By George Robbins
Movie theaters have had a rough go of things recently due to only just opening their doors back up to the public. This doesn’t help them nearly as much as they hope it would though, because there have been a number of setbacks in the movie industry as of late due to spikes in virus cases. Many films that had release dates set for the summer or some time later this year have had their theatrical release dates pushed back to allow for more time for the virus to die down. The massive increase in new cases has made it all the more difficult for many businesses to actually get people to come back in, especially theaters. Not only do theaters have no new content to show viewers due to delays, but they also have restrictions that limit the number of people who can come into the theaters.
Not too long ago, to try and help out the movie theater industry, Fandango launched a few new services to help people figure out where they can go and even buy tickets digitally and hands free. This service essentially gave people the chance to find out what theaters would be opened up near them to allow them the chance to get out of the house. Most theaters will end up remaining shut down though because they have no new content to show the public and this is how they usually bring people in. The two movies that were meant to release in July to help ease theaters’ financial trouble were both delayed. Christopher Nolan’s new film ‘Tenet’ was meant to release on July 17th, around the time that many theaters were supposed to have opened by, but is now set for a July 31st release. Also, Disney’s live action remake of ‘Mulan’ was meant to release on July 24th, but has now been delayed to August 21st.
These pushes for the delays have caused a great deal of grief for already struggling theaters that have been trying to get business by showing older films. For theaters that are still shut down, they are suffering as well but not quite as badly as the ones that decided to open before they had new content to show. All of the major movie theater chains such as Cinemark, Regal, and AMC have had their sights set on reopening by the end of June or by mid-July, but this has become a difficult task. Cinemark originally planned to start opening theaters nationwide starting June 19th, but that plan seems to have gone to the wayside in lieu of recent events. With the virus spreading again so quickly and movie release dates being pushed back, theaters have had no choice but to delay their openings even more.
Originally, AMC theaters were planning to reopen their doors by mid-July because this was around the time that new movies were supposed to release. Now that the flagship summer movies have been pushed back by a couple of weeks to a month each, they will also be pushing their door opening date by a couple of weeks. Even though they plan on reopening two weeks later than originally planned, there is no guarantee that they will end up opening on time. At this point, all of the reopening plans are hit or miss and many businesses are being forced to close up again amidst rises in coronavirus cases. Hopefully things end up working out over the course of the next few weeks or we may never get an actual date for when we can go back to theaters. At this point, just like everything else at the moment, it is a hit or miss situation that can change on a daily basis so we just have to keep our fingers crossed.
By George Robbins
Over the past few months, it has been difficult for any movie productions to get back to work after they all had to shut down. When movie theaters were shut down and most movies were delayed until later this year or some time next year, production companies also had to shut down all productions. This resulted in a couple of months where there were no movies being worked on and this is following news that many big upcoming films had started production. Obviously this created a period in time where many filmmakers and production crews were trying their best to get back out in the field to work again. One of the biggest proponents of that was James Cameron who followed the rules he had to until restrictions were lifted and he could start filming again, with restrictions.
Now that he has been given the green light to work on his upcoming sequel to the former box office number one hit ‘Avatar‘ he has been working in New Zealand to get the film finished. Cameron’s original ‘Avatar’ was a film that felt out of place for its time, but managed to find its way to the top of the box office where it stayed for 10 years. He originally said that he planned for the series of films to be a tetralogy, which is a four film series. Even though it has been 11 years since the initial film’s release, Cameron still had his plans ready to go when the time came and eventually it did. After Disney acquired Fox, they took over any of there existing properties, the ‘Avatar’ movies included. Like the Marvel Cinematic Franchise and the Star Wars Franchises they owned, they felt the ‘Avatar’ movies could potentially become something more.
The franchise will no longer be a tetralogy and will instead be a pentology consisting of 5 films that, as of now, still have set release dates over the next few years. It was unknown if the sequel would be able to release in 2021 as intended, but it seems that now it might actually make it after all. This is a massive win for Cameron who has big plans laid out that we will get to see come to fruition and the set photos give us an idea how big those plans are. One of the most prolific photos is one of the actors swimming in a tank of water with their gear on them for motion capture and this helps us get an idea as to what kind of tech and effort Cameron is trying to put in his film. With a budget of $1 billion for the next four movies, hopefully we will see a lot of incredible stuff over the next few movies and Cameron will get another box office hit, or four.
