Corona Movie Theater Thread: 49% Say Movie Theaters Are Now "Obsolete"

[AndyDursin]

That late line she has to Attenborough, "we'll talk about sexism in survival situations later," is just such a heavy handed line of dialogue too. Even in 93 you could get Girrrrrl Power going strong.

[Monterey Jack]

That late line she has to Attenborough, "we'll talk about sexism in survival situations later," is just such a heavy handed line of dialogue too. Even in 93 you could get Girrrrrl Power going strong.

In the same movie where Spielberg later clamps his camera to her ass.

[AndyDursin]

Yep. Though even that is evidence of how Steve wasn't so invested in this film.

[Monterey Jack]

Note, also, how Dr. Grant is referred to by his surname with the "Doctor" added beforehand, but Dr. Sattler is frequently referred to as "Ellie".

[Paul MacLean]

Hell, he didn't even use his camera to ogle his future wife Kate Capshaw all that much in Temple Of Doom.

Tarantino might disagree with you on that!

[mkaroly]

Doesn't Ellie close a chain link fence that is a high voltage fence after turning the power back on? It is the scene where she is running out of the bunker to escape a velociraptor I think?

Very entertaining movie but, I would argue, was sloppily made from a continuity standpoint.

[AndyDursin]

Looking increasingly like TENET wasn't a case of "this is the movie to get audiences back in theaters!". More like "let's just throw this out there and see who shows up".

It also raises the question of how serious studios will be about opening movies right now. They might dump out a total dud like THE NEW MUTANTS and something like TENET which may be expensive, but also might not be very good, and they know it. The "good stuff" with a high ceiling they are going to sit on and stockpile until the coast is clear.

[Monterey Jack]

If Wonder Woman 1984 pushes back, it won't be good news.

[Johnmgm]

My daughter and I were going to see Tenet Tueday, but after reading several reviews (including positive reviews) I couldn't summon enough enthusiasm to sit through almost three hours of Nolan. Everything I have read about Tenet's negatives (loud tuneless music, muddled, incomprehensible dialogue, extreme length) are what I haven't liked about Nolan's films since The Prestige.

[AndyDursin]

I feel the same John, I was considering going to TENET with my usual movie-going friend but after reading the reviews -- which are basically the negatives of every Nolan film, only amplified -- I'm sitting it out.

Even the positive reviews are mixed, there's basically 0 fully positive reviews for it. I feel critics are bending over backwards tempering their criticism also because its Nolan and with COVID killing theaters as it is, they're giving it something of a pass.

[jkholm]

Theaters are closing again. A few weeks ago, the Alamo Drafthouse opened up all six of their Dallas area locations. I haven't been back even though one of their theaters is close enough that I ride my bike to it. There's nothing I want to see. Yesterday they announced they were once again temporarily closing four of the locations due to "decreased overall demand" and " a lack of major new releases." My theater is still open. Normally, they show a variety of recent and classic horror movies during October but so far not much has been announced other than a few showings of Scream, which is part of their "movies with masks" theme.

[AndyDursin]

Great point John, it's just a matter of time. Now that TENET has proven to be a test failure for COVID-cinema, I can't imagine theaters aren't going to be closing down again around here also. With no new product -- and summer over -- it's going to cost far more to heat some of these big facilities than making a few dollars from screening 30 year old movies most people own already.

And of course the greatest irony is the left-wing politicians Hollywood campaigns for are the ones who are destroying their own industry by keeping everything shut down. Congrats!

[Johnmgm]

The studios encouraged the theaters to open. I understand why the same studios don't want to piss away expensive product in this market after the failure of Tenet. So, I think a short term solution to help out their exhibition partners would be significantly discounted rates for older films.

It's Halloween, theaters should book and ballyhoo horror movies throughout October. During November and December Christmas movies would be the order of the day.

Hell, during the Great Depression theaters gave away sets of dishes to put asses in seats. Now is the time for theater owners to come up with inventive ways to get people excited about coming to the show. Think William Castle should be the motto!

I realize it's easier said than done, but it's got to be better than closing up shop and going out of business.

[Monterey Jack]

This is unutterably depressing, the idea of going a whole summer without movies, and now probably a whole fall and holiday season.

If theaters want to show old movies until they can safely have 100% capacity and new movies start coming back, they should stop with the same bland, "safe" pool of fifteen or so blockbusters that everyone's seen (and likely owns or can stream) and start getting creative, and studios should unlock their back catalogues and allow them full reign to show anything they want. Who wants to see Jurassic Park, E.T. or Back To The Future for the fiftieth time, when there are THOUSANDS of movies out there that a theater could be very creative and clever in selecting?

Of course, theaters can't survive on these forever (especially in Mass, which doesn't allow theaters to sell popcorn & Coke ), but they can at least go down swinging instead of folding up shop again because one bland, convoluted blockbuster failed to bring scores of people back to cinemas.

[AndyDursin]

Good thinking John but unfortunately I think they are done for unless the studios themselves bail them out. MJ's idea isn't bad, but the reality staring them in the face is that few people are going to go to a theater to watch a movie they can stream at home with a couple of presses on their remote or phone. Unless there's compelling new content driving them to the movies, it's over, and I agree with John, it'd be idiotic for these studios to dump out movies that are basically going to be unable to achieve max grosses the way things are.

The comment on the dishes made me think of IT RUNS IN THE FAMILY (A SUMMER STORY), the "Christmas Story" sequel, where the housewives were going to the weekday matinee to get their Ronald Colman gravy boat or whatever it was lol. But movie theaters were much more vital in the '30s and '40s. Basically it was the "window to the world" outside of radio so there was a lot more motivation for people to go, and they could lure them in with promotional giveaways to spice up the numbers.

But it's a different world today. Attendance has been declining for years already -- people don't NEED theaters anymore. MJ still enjoys going to the multiplex but honestly I stopped really "enjoying going to the movies" years ago. Our local multiplex has done nothing in 20 years except add a bar and reconfigure a theater for dining that they ended up converting BACK to a regular small screen because nobody used it. My 4K TV has a wider color gamut. I don't really feel a great urge to sit next to people who talk or look at their phone anymore.

And Hollywood cannot be "flexible" anymore. They are only producing one kind of film, basically -- and those tentpoles are really corporate products, so much that their bottom line relies entirely on the business model being followed precisely or it's just not worth it to them. To a large degree they made their bed here IMO with no clear way forward -- release the product now and it's going to underachieve, to the point where they will lose the bottom line. But don't support theaters and pipeline they need to drive profits isn't going to exist, or is going to be permanently damaged. Some of these theaters won't reopen, and a decrease in screens is going to be a killer.