![]() That conclusion may not be entirely clear until several of the big movie franchise films (the studios call them “tentpoles”) give it a go in the theaters this summer. The question facing the film business now is whether this abandonment of the movie-house will be a temporary aberration forced by social distancing, or a sweeping lifestyle change. The past year has essentially been a total loss for any company depending on ticket sales. Independent theaters were already barely surviving. That has only accelerated the throat-clenching in the business of running movie houses. Box office returns in North America dropped from nearly $11.4 billion in 2019 to $2.2 billion in 2020. Over the past year, next to no one - relatively speaking - has gone out to the movies. The pandemic has accelerated what was already a narrowing window between when films could be seen in theaters and when they could be viewed at home. In this image released by Netflix, Amanda Seyfried, left, and Gary Oldman appear in a scene from "Mank." (Netflix via AP) Netflix/AP “Mank,” for example, is a Netflix production, and almost all its publicity was aimed to get Netflix subscribers to watch it there. Many of this year’s multiple nominees, like “Mank” and “Nomadland,” did have very short runs in theaters before they were streaming into homes. Given that the genre of movies viewers were choosing to see in theaters before the pandemic had already tilted heavily toward comic book-dominated, hugely expensive blockbuster films, the safest bet is that studios will turn to even more of them for theatrical releases and steer their smaller, artier titles (the ones that tend to win the awards) toward streaming services after a brief release in the theater (in order to qualify for those trophies, of course).īecause of the pandemic, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences temporarily permitted movies to be submitted for Oscars even without any theatrical release. Art tends to adapt to circumstances cave walls give way to canvas, but people keep on drawing. Of course, many social predictors in other eras could not foresee live theater surviving once drama and comedy became available in movie form nor that radio had a chance after a television set became a common part of the living room furniture. Even the ones that make it through the crisis may find that online-streaming apps have stolen away audiences for good.” ![]() Tara Lachapelle, who covers the entertainment business for Bloomberg, wrote: “We have learned to live without movie theaters. ![]() It’s not hard to find social predictors who argue that it might be, thanks to the increasing number of movies that quickly hit streaming services and allowed you to watch in your family room, along with the growing numbers of films produced directly by - and for - services like Netflix. Not the art form itself, but the actual movie-going, sitting in a theater surrounded by strangers and popcorn, experience? ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |