be upset when a massive company that's responsible for a good chunk of your profit basically throws you under the bus and condemns you to an eventual death. Still better this way, though.
Disney I doubt very much is going to gift away $500 million-$750 million earnings potential some of their films have.
It's not like just because they release something in theaters first traditionally that somehow Netflix or HBO Max is going to get future Avengers movies or Avatar sequels some how. You're going to have to sub to Disney Plus if you ever really want to watch that catalog of films again, so Disney knows they have their fans lock, stock, and over a barrell.
Warner Bros. needed to make a move because HBO Max is not likely doing the business they thought it would (a problem Disney does not have). With no modern "killer app" show, since Game of Thrones decided to implode on itself, the HBO brand really isn't as lucrative as they probably thought. $15/month is a lot of money to watch 20 year old re-runs of the Sopranos.
The signs seem to be pointing towards them moving some releases from theatrical to Disney+ (Pinocchio, Tinkerbell, Cruella) - not moving everything to Disney+ or doing HBO's hybrid model. Which actually makes sense - with fewer viable release dates next year, anything that is likely to be a mid-tier performer is just taking up real estate. So the standards for a 'Disney+ film' suddenly shift dramatically.
What are you even talking about? Who said anything about vital businesses? My original response was about how just because the death of a business leads to a reduction in crowds doesn't mean it should be seen as a net positive because that logic can be applied to any place where people crowd.
I work at a movie theater and before COVID we would hit about 2k-3k on a weekend and about 1k on weekdays.
today attendance was about 110.
Business isn't booming so well, I 100% see why HBO did what they did
today attendance was about 110.
Business isn't booming so well, I 100% see why HBO did what they did
I feel like we are talking in circles, as I don't understand your point either.
Anyway, this may be the death of a business(AMC), but theaters will survive in some form. So yes, right now, I am interested in protecting people and reducing crowds, and you can apply that to any business you like that isn't necessary.
Not what I had in mind though you are right. I thought they would reconfigure their theaters for social distance something simple like that.
Not sure if they're linked to AMC, but the cineworld local to me (UK based) recently redid their theatres with Dolby screens and new audio and seats. The whole works.
I still love the cinema experience. Films like Dune, The Batman, King Kong Vs Godzilla and Wonder Woman I'd love to experience on the big screen
I still love the cinema experience. Films like Dune, The Batman, King Kong Vs Godzilla and Wonder Woman I'd love to experience on the big screen
I've never been to an AMC theater, because there are none in my area. The Georgia Theater Company does run several theaters here in the Augusta area, and the two first-run theaters are still operating, and up until recently they had been doing mostly replays of old movies. Hopefully they're still making enough money to stay solvent, because I've always liked their theaters. The newest one has been my default theater since 2016. Regal also operates a couple of theaters, including one right across the street from where I work.
I really hope movie theaters survive this pandemic. There was always something about the big screen experience I enjoyed. Prior to the pandemic, I went to the movies probably 12-15 times a year. Just this year alone I made six trips prior to the lockdown (saw 1917, Knives Out, Bad Boys For Life, Sonic, Birds of Prey, and MHA: Heroes Rising), and then I saw Tenet when it was released (hardly anyone else was in there despite it being a Saturday). I plan on catching WW84 on the big screen as well (I'll probably catch a late showing or a showing during the week if opening weekend looks busy, just in case).
It does give me some hope that theaters are doing fine in Japan right now (they were impacted far less than North America & Europe). Even before the lockdown, while theater admissions have been on a long-term downward trend since 2002, that's mostly because people are congregating mainly around the big blockbuster films instead of going to see a wide variety of films (I wrote about this in an article I wrote early this year and published in the early weeks of the lockdown). Maybe once the numbers get down to safe levels and a vaccine becomes available and widespread, things can go back to normal, safely this time, and people will start going back to the movie theater.
