Fun Spielberg connection - compare the "editing the family vacation" scene in The Fabelmans to Cruise manipulating the pre-cog images in Minority Report. Both of them spinning the wheels of the past to find a clue in the footage
RE Nope: Can you unpack your comment about its "vagueness only increasing its metaphorical power"? That was personally what I found most frustrating about it, that Peele, while an incredible director, seemed to have no idea what he was trying to say. The beast is called "The Viewer" but also contains (in an early visual) one of the first moving images and is also a chimpanzee that can't be looked in the eye? Spent hours trying to figure this out but concluded it's a Rubik's Cube that can't be solved, which makes the film look vapid and lazily written.
With regards to empty theaters, part of me wonders if this is where streaming might actually make a difference. I’d be curious to see what internal metrics show, but in my experience, movies that have been in theaters tend to get a lot more attention when they drop on a streaming service. To compare two movies from the same service this year, Glass Onion, a movie that had an extended/wide release by Netflix standards, felt like an event when it came to Netflix, whereas The Gray Man came and went without anyone talking about it.
I'm not quite despairing over empty theaters--I think there are a few encouraging signs, if only studios and distributors would notice them. I mean, TAR or Crimes Of The Future would never have been any more successful than they were, and Babylon was always destined to be a pricey cult flop. But Glass Onion did spectacularly well while only playing for a week in a small number of theaters, so audiences will turn out. Heck, I saw Confess, Fletch in a tiny auditorium, but that auditorium was packed. If it had actually gotten a decent release, who knows?
The IMAX-converted re-release of Jaws made a surprisingly healthy five million--only slightly less than She Said and TAR--and Fathom Events showings of It's A Wonderful Life and The Godfather made over a million bucks apiece. (They outgrossed Empire Of Light, which is gratifying.) Everybody's seen these movies, but folks still turned out to see 'em on a big screen. Where The Crawdads Sing, The Woman King, Ticket To Paradise--mid-level movies with mid-level grosses, maybe less than they might have made pre-pandemic, but still offering proof that people will show up for the theatrical experience. People are perfectly willing to pay money to see decent, well-made entertainment. But what was the competition for Avatar at the Christmas box office? Pretty much Babylon and Puss In Boots? Audiences like star vehicles, middlebrow dramas and non-IP action movies, at least when they're available.
Fun Spielberg connection - compare the "editing the family vacation" scene in The Fabelmans to Cruise manipulating the pre-cog images in Minority Report. Both of them spinning the wheels of the past to find a clue in the footage
RE Nope: Can you unpack your comment about its "vagueness only increasing its metaphorical power"? That was personally what I found most frustrating about it, that Peele, while an incredible director, seemed to have no idea what he was trying to say. The beast is called "The Viewer" but also contains (in an early visual) one of the first moving images and is also a chimpanzee that can't be looked in the eye? Spent hours trying to figure this out but concluded it's a Rubik's Cube that can't be solved, which makes the film look vapid and lazily written.
With regards to empty theaters, part of me wonders if this is where streaming might actually make a difference. I’d be curious to see what internal metrics show, but in my experience, movies that have been in theaters tend to get a lot more attention when they drop on a streaming service. To compare two movies from the same service this year, Glass Onion, a movie that had an extended/wide release by Netflix standards, felt like an event when it came to Netflix, whereas The Gray Man came and went without anyone talking about it.
I'm not quite despairing over empty theaters--I think there are a few encouraging signs, if only studios and distributors would notice them. I mean, TAR or Crimes Of The Future would never have been any more successful than they were, and Babylon was always destined to be a pricey cult flop. But Glass Onion did spectacularly well while only playing for a week in a small number of theaters, so audiences will turn out. Heck, I saw Confess, Fletch in a tiny auditorium, but that auditorium was packed. If it had actually gotten a decent release, who knows?
The IMAX-converted re-release of Jaws made a surprisingly healthy five million--only slightly less than She Said and TAR--and Fathom Events showings of It's A Wonderful Life and The Godfather made over a million bucks apiece. (They outgrossed Empire Of Light, which is gratifying.) Everybody's seen these movies, but folks still turned out to see 'em on a big screen. Where The Crawdads Sing, The Woman King, Ticket To Paradise--mid-level movies with mid-level grosses, maybe less than they might have made pre-pandemic, but still offering proof that people will show up for the theatrical experience. People are perfectly willing to pay money to see decent, well-made entertainment. But what was the competition for Avatar at the Christmas box office? Pretty much Babylon and Puss In Boots? Audiences like star vehicles, middlebrow dramas and non-IP action movies, at least when they're available.
Teen Weaver 🤣