By George Robbins
The film industry as a whole has been trying to figure out how they should be moving forward during this pandemic and it has only become more challenging as time has gone on. Movie studios focus most of their time and effort into making sure that movies get produced in a timely fashion and then they get released straight to theaters. With theaters being mostly out of commission when the pandemic began and rules being put in place to prevent businesses from opening, studios immediately ran into trouble. This trouble ended up being worse than they could have imagined and now we are starting to see a drastic decline in movie theaters as a whole. By the end of this year alone, AMC will have almost completely run out of money and there is nothing that can help them get out of that hole they are in.
Just recently, it was revealed that AMC theaters are down over 90% in overall revenue since last year due to this pandemic which means that they are getting closer and closer to bankruptcy. The new guidelines that have been put into place which they must follow are nothing but difficult for them to work around. The rules they have been forced to follow just to open up their doors to the public revolve around them not being able to allow too many people through their doors at once. Thus, they were in trouble before they were even given the opportunity to host new movies for the public to come in and see. Theaters are a business which rely solely upon bringing people in and selling out large numbers of seats for them to make their revenue and that just hasn’t been possible.
Once the pandemic began, movie theaters immediately started trying to come up with dates as to when they would reopen their doors, but they were limited by government rules. There had to be proper measures in place for them to be able to reopen their doors with permission from the government and it took longer for theaters than most other types of business. Businesses which normally had higher population counts were forced to stay closed for a longer period of time so that people could start acclimating to the new environments more easily. This eventually resulted in theaters being given permission to reopen their doors, but they had no new product to draw people in with. Without any new movies to show, theaters just sat there with their doors shut trying to wait until new movies were launched by studios.
The problem while waiting for new movies was that studios were unsure if it would even be safe to try and release new movies even if they had permission. This problem was obviously one that could not be overlooked and many studios just decided to further delay their films and wait for a new release date. One studio decided to try their hand at releasing a film right now and that was Warner Bros. who decided that it was a good time to try. Therefore, they ended up releasing their new movie ‘Tenet‘ to theaters; first in the international market and later in the domestic market. With this movie’s release they were hoping, like director Christopher Nolan, that this movie would be the one to save theaters and bring them back into the public eye.
Unfortunately for both the studios and movie theaters alike, their plan to get people back out into theaters just didn’t work as intended. While ‘Tenet’ had a strong launch in the first weeks due to it being the first pandemic release, it died out harshly domestically over the following weeks. While the movie has now managed to rake in approximately $350 million worldwide, only $53 million has come from the domestic marketplace. While this might sound great, they actually needed to make a total of $500 million just to try and break even before counting in marketing costs for the film. When studios saw this, they immediately decided that it was really not worth trying to deal with releasing their movies at the moment and they delayed their films.
In choosing not to release their upcoming films this year, the line-up of blockbusters for this year has essentially been cleansed and no one knows how this will play out. The aforementioned issues theaters are facing has only gotten worse now and ‘Tenet’s’ director, Christopher Nolan, believes studios are making a mistake. Nolan has been nothing but a strong advocate for the movie-going experience over the years and this recent film outing of his was no different. He wanted his film to be released to theaters as soon as they possibly could and he wanted people to be able to go out and watch the film the same way they always did. That being said, when things didn’t work out as intended and studios pulled their upcoming films, Nolan became a bit upset.
Nolan believes that studios made the wrong choice when they decided to move their movie rosters around and that their reactions are not in line with how they should be doing things. He thinks that instead of thinking about things pre-pandemic aren’t helping and that studios should try and figure out how to make theatrical releases work instead of waiting things out. Needless to say, Nolan thinks that studios should be looking at other solutions to help theaters rather than just trying to wait things out. Despite the various reasons for why it is not safe for people to go out to theaters, it makes sense that he would be saying this. If things aren’t done differently, then we could see movie theaters steadily start shutting down permanently.
