Neon announced a plan to release the new Apichatpong Weerasethakul film in one city, one theater and one week at a time. We should be happy about who benefits.
I’m always conflicted about things like this or even the more “traditional” art house release model. On the one hand, as a strong advocate of the theatrical experience, I do want movies to get that kind of distribution and attention. On the other hand, as someone who has lived most of his life in small and medium sized towns where art house theaters simply don’t exist or are impracticably far away, there can be a sense of FOMO and wanting to engage in a conversation that, by the time you get to participate in it, has either ended or muted. I don’t propose I have an answer, and I agree it isn’t day and date, but I don’t love how more non mainstream works can get separated out as something that only city dwellers can engage in:
I've never lived in a market with an arthouse theater, but I've also never supported day and date. The idea that not releasing a film to the widest possible audience immediately is denying it to any portion of the audience is kind of ridiculous in the era of home video, and now streaming. I grew up in Erie, Pennsylvania. The long tail of a platform release is the only reason I ever heard of many movies that I would eventually rent at a video store. Now, when a film is made immediately available to everyone, it goes through exactly one press cycle (now shorter than ever), and then slips into the void. If it's elitist to wish for as many parties as possible (arthouse theaters, multiplexes, physical media distributors, streaming platforms) to benefit from a film's release, rather than one giant corporation like Netflix of Disney, then call me an elitist.
I'm curious what you all think of the Alamo Drafthouse model. They seem to dip their feet in the indie/arthouse world, while still catering to the Marvel crowd (all with tasty food, comfy seats and reservations). I view it as a nice happy medium, but I know they're probably not going to be the type of theater that is showing Joe's new movie, or anything that's not A24. I almost feel like the "true" art house theaters need to be subsidized (like a library) in some way, whereas other theaters need to go the Alamo route.
Wow. Concerns about equitable access to art are *tiresome*? I support the overall argument — independent cinemas are great, and do need support — but that's a blithe and uncaring dismissal of real concerns from real movie fans.
Top ten most-watched TV broadcasts of 2020, according to Neilsen, were Oscars and eight football games. Sports is one thing people still watch on television in large numbers because sporting event still feel like *event*. Me not know if this movie strategy will work or not, but making movie feel like event certainly seem like worthwhile thing to try.
Me know that me personally have plans to see No Time to Die and Velvet Underground, but for latter, me have release date marked in calendar and specific plans to see it at Film Forum, whereas Bond, me can see anywhere at any time, so it not something me have to plan around.
Funny enough, movies that feel like events end up being on both ends of spectrum — arthouse films me have to see at specific time and place, and Avenger or Star War that kids want to see earliest possible showing of because they not want to be last of their friends to see it. (Bagel Monster still traumatized by classmate spoiling ending of Force Awakens)
I'm somewhat biased living in a coastal city (though Seattle is usually 2nd or 3rd tier on any sort of platform release and I grew up in a town of <2,000 people where the nearest city was Spokane), but I liken this more like trying to see a band on tour. I wouldn't balk at arranging a weekend trip or doing a couple hour drive to go see a band I really loved play for...probably actually less than the length of Joe's film! Sure, I might be able to watch some crappy iPhone videos from the crowd and get a sense of what the band is like live, but that's not how they intend you to experience it.
Appreciate the article but still can’t find this release model anything but frustrating. Frankly I find limited releases in general to be frustrating and elitist and this just seems like the pinnacle of that. I want to support theaters as much as possible and don’t think releasing things immediately on streaming is a good idea at all, but I don’t think critics and people in major cities realize how annoying it is to read all of their best-of-the-year lists and see recommendations all the time for films we won’t get to see for half a year or more. Now this will just be one I maybe don’t get to see for years.
I'm skeptical of the assertion Memoria will never get a VOD or disc release. I understand why Neon might say the film will only ever live on the big screen; it is the crux of the outrage and intrigue. But once the tour reaches its terminal screen and some time has passed, I have to imagine Neon (a business after all) will try to squeeze every last dollar out of the movie. Maybe I'm reading too much into it...
I am looking forward to seeing the film Monday at a fest so I can applaud the rollout strategy without being personally inconvenienced!
Many of my fondest movie memories (and memories in general) have come at the Brattle Theatre in Boston and the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, and the thought of a world without cinemas like these is really sad to me. It's a great idea to "tour" this movie around, and I have some sliver of hope somewhere that business models like this may catch on in some small way. The success of Venom 2 at the box office last weekend buoys this hope further. The argument that cinemas are dying / people don't want to go out to see a movie anymore is a covertly classist one anyway, as the assumption there seems to be that everyone has home theater setups that are at least approaching comparable to the "Cinema Experience." I dunno, lots of disjointed thoughts. I'm also a huge fan of Joe's films and am really excited to catch this one in theaters (the first one of his I'll have seen outside my home!).
