By George Robbins
We live in a world right now where we have to try and figure out what to do to keep ourselves busy. This includes us trying to come up with ways to entertain ourselves involving stuff that already exists. For instance we take movies that were released awhile ago and create new content for them, because we have nothing else to occupy our time. We aren’t going to be getting any new films for awhile with the exception of films being released straight to VOD. So what better way to get content out of older films than a poll comparing two films liked by two entirely different groups.
Someone from RottenTomatoes decided to make a poll comparing the box office juggernaught ‘Avengers: Endgame’ which became the top box office film of all time, and ‘Revenge of the Sith.’ The latter is a film that did fantastic, in its own right, at the box office but made almost $2 billion less than ‘Endgame.’ It didn’t receive very high ratings from critics, while ‘Endgame’ did very well critically. This didn’t stop ‘Revenge of the Sith’ from winning the popularity poll however because the internet does not function the way people expect it to.
The prequel trilogy has had a massive increase in its fan base since its initial inception and has become a huge presence on the internet. Especially on social site Reddit, the fan base is very vocal, and for the most part they believe it is the best trilogy in the Star Wars franchise. This has made that fan base very vocal, to the point they will do whatever it takes to make those movies stand out. This makes the movies gain even more attention and will attract more people to the movies as a whole.
To be honest, it really isn’t all that much of a surprise that this movie managed to win the popularity poll. That trilogy’s fan base is one that will stop at nothing to spread their influence across the internet. They want that trilogy to be recognized as the best trilogy in the Star Wars franchise for some reason. This means that the moment the poll was announce, ‘Endgame’ didn’t have a chance at winning and it lost by a landslide. That just goes to show the power the internet has and what kind of presence some fan bases have online.
By George Robbins
The world that we live in is in a state of disorder that we all have to find a way to live through. We all have to find ways to deal with the fact that we can’t go out to do things. Going out to the movies was one of the most common ways to keep ourselves busy, but that isn’t something we can do anymore. At least we won’t be able to do it any time in the near future because theaters don’t plan on reopening until July and that is assuming they can even reopen at all. Theaters will have a number of new health and safety rules to follow in order to reopen and stay open.
Although we can’t really get to the movie theaters, the industry continues to move on. It doesn’t move on the way that we really expect it to since most movies have been delayed. Some studios have managed to make it easier on themselves by instead releasing their films straight to VOD. Not many of the films are being released to Video on Demand due to the fact many don’t expect to make a massive profit this way. The films being released after a delay to theaters are more likely to make money, but only further down the line.
Whatever movies release right after theaters reopen have a chance of making a fortune, but they are at risk. Will people want to go back out to the movies if the risk of getting sick still exists and is relatively high? Some studios are willing to take the risk qhile other studios are taking the safer financial approach. While studios are currently doing this to keep moving forward, this isn’t the only way the movie industry is doing so. For instance, there have been many movie announcements since the pandemic began and now we know Michael Bay is working on a film.
Michael Bay is known for his work on over-the-top action films that usually make a lot of money. Now we know that he has be working on filming a pandemic thriller during the lockdown. Some people have started movie production up across the country to some degree to get the ball rolling again to get movies made. With productions mostly on hold, and California being one of the states with the harshest lockdown rules, it is hard for many to make films. Michael Bay is planning to push hard for production to resume by starting production for his newest film, ‘Songbird,’ next month.
By George Robbins
The Oscars are a series of awards voted on by an academy comprised of film aficionados that want to give credit to films and the hard work put into them. They are not just any set of awards as they are also a season during the year. From the end of a year up to the moment that the awards are given, there is a constant build up of hype. The hype that ends up building up as a result of the awards brings a spotlight down on the movies that are being voted on. So it is a bit of a surprise to find out that the entire Oscar season might end up being delayed from its usual February time slot.
The coronavirus pandemic has done all kinds of things to the world and affected all different kinds of people and industries. In particular, the movie industry is among the industries that got hit the hardest since theaters are completely shut down. With theaters shut down, many production studios have had to push back their movies releases to much later dates than before. Only a couple of studios have released their films straight to VOD in order to make money off their films in a time where it would be impossible to do so otherwise. For those who don’t already know, the Oscars have historically only given awards to films that have had some sort of theatrical run, even limited theatrical runs.
Despite the fact that only movies with theatrical runs qualified for awards, the Academy made the decision to allow digital films to be nominated in 2021. This means that even films that did not have theatrical releases could be entered for awards in the 2021 Oscar season. Given the state of the world, this only makes sense since not every film will be able to keep up with new release schedules. That added to the drastic increase in streaming site usage has made direct to digital films much more viable for awards since they have production value now rivaling that of films with theatrical releases. The final issue that arises with next year’s Oscars is the fact that there might not be enough films to be nominated for any awards.
Just looking at the release schedules that have been moved around due to the pandemic, we can see that many movies have been moved off of this year’s time table. This immediately makes the Oscars a much harder award ceremony and competition to hold properly. With this in mind, it is starting to seem more likely every day that the Academy will end up delaying the award ceremony. Unless more films manage to get released this year to add to the list of films that can be nominated, the likelihood of a delay for the awards is very good. Although we are 9 months out from next year’s awards, this is something we should try and keep our eyes on since this is something that hasn’t been seen before.
By George Robbins
The world climate continues to be pretty terrible for the entertainment industry and more specifically the movie industry. This pandemic makes it difficult for many companies to get work done properly and makes it physically impossible for some companies to make any money whatsoever. The movie theater industry knows this best of all because they are completely shut down with no way of making revenue. Theaters have been shut down for two months now with about a month and a half before they reopen their doors to the public. That is if they will really be able to because new health and safety laws must be followed post reopening to prevent rate of infection from spiking again. This creates a problem for the theaters and their employees who have been laid off or furloughed.