With Nolan’s comment about studios putting in more effort to try and figure out alternative solutions, we can see that he wants theaters to get back on top of their game. This is something that cannot be done on their own and they need help from movie studios otherwise they will have nothing to bring people in. Without movie theaters, studios will be missing out on numerous money-making opportunities in the future so it is only natural that they should try and find solutions to help them. They will need to rely almost solely on movie studios because there is nothing else that they can really do. It is unlikely that we will see anything done to help studios, but it is nice to see that someone cares about the way the industry is handling things.
By George Robbins
Even though Halloween weekend is over, there is still plenty of discussion rolling around in regards to movies that have to do with the season. It is kind of difficult not to think about these kinds of things since we revolve entire schedules off of the seasons and the holidays associated with them. Although Halloween season is a strong season for horror movies, there are still plenty of times where horror movies can be played that still make sense given that it is a genre that has become normalized over the years. Although the horror genre is generalized and those types of movies can release just about whenever they want, there is still a good window for them to release this time of year. Halloween just sets the scene for horror movies because it puts people in the mood to go out and see those types of movies.
The Halloween season is just the perfect time for people to want to go out and see horror movies in general which is why it is only natural that they have delayed the release of the upcoming ‘Halloween Kills.’ This year has just been a rough year in general for many people and the pandemic has been the root cause of a lot of distress. Many people haven’t been able to really do anything since the pandemic began back in March of this year and theaters have been suffering pretty harshly. When the pandemic began, theaters weren’t able to really do anything other than shut down and hope they would be able to reopen in the not-too-distant future. After a few months had past, theaters all over were finally able to reopen their doors to the public, but they had no incentives for people.
Movie theaters only thrive off of the fact that they have exclusivity when it comes to newer movies which mean that they are the only place to see new movies. If they are the only place for people to see new movies, then it is only natural that they would end up drawing people in who want to see those new films as soon as they can. Of course that exclusivity has a time frame, but theaters continue to keep getting new movies to draw people in and get them in seats. Unfortunately, the pandemic has complicated things as theaters have not been able to get new movies to show to the public. If studios don’t think that movie theaters are capable of bringing anyone in, then they won’t even bother sending any new movies out to theaters as there would be no point.
Studios recognize that they make a majority of their money based solely upon the sheer volume of people going into theaters. After theaters were given limitations on their capacity, they still weren’t quite sure if they should have even bothered with releasing movies. Warner Bros. decided to test those waters by releasing ‘Tenet‘ and while it may have started off strong, it ended up failing in the end. After just a few weeks, theaters saw a massive decline in attendance and it was made clear to studios that people are far too cautious to go out to theaters at the moment. It was after this somewhat failed release that they decided to push back all of their upcoming movie releases. Now there are very few movies that are still meant to release this year with no real blockbusters lined up for release.
Although it was prior to the release of ‘Tenet’ that the decision was made to push back ‘Halloween Kills,’ it was for the same reason. The studio working on the film, Blumhouse, realized that this would be the situation and so they pushed the movie back an entire year. This push is obviously one that many fans are finding fault in because it is such a heavy delay, but for the studio it really isn’t. They are still trying to get the movie to line up with its seasonal namesake for the atmospheric effect it would have and they want to release it when more people would readily go see it. Therefore, it really isn’t all that much of a surprise that they pushed the film back as far as they did.
For those unaware, the upcoming movie is the second film in a planned trilogy that has managed to successfully, so far, revitalize the character. Over the next couple of years we will, hopefully, be seeing these movies played out before us on the big screen. The big question is whether this will be the end of the franchise so many people have grown to love over the years and the answer is unknown to even the people making it. Producer Ryan Freimann, who is working on ‘Halloween Kills,’ has stated that he has no idea what will happen to the franchise after the trilogy ends. While we may not know if the franchise will continue in any way, we do know that it will always remain a legacy in the horror genre that will remain known to everyone as time moves on.
By George Robbins
The DC Extended Universe, more commonly referred to as the DCEU by fans, is home to the most popular characters from the DC universe. It has given an opportunity to many different people to be a part of a universe that features heroes many people grew up reading about. Of course the DCEU was made as a way for Warner to make their own version of the MCU by making a shared universe for the characters they controlled. Shared universes actually became something of an ideal in Hollywood for awhile because studios realized that shared universes create a lot more potential for future revenue. This led to pretty much every studio trying to establish some kind of shared universe where their characters could interact across movies.