By George Robbins
Things have been pretty rough lately for everybody and big companies are no exception to that rule, however, some have found ways of bringing in cash flow. Disney is especially adept at this because they are a multi-media empire that cannot be stopped. Despite having only a few of their parks open or not being able to release any movies due to the closing of theaters, they have had to mix things up a bit. While the box office and the parks may make up a large amount of their business, they still have the merchandising aspect of their business as well as their streaming service. They own a lot of different networks and so there is something for almost everyone on one of the services they run. Their biggest streaming service they have to promote is Disney+.
The Disney+ streaming service has a lot going for it in the fact that it has almost the entire Disney catalog of films that they own. This has helped them during this period in time and they have tried to add more to their service as time goes on in order to keep people coming back to their platform. With Disneyland being shut down longer than anticipated and Disney World reopening slowly come mid-July, they are squeezing as much as they can out of the service. Recently, they added a documentary to the service that talked about the making of ‘Frozen 2’ and gave fans something to watch and talk about. The original ‘Frozen’ was critically acclaimed and attracted fans of all different backgrounds and while the sequel wasn’t as well received, it did fairly well in theaters.
In fact, saying that ‘Frozen 2’ did “fairly” well is an understatement because back in January, it became the highest-grossing animated movie of all time. While it may not have been the movie that many people were hoping for, it was still one that was loved by fans and gave them an incredible animated experience. Although it seems moving forward is going to be tough because, as of now, Disney hasn’t even discussed the possibility of a third film. This is surprising considering how well the two movies they currently have under their belt have done theatrically, but it may just be the fact that a series can be ruined if pushed too far. The directors of the previous film are not in any kind of rush to come up with plans for a third film, but they have said that it is a possibility. So it may just be a long while before we see any movement in regards to a third film for the ‘Frozen’ franchise.
By George Robbins
These past few months have been tough due to the coronavirus pandemic plaguing the world and it has changed the ways we function on a regular basis. Whether this be people or companies, everyone has had to change something in their lives to make daily life work out. Many people have had no choice but to sit at home while most businesses have been shut down in order to try and keep the number of new cases down. Now that it seems that there has been a surge in new cases, there is no telling what will happen in the near future and if people will need to stay home more often. Regardless of what happens moving forward, companies are trying to keep up with the current climate in order to keep their cash flow coming in.
Among the companies that are working to make sure that they have cash flow coming in are the ones that handle products that can’t currently be used or released. For instance, the movie industry is almost at a standstill at the moment because theaters are only just reopening their doors to the public. This has resulted in a number of different approaches being taken in order to keep up business and keep people interested in what is still to come. Disney has been trying to keep up with their streaming service Disney+ while their parks have been shut down and they can’t release their films to theaters. They recently added a documentary about the making of ‘Frozen 2’ and they are about to release a movie edited version of the play ‘Hamilton.’ They aren’t the only ones working on their streaming service because not too long ago HBO Max released to the public.
The HBO Max streaming service was put out by WarnerMedia as an alternative to their HBO channels on television. The service has a large number of movies and shows on it, boasting thousands of hours of content and everything available on their linear channels. On top of the content they are bringing over from television, they will also be bringing content to the platform which will be exclusively for the HBO Max service and its subscribers. With new content in the works, they are also teasing upcoming content being worked on such as the Snyder Cut for the ‘Justice League’ movie. They are teasing all they can, even if some of it won’t be available until next year, to get people more interested in watching on their streaming service. Most recently, they announced that they will be putting up an extended, much more violent version of ‘Casino Royale.’
‘Casino Royale’ was the beginning of an entirely new era of James Bond films with Daniel Craig taking helm as agent 007 himself. This was a major move since it was unknown just how he would actually be able to play the character, but that film helped create a basis for the character that gave way to a newer type of Bond. The newest films have all done great for the character with his third outing as Bond in ‘Skyfall’ seeing the film becoming the highest grossing film that the series had ever seen. The theatrical release of ‘Casino Royale’ was one that was edited from the original film and cut down in order to secure a PG-13 rating in America. Now that HBO Max has the rights to offer the movie on their service, they can play the extended cut which is said to have an extended torture scene and fight sequences.