I really hope movie theaters survive this pandemic. There was always something about the big screen experience I enjoyed. Prior to the pandemic, I went to the movies probably 12-15 times a year. Just this year alone I made six trips prior to the lockdown (saw 1917, Knives Out, Bad Boys For Life, Sonic, Birds of Prey, and MHA: Heroes Rising), and then I saw Tenet when it was released (hardly anyone else was in there despite it being a Saturday). I plan on catching WW84 on the big screen as well (I'll probably catch a late showing or a showing during the week if opening weekend looks busy, just in case).
It does give me some hope that theaters are doing fine in Japan right now (they were impacted far less than North America & Europe). Even before the lockdown, while theater admissions have been on a long-term downward trend since 2002, that's mostly because people are congregating mainly around the big blockbuster films instead of going to see a wide variety of films (I wrote about this in an article I wrote early this year and published in the early weeks of the lockdown). Maybe once the numbers get down to safe levels and a vaccine becomes available and widespread, things can go back to normal, safely this time, and people will start going back to the movie theater.
I'm more talking about the HDR angle as consumer projectors are subpar right now. I'm looking up to $20k and nothing is exciting at the moment and it's even more scary when you factor in the fact that they're using dual projector setups to achieve the picture quality that they have.
Suburban San Diego.
Two of my first three truly horrible theater experiences were on trips, though. (Monterrey, CA and Salinas, CA)
And the first place I saw someone holding up a 5"+ smart phone with the screen on full brightness for an extended period during the movie was at Heavenly Village in Lake Tahoe. I was 36 at the time and that shit will never be normal or acceptable to me. NEVAH.
Remember how theaters have been hiking their prices up indefinitely.
I feel 0 guilt about watching these day one on HBO Max.
I feel 0 guilt about watching these day one on HBO Max.
Eh for me is being able to go to movies with friends and family and be pretty damn certain we're all gonna sit and watch the movie, not sit it he couch and watch while people around you spend considerable time browsing their phone.
I'm kinda baffled by some responses in here
Are you guys really happy that theaters will close? Really?
Coments like these:
... Am I a boomer or something for disagreeing?
No matter how big my TV is, watching it on streaming wont replicate the experience of watching something at the theaters
My opinion matches those of Chris:
Streaming is great, but it would NEVER replicate the feeling of watching Blade Runner 2049 or Inception on IMAX, or Avatar, or Dark Knight Rises, or Interstellar ...
I've watched some great movies this year that kinda just came and went because I wasnt able to experience them at the movies.
So I hope that theaters are able to recover eventually. Yeah, most big chains will probably go bankrupt, but new theaters will be open and etc.
Are you guys really happy that theaters will close? Really?
Coments like these:
... Am I a boomer or something for disagreeing?
No matter how big my TV is, watching it on streaming wont replicate the experience of watching something at the theaters
My opinion matches those of Chris:
Streaming is great, but it would NEVER replicate the feeling of watching Blade Runner 2049 or Inception on IMAX, or Avatar, or Dark Knight Rises, or Interstellar ...
I've watched some great movies this year that kinda just came and went because I wasnt able to experience them at the movies.
So I hope that theaters are able to recover eventually. Yeah, most big chains will probably go bankrupt, but new theaters will be open and etc.
It's weird to me too. I don't understand why more options isn't a good thing.
Watching Blade Runner 2049 in a theater actually ruined the movie for me. Watching Interstellar probably would have been a nightmare, too, but I hated that movie anyway.
Blade Runner 2049 was unbearably loud almost all the way through, usually just because the "music" was mixed way too loud. I couldn't really think about anything but the pain. At home I could have just turned it down. Annihilation was the only other time a movie was just too loud for me, but that was only the case during the finale. I was enjoying that one quite a bit, but I almost left.
I started bringing earplugs to the theater after those two, but I never felt the need to try them out.
Why not just applaud the option to see these at home and NOT also seemingly endorse the death of Theaters for those who like going to them. I don't understand the comments wanting them to go away.