In order to get their businesses back up and running again they must adhere to the new rules as well as inspire public confidence. For instance, if people don’t think it is safe to go out to the movies, they will not want to go. So while the theater doors may open again by the summer, there is no telling when most people will want to go through those doors. This is one of the reasons why most production companies have pushed their movie releases back so far despite knowing generally when theaters will reopen. Some companies do not want to have to wait that long or take that kind of risk.
While some movies will have to wait for theatrical release, there are other films that are taking the direct to digital approach. The most successful movies to go straight to VOD have been ‘Trolls World Tour’ and ‘Scoob!.’ This is mostly due to the fact that families are just trying to keep busy during these times. However, the opportunity is there for other straight to VOD movies to do well also, but I think it would take a specific movie to do so. That movie might just end up being ‘Greyhound’ starring Tom Hanks which was due for release theatrically in June. The movie stars Tom Hanks playing a captain who is trying to transport troops across the ocean during WWII with no air support to keep them safe.
‘Greyhound’ was an anticipated film before the coronavirus pandemic kicked into full swing and everything shut down. Now that all of this is going on, the studio has had to make a decision about how they want to move forward with the movie. Would they end up deciding to push back the release date on the film like most other studios or would they end up releasing the movie on VOD like some other studios have done with their films. They have apparently decided on the latter by choosing to release it on VOD to Apple TV+, Apple’s streaming service. Whether this will help the film or not is something that we can only wait and see if it will work out.
By George Robbins
The coronavirus pandemic has given us all a lot to think about and has given movie studios even more to think about. When it all started back in the middle of March we all hoped that we would get news that it wouldn’t be too long before things could go back to the way they were. I think production companies and movie theaters hoped for that even more than the rest of of did to be honest. While it is a horrible situation for many people to deal with, many productions are losing money everyday because they can’t show their films or even work on new ones. With theaters all closed up, there is not really much that these companies can do but wait and see how this pandemic pans out.
In the meantime, this doesn’t mean that people are just sitting around and waiting until they are able to resume working on their projects. A lot of people working in the film industry are not focusing on what they can’t do as much as what they can. This means that although many films are being delayed both in production and post, many people are working on future films. After all, there is no point in stopping working when the world is just going to keep going on around the industry. This has resulted in projects such as ‘Mallrats 2,’ ‘Scream 5,’ and now ‘Legally Blonde 3’ being worked on and developed.
As most people probably know at this point, the ‘Legally Blonde’ series follows a girl that most people would have never expected to be a lawyer actually become one. The original comedy film was based off the novel of the same name by Amanda Brown and was very well-received. The movie would go on to spawn a sequel, a spin-off movie, and even became the basis of a Broadway musical of the same name. Thus, it is safe to say that the movie is pretty popular and would be able to hold an audience even if it was released again today. So now, it has been revealed to the public that ‘Legally Blonde 3’ is currently in the works.
‘Legally Blonde 3’ is going to be a comedy just like its predecessors which is going to be written by actress Mindy Kaling and comedy writer Dan Goor. The script has yet to be written, but Kaling and Goor have only just been tapped to be the lead writers for the film. Reese Witherspoon will, of course, be returning to her role as Elle Woods in the film and she will be producing under her studio, Hello Sunshine along with original producer Marc Platt. With Kaling and Goor on a team to write up a wholly unique script for the movie, we should not be surprised if we end up with a film that could potentially better than its predecessors. Like all other films that have been announced during this pandemic, we will just have to wait and see how it turns out.
By George Robbins
There have been countless stories that have come out of this entire pandemic detailing how difficult things have been for the entertainment industry. Movie theaters have been completely shut down for two months now with the best estimates for mass re-openings being some time in early July. So with movies closed until the summer, studios have been forced to move their movie release schedules around to accommodate to the fact theaters are shut down. On top of that, many movies and shows in the midst of production have been forced to cease all production until it is yet again safe to continue working. In other words, it is tough to be in movie and television production these days.
Though there is also good new to go along with the bad news that has been plaguing the industry recently. Companies that have decided to release their films early to VOD, or Video on Demand, have managed to recoup some of the money they lost from not having a full theatrical release. Some companies have even found success in the release of films through PVOD releases. These Premium Video on Demand releases are movies that have not had any kind of theatrical releases and are being directly released digitally. They are distinct in form from direct-to-video movies in the fact that their production value is the same as theatrical films since they were supposed to be released that way. Also on the good news side of things is the fact that we keep getting news on newer films in development.
New movies in development are nothing new to the industry, obviously, but it is nice to know that people are still working on moving the industry forward while it is at a standstill. There have been announcements for a number of different movies at this point and many of them have been long awaited sequels. Now, it has been confirmed that we will be getting another ‘Scream’ movie to add to the slasher franchise. We knew already that talks were underway regarding the next film in the franchise and the actors that would be returning to play a part in the film. They have been hinting for years that there would one day be another chapter in the franchise, but it would not be until now that it was actually announced.
After Wes Craven, the original creator of the ‘Scream’ franchise, died it was unknown whether the story would continue on at any point. That was, however, until Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett – the directors of last year’s horror-comedy-thriller ‘Ready or Not’- became attached to some new project related to the series back in March. It was unknown if this was, in fact, the next chapter in the ‘Scream’ saga or if it would be a spin-off of some sort. We now know that it is actually ‘Scream 5’ and that they have been trying to get Neve Campbell to reprise her role as Sidney Prescott by saying that the film will be shot in the spirit of Wes Craven. While it may not be known if she will truly reprise her role, we do know that David Arquette has decided to sign onto the project and reprise his role as Dewey Riley. So now, all we can do is hope that the rest of the cast decides to come back as well.
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