If not for the idea of shared universes being a reality we all now live in, then we would not have gotten a lot of different movies over the past decade or so. Shared universes create more opportunities that have allowed so much to happen within the realm of movies over the years that we are now seeing incredible stories unfold that we would never see otherwise. The DC movies are a perfect example because while they may not measure up in popularity to the MCU films, they have certainly pooled together a somewhat cohesive story that fans are interested in. The biggest problem that fans actually have with the movies is the fact that the movies have a hard time of staying on track and structured properly on their own. Not only that, but they don’t play into one another very well, but they still grab attention otherwise.
The biggest DCEU film that has seen these issues crop up has been the ‘Justice League‘ movie which dropped back in 2017. This movie was an ambitious one from the start which drastically changed the way we see the DCEU as a whole. It was meant to obviously be an ‘Avengers’ type movie where our favorite characters would get to be seen on screen, but things just didn’t turn out as intended by the time of release. Many people had an idea in their heads about what the film would be like, but what they ended up with was entirely different. What people got was a movie that was reshot beyond their thought expectations, which changed the movie as a whole. The now infamous reshoots were only rumored at the time of the film’s release, but after they became apparent, fans immediately asked for a different version of the film.
For those unaware, the version of the film that people wanted to get their hands on was the Snyder Cut version of the movie made by the film’s original director, Zack Snyder. Snyder was responsible for being the one who actually created the DCEU, or at least helped start it, when he made the ‘Man of Steel‘ movie. That movie ended up being the first movie to be a part of the DCEU and it helped centralize a good portion of the series around one character. This centralization completely changed the way that the series played out and gave a lot of urgency to the existence of Superman in that universe. Therefore, a good portion of what we have seen in half of the movies thus far is that Superman must be there in order to try and fix whatever issues crop up. This is a huge point of contention in both the movies and the comics, but regardless, it has set up the DCEU.
Snyder was the man who was originally meant to direct the ‘Justice League’ movie, but he unfortunately had to drop out of the film after his family was forced to deal with tragedy. Without that, he would have made the movie the way that he wanted, but it probably would not turn out the way that people are now expecting. After the theatrical version of the film dropped to the public, fans started petitioning to get his version of the film released because his vision for the film is the one fans were looking forward to. Thus, when HBO Max launched back in May of this year, fans were nothing but excited to fins out that they would get the chance to see his version of the film coming to the service some time early next year. Since that announcement, there has been a lot of news coming out about the upcoming film that has fans getting more and more excited as time goes on.
It has certainly become clear that Snyder has been making some changes in time for the films upcoming release and fans are getting more and more excited for it now. A trailer was even released back in August which showed off some of the new changes we would get to see in the upcoming movie. That trailer was recently taken down without any kind of warning however, and this worried fans that something may have happened with the upcoming film. As it turns out, this is not the case as they will be releasing the movie the way that it was shown in the trailer. What happened with the trailer is that it was taken down due to a music dispute where a version of the song Hallelujah was used in the trailer which apparently has music rights that must be adhered to. While the song may have been perfect for the new trailer, they will have to figure out this dispute before it can be seen again.
By George Robbins
Movie theaters have been in a strong state of decline ever since the start of the pandemic back in March of this year and that hasn’t changed as time has gone on. Things have been nothing short of just straight complicated for theaters ever since this pandemic began and they’ve had nothing to do. When this pandemic began, theaters were just trying to figure out when they would be able to open their doors once again and eventually, they had to figure out how they would open. Theaters were originally just in the same boat as any other business that was forced to shut down at the time and they couldn’t do anything other than stay shut down. With that in mind, they immediately started facing pressure which involved them not being able to bring in revenue and it is still a problem now.