By George Robbins
The Academy Awards, otherwise known by most as the Oscars, are considered to be staples in the movie industry that shine a light on some of the best films of the previous year. There are a number of different categories that give praise to a bunch of different aspects about films that make them as great as they are. Even if a film doesn’t have a great plot, there can still be an aspect of the movie that garners praise from audiences and critics alike. This makes it possible for films and the people working on them to get credit for achievements that would otherwise go unnoticed. Thus, it is a time of year that gets people to see just how much work actually goes into the making of all of these different films and how each person who works on them is important to those projects.
There are countless categories of awards that currently exist within the Academy Awards that cover categories from Best Picture to Best Score to Best Costume Design and so on. A number of categories exist to promote aspects of films that people usually don’t know anything about. Sometimes it isn’t even what people know little about, but what they might not know about at all. Things like engineering effects and sound design are the last things on most people’s minds when they are watching a movie, but it is important for the film to be successful. Even if the film doesn’t end up being successful, these things are what make movies happen to begin with.
One of the most important aspects for a lot of movies is that they must have a lot of different professionals working together to make films look good. Now, this does include things like the awards listed before as well as actors and the director, but for many films there are stunts that need to be performed. These stunts are often times dangerous and if done by the actors they could hurt themselves, unless they are trained properly, and this ultimately leads to them needing someone to do stunts for them. This isn’t always the case like Tom Cruise doing his own stunts in all of his movies and Keanu Reeves doing his own stunts in the ‘John Wick‘ franchise. These stunts can be very hard and grueling work for not just the people doing them, but also the people filming them, those responsible for editing the scenes, and the teams behind the stunts themselves.
Recently, ‘John Wick’ director Chad Stahelski stated that the stunt crews on films should be acknowledged in the same way that other teams are come Oscar season. This opens up a strong case for stunt teams because it can take a lot of work and coordination to get these scenes set up and executed properly. If not prepared correctly, there could be dangerous consequences or money can be wasted that the studio would not have had to spend if it was done properly. Oscar season has been delayed a couple of months for next year due to the coronavirus pandemic, so maybe they could add a category that includes stunt departments to give them the recognition they deserve. Even if they can’t get that into the next season, they should probably try to get it in within the next couple of years.
By George Robbins
There has been a lot of attention on the movie industry as of late for a number of different reasons. One reason is the fact that many movies have had no choice but to either release straight to VOD or they have had to push back release dates to a better time period. After a spike in coronavirus cases, many movies that were meant to release later this year have had no choice but to be pushed even further back with many being pushed to some time in 2021. There are still a few films that are keeping close to their original releases like ‘Tenet,’ but the vast majority are being moved back in an attempt to find a better release window. The other reason that eyes have been locked onto the industry is because of the Black Lives Matter movement.
One of the points that has been brought to attention because of the movement is the treatment of black men and women in the movie industry throughout the years. A major point against Hollywood is the lack of any real diversity in many of the movies that are made and the treatment of the characters that were cast with black actors. The truth is that there are not many leading roles in Hollywood that have actors that aren’t white in leading roles. There have been a few attempts over the years to try and change this, to make at least some movies that have diversity, but not enough of them. This point of attention was one of the loudest points made by black actors that are already in the industry and people that are on the actors’ sides.
Another big point of contention are the portrayals that black actors have had to go through over the years in older films. This is one of the much more controversial topics that has been covered and has raised the question as to whether history should be remembered or not. The simple answer is that it should be remembered, but not necessarily memorialized in any type of way like people have tried to do. History is meant to be there as a reminder to people not to make the same mistakes that our ancestors did and to try and make the world better than it was yesterday. It also shows us how we got to where we are now and this is all important for moving forward. One of the ways it is trying to be forgotten involves the horrible history of Hollywood, but also our own nation.
‘Gone With the Wind‘ is one of the longest feature length movies that has ever been made and released theatrically and it holds a lot of cultural significance. It was up on HBO’s new streaming service HBO Max, but was taken down after people petitioned to have it removed due to the portrayals in the film. While black people in the film were treated horribly, it is also a film which takes place during the Civil War when slavery was still prominent. The portrayal of this terrible period in our nation’s history was just a way for Hollywood to make a film based on a literary classic, but it is something that left a mark on Hollywood all of these years. So now that the film is being put back up on HBO Max, there will be a four minute long introduction at the front-end of the movie to explain all of this and why it is important that it stays available.
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