I’m always conflicted about things like this or even the more “traditional” art house release model. On the one hand, as a strong advocate of the theatrical experience, I do want movies to get that kind of distribution and attention. On the other hand, as someone who has lived most of his life in small and medium sized towns where art house theaters simply don’t exist or are impracticably far away, there can be a sense of FOMO and wanting to engage in a conversation that, by the time you get to participate in it, has either ended or muted. I don’t propose I have an answer, and I agree it isn’t day and date, but I don’t love how more non mainstream works can get separated out as something that only city dwellers can engage in:
I've never lived in a market with an arthouse theater, but I've also never supported day and date. The idea that not releasing a film to the widest possible audience immediately is denying it to any portion of the audience is kind of ridiculous in the era of home video, and now streaming. I grew up in Erie, Pennsylvania. The long tail of a platform release is the only reason I ever heard of many movies that I would eventually rent at a video store. Now, when a film is made immediately available to everyone, it goes through exactly one press cycle (now shorter than ever), and then slips into the void. If it's elitist to wish for as many parties as possible (arthouse theaters, multiplexes, physical media distributors, streaming platforms) to benefit from a film's release, rather than one giant corporation like Netflix of Disney, then call me an elitist.
To be fair, probably gonna be easier to see this when it comes around than it is to see Blissfully Yours period.
(Also anywhere to see the actual “tour dates”? I didn’t see that in the Indiewire article but maybe those aren’t announced yet)
I'm curious what you all think of the Alamo Drafthouse model. They seem to dip their feet in the indie/arthouse world, while still catering to the Marvel crowd (all with tasty food, comfy seats and reservations). I view it as a nice happy medium, but I know they're probably not going to be the type of theater that is showing Joe's new movie, or anything that's not A24. I almost feel like the "true" art house theaters need to be subsidized (like a library) in some way, whereas other theaters need to go the Alamo route.
Preach!
Wow. Concerns about equitable access to art are *tiresome*? I support the overall argument — independent cinemas are great, and do need support — but that's a blithe and uncaring dismissal of real concerns from real movie fans.
Top ten most-watched TV broadcasts of 2020, according to Neilsen, were Oscars and eight football games. Sports is one thing people still watch on television in large numbers because sporting event still feel like *event*. Me not know if this movie strategy will work or not, but making movie feel like event certainly seem like worthwhile thing to try.
Me know that me personally have plans to see No Time to Die and Velvet Underground, but for latter, me have release date marked in calendar and specific plans to see it at Film Forum, whereas Bond, me can see anywhere at any time, so it not something me have to plan around.
Funny enough, movies that feel like events end up being on both ends of spectrum — arthouse films me have to see at specific time and place, and Avenger or Star War that kids want to see earliest possible showing of because they not want to be last of their friends to see it. (Bagel Monster still traumatized by classmate spoiling ending of Force Awakens)
I'm somewhat biased living in a coastal city (though Seattle is usually 2nd or 3rd tier on any sort of platform release and I grew up in a town of <2,000 people where the nearest city was Spokane), but I liken this more like trying to see a band on tour. I wouldn't balk at arranging a weekend trip or doing a couple hour drive to go see a band I really loved play for...probably actually less than the length of Joe's film! Sure, I might be able to watch some crappy iPhone videos from the crowd and get a sense of what the band is like live, but that's not how they intend you to experience it.
Appreciate the article but still can’t find this release model anything but frustrating. Frankly I find limited releases in general to be frustrating and elitist and this just seems like the pinnacle of that. I want to support theaters as much as possible and don’t think releasing things immediately on streaming is a good idea at all, but I don’t think critics and people in major cities realize how annoying it is to read all of their best-of-the-year lists and see recommendations all the time for films we won’t get to see for half a year or more. Now this will just be one I maybe don’t get to see for years.
Fine, so where do I sign up for an email alert telling me this film is coming to one of the major cities either 125, 150, or 300 miles from me?
I'm skeptical of the assertion Memoria will never get a VOD or disc release. I understand why Neon might say the film will only ever live on the big screen; it is the crux of the outrage and intrigue. But once the tour reaches its terminal screen and some time has passed, I have to imagine Neon (a business after all) will try to squeeze every last dollar out of the movie. Maybe I'm reading too much into it...
I am looking forward to seeing the film Monday at a fest so I can applaud the rollout strategy without being personally inconvenienced!
Many of my fondest movie memories (and memories in general) have come at the Brattle Theatre in Boston and the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, and the thought of a world without cinemas like these is really sad to me. It's a great idea to "tour" this movie around, and I have some sliver of hope somewhere that business models like this may catch on in some small way. The success of Venom 2 at the box office last weekend buoys this hope further. The argument that cinemas are dying / people don't want to go out to see a movie anymore is a covertly classist one anyway, as the assumption there seems to be that everyone has home theater setups that are at least approaching comparable to the "Cinema Experience." I dunno, lots of disjointed thoughts. I'm also a huge fan of Joe's films and am really excited to catch this one in theaters (the first one of his I'll have seen outside my home!).