Due to the pandemic, people have been trying to figure out exactly what they could do to keep themselves busy while they wait to be able to go out. Despite there still being a lot of risk involved with going out in general, businesses have managed to bring people back as time has gone on. This is because a lot of businesses function off the principal that they can draw people in for a specific reason for short periods of time. This is not something that movie theaters are really capable of because they function on bringing people in to sit still near other people for long periods of time. In order to try and make up for that fact, movie theaters have come up with new rules they put in place to follow the new health guidelines.
The new health guidelines are rules that have been put into place in just about every single business out there and they are almost the same everywhere you go. Basically, those new rules state that businesses have to have some kind of limited capacity and they must ensure that everyone remains a certain distance from one another to enforce social distancing policies. While these rules may be the same wherever you go, the effect that it has on each individual type of business varies wildly based upon how that business functions as an entity. Therefore, it is no surprise that movie theaters are among those businesses that have suffered the worst as a result of being forced to follow these rules. After all, the main point of being at a theater is to sit with many other people and watch movies for hours at a time.
It is due to the fear people have when it comes to sitting in a theater for hours with others that we have seen the rapid decline in attendance since they have reopened their doors. Taking away the fact that movie theaters haven’t really had any new movies to show, they have been stagnating heavily and it has affected them all for quite some time now. Even when they got their hands on the new blockbuster movie ‘Tenet’ things did not end up going very well for them over the following weeks. The movie started off strong but then lost all of its appeal over the following weeks due to people not wanting to go out and risk their health in theaters. This only further cemented the fact that theaters are in a decline with no way out in sight, especially after studios decided to delay their films.
After the perceived failure of ‘Tenet’ at the box office due to the lack of patrons going out to movie theaters, studios decided to pull their upcoming movies from the line-up. These movies are being pushed into some time next year, and although many now have releases dates, those schedules are still tentative until they figure out exactly when they can release to a market with a lot of customers. After this decision was made, Regal Cinemas decided to once again close all of their theaters in an effort to save money and prevent themselves from going bankrupt for awhile. AMC on the other hand has been staying open, but they will most certainly reach a state of bankruptcy by the end of the year. It has already been reported that they have already lost a total of 90% revenue for the year, so it isn’t looking great for the company.
At this point, movie theaters have lost almost all of their business and it has become a much more dangerous venture to be in the movie theater industry. For the time being, it would appear that movie theaters are slowly starting to inch closer to the point where they may never actually end up recovering even after this pandemic ends. This is a reality that they must now face as we move closer to the end of the year and as the new year begins. There isn’t really very much that theaters can do right now because they have no choice but to continue following along with the pandemic hoping that things get slightly better soon. Unfortunately, with a possible second wave of the virus essentially here, it seems unlikely; so those losses are likely to just continue racking up as time goes on.
By George Robbins
The ‘Mission: Impossible’ franchise is one that has strongly affected action movies as time has gone on and it has earned its place in pop culture since its original inception in 1996 with the first ‘Mission: Impossible.’ While not every movie in the franchise is one that will be fondly remembered by the public, it is no doubt impressive that they are now working on a seventh film in the franchise because not every franchise is so lucky. After all, they managed to make an incredible start with the series and while there was a dip by the third film in popularity, they managed to turn that around. They actually made a complete U-turn and made films that have had a steady stream of viewers that have nothing but good things to say about the films. While there are undoubtedly a lot of people who have something to say about the film, there are more people who have liked everything they have seen done with the films.
With any action film out there, especially spy-action films, there are a lot of faults to be found solely because there is only so much that can be done with those films to make them interesting. Following that formula, there is a lot that happens to repeat itself in the movies that really can’t be controlled because tropes exist for a reason and they have managed to make them work. The Mission: Impossible’ franchise manages to set itself apart from any other form of spy movies solely because, in most people’s minds, it is heavily action focused. The action focus of the franchise has actually helped to make it a film that differentiates itself from other films in both the action and spy movie genres. Most of this can be attributed almost entirely to the fact that Tom Cruise is an absolute madman.
Tom Cruise is well known throughout pretty much every single community as perhaps the most pervasive action actor on the market. He appears in some of the biggest and most popular action films out there and he is the reason the ‘Mission: Impossible’ films easily remain at the top of action movie lists. Despite being mainly spy movies, they focus much more on the action side of things and Tom Cruise brings out that aspect of things with his stunts that he does for the films. While many people who are working on films usually have stunt folks working for them that do their stunts, Cruise instead does his own stunts. While this is certainly not the norm, some actors do this because they enjoy actually doing the stunts themselves. The difference between those actors and Cruise is the fact that Cruise goes just that little step further and he does things some stuntmen won’t even do.
Stuntmen will do whatever stunt is necessary for the movie they are working on, but there are limits to what they can do as people in general. There are a lot of stunts for movies that, if done wrong, could result in serious injury or death which is why stuntmen are important. Cruise takes that and throws it out of the window when he does his stunts and, while it certainly makes the final cut of the movie interesting for the public to watch, Cruise is certainly at risk. This has been made all the more apparent by Cruise’s co-star Simon Pegg who has said the it can be terrifying seeing him work on his death-defying stunts on set. Considering that Cruise is now willing to take his stunts to space, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that he is doing all of these crazy stunts now.
By George Robbins
Animated movies are always a polarizing source in regular culture as their are plenty of B-Grade or worse films that are made on a regular basis. This isn’t really anyone’s fault as people do want to create a work of art, but they might have their own limitations put in place which usually revolve around budget. It is due to this that we only ever hear about larger studios when we see really beautiful animated movies being made, but even those studios had smaller starts. That being said, Pixar did something incredible even early on as they managed to make something incredible with ‘Toy Story‘ back in the 90’s. The fact of the matter is that they completely changed the way that CGI was used from that point forward and they helped mold animation into what it now is.
When the first ‘Toy Story’ released back in 1995, the movie immediately caught people’s attention as it wasn’t a traditional animated film. In fact, it was the first major CGI 3-D animated film and it was so different from anything that came before that it immediately caught the attention of just about everyone. On top of the advertisement that the movie was an incredible looking animated film, the plot of the film was one that drew people in and made people feel emotions for toys of all things. Of course the latter part was all made possible due to the incredible animation which made the titular toys feel so real to begin with. This was something no one had even really thought possible and they have only improved their craft as time has gone on.
After the first ‘Toy Story’ movie released, it was no surprise that we eventually were gifted with a sequel aptly named ‘Toy Story 2.’ By the time we received the second film in 1999, we had already seen an improvement in the animation just within a few years and we grew ever more excited about the films Pixar worked on. They continued telling an engaging story and while it would be many years until ‘Toy Story 3,’ we grew attached to the characters we’d seen and worried for them. Eventually, we even questioned whether the toys on screen could legitimately die because of our worry for them. All of this stemmed from the original release of the first movie and it changed the way we saw animated movies from that very moment on.
Even though it is mainly Pixar that works on these movies that we see, it is no doubt important to recognize that many other studios turned to their type of animation after ‘Toy Story.’ Why wouldn’t they though because it became vastly popular with the public as time went on and people found their attention being drawn heavily to these animated films. It wasn’t just the animation that changed after that though as animated movie stories just got better overall and have drawn people in as much as the animation itself. This is why so many animated movies nowadays have stories that are compelling instead of just being bad story-good animation movies. After all, what is the point in animating a bad movie that won’t grab anyone’s attention. Unfortunately this still happens, but they are only really made by cheap budget studios trying to make a quick buck.
‘Toy Story’ helped change animated movies in the modern media and while there may be companies who took advantage of this popularity to make a quick buck, many animators took the opportunity to start working on incredible films. Pixar managed to hire more animators and improve upon their own technology over time, Disney managed to eventually start making incredible 3-D animated films, and other companies made their own animation departments with 3-D capabilities. This was just the start for the newest generation of animated films and now 3-D animated films are the most common form of animation. Before ‘Toy Story’ 3-D animation was very rare and hand-drawn animation was king, but after it released we saw the inverse of this happen now to the point where 3-D is king. It is hard to think that it has already been 25 years, but it has been a period of time that truly transformed animated films.
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