By George Robbins
Ryan Reynolds’ upcoming movie ‘Free Guy,’ directed by Shawn Levy, is meant to give us a closer look into a video game world to see what life is like there. The movie is meant to be a film which gives us a glimpse at a game where the character we follow through the film is nothing more than an NPC. For those unaware, this stands for non-player character and it is any character in a video game that is not under player control. The main selling point of the film is that it follows this NPC named “Guy” as he finds out that the world he lives in is actually a video game. What follows is supposedly a journey for him to try and save his game, and therefore his universe, from shutting down.
For those of us who play video games, we never really focus on much of what actually happens to characters other than the ones we control in game. This is because, most of the time, we have no way of empathizing with any other characters unless the game really wants us to in some way. Even then, we may not really end up caring unless that character has been really well-written into the story and we come to see things from their point of view. Sometimes we don’t even have to see their point of view to realize that we feel for them in some way shape or form. Most of the time however, we couldn’t really care less what ends up happening to them.
According to Shawn Levy, the director, the movie is going to be a way for people to try and have more feelings towards the NPCs. According to Levy, this movie is one that many different people can relate to as it shows us this guy who is normally nothing more than a background character in someone else’s story being noticed. We are supposed to notice the background character this time around and understand what it must be like to be the one who is always sitting in the background and that they have their own story. If what Levy said is true, then this movie will be one that shows the importance of empathizing with people we often just see in the background instead of just whoever is front and center.
By George Robbins
Halloween is just around the corner, but this year is by far different from every year prior due to the pandemic. It is unlike any other moment in recent history because it means that we have to change the way that we celebrate the holiday. Some things like trick-or-treating aren’t going to be possible and, while some will ignore the restrictions, parties are pretty much a no-go. This makes it kind of difficult for people to find fun in the holiday this year and it will certainly be one that we will always remember just because we have no idea how to handle it. Ordinary civilians are not the only ones that don’t know how to handle what is currently going on though.
This time of year is perfect territory for horror movies and it is no surprise as to the reason why this is the case. Halloween month, otherwise known as October, is the month in which death is the norm and horror is just another part of everyday life. Unfortunately, the pandemic has resulted in all movies that were meant to be released this month being pushed back either to some time in early 2021 or an entire year to October of 2021. This still hasn’t deterred some things from happening though as movies are actually managing to find their way back in theaters. One such example of that just so happens to be the movie ‘Hocus Pocus.’
By Now, I’m sure we all know about ‘Hocus Pocus’ because it is put on TV constantly during the month of October and it has a very dedicated fan base. Since its release in 1993, the movie has gone on to obtain a cult movie level fan base that maintains the popularity of the film. In response to this, the movie actually had a theatrical re-release this past weekend where it ended up being shown in over 2500 theaters. While one would not expect much out of this, it managed to actually bring in almost $2 million for the domestic box office putting it as the second highest film for this past weekend. It may not be much overall, but it is still a surprise to see after what we have learned over the past few weeks about the movie theater market.
By George Robbins
Nowadays movie studios are not quite sure of when they want to release their new films due to the pandemic. This isn’t too much of a surprise given what we have already seen with the movie theater market within the past month or so. Now that theaters are opened up again, we expected them to at least get some kind of business to warrant companies to put out even more films. Unfortunately this did not end up happening for a couple of reasons. Those reasons being the fact that theaters are enclosed spaces that people sit still in for hours with many other people which creates a huge risk for spreading infection. Also, and partly due to the first reason, many domestic theaters are thinking of closing again until things get safer out there.
Now that we are unsure of just when theaters will be able to get back to true functionality, studios haven’t exactly been trying to put their stuff out there just yet. In fact, studios have ended up pushing almost all of their content into 2021 in order to try and create enough of a gap where theaters can get themselves put together. This essentially means that they are waiting until people start going back to theaters in earnest before they waste time and effort to put movies out into the marketplace. With this fact now established for pretty much every major studio out there, we now have many movies being delayed for upwards of a year. This isn’t something that there is really any control of though and we just have to wait and see how things turn out.
Not every movie is taking this as the worst possible news ever though, as the most recent trailer for the movie ‘Free Guy‘ has shown. The movie follows Ryan Reynolds as he plays a non-player character, or NPC, in a video game who discovers the truth about his own reality. The movie was initially on the Summer line-up, but like every other film on that list, it was pushed back. It ended up being pushed to December, but like other delayed films, it may be pushed back even further than that. This was acknowledged in the newest piece of media for the film and they essentially said that it will be out whenever they feel it is comfortable for the film to release. It could be out in December, or it could be a lot longer before we see it. We don’t know, but at least that fact has been acknowledged by the filmmakers.
By George Robbins
Movie theaters are currently giving it their all in order to draw people in so that they can make revenue for the first time in months. Things haven’t been working out so well for theaters as they were among the first round of businesses to shut down at the start of the pandemic. Considering the fact that theaters are nothing but enclosed spaces that seat numerous people for hours at a time, this isn’t really all that surprising. The next few months to follow their closing have been nothing short of interesting as they have been trying to figure out how it is that they actually wanted to reopen their doors. Not too long ago, they were actually given that opportunity and most theaters opened back up to the public.
The reopening of theaters was not without issues as they have had nothing but trouble in drawing people in to watch movies. This is why we are now hearing about theaters in the United States thinking about shutting down once again because they aren’t getting enough customers. Considering how volatile the situation with the pandemic is in the United States, it is no surprise that consumers are wary to go back to theaters. This is the correct response during this period of time because why would people want to go back to the aforementioned enclosed spaces filled with disease. Due to the fact that it is kind of hard for the average person to be able to tell who has the virus or not at a glance, this should be expected.
Now that theaters in the U.S. are suffering after reopening their doors, the box office in the domestic market has really started suffering as well. This is most apparent with Christopher Nolan’s new blockbuster ‘Tenet’ due to the fact that, despite having a strong opening weekend, the movie has had nothing but bad box office returns since. Originally, the film was set to release back in July, but due to theaters pushing off their openings due to the pandemic, they pushed it to August. The final release date for the film was set near the end of August for international releases and the end of August/early September for domestic. After those two openings, it had managed to bring in nearly $150 millions, but as previously stated, this started to drop off.
Despite many theaters being opened domestically and rules for occupancy being put in place to protect customers, people simply didn’t want to risk it. This is how the movie ended up only grossing a few million domestically the following weekends after the film’s release. This was something that didn’t just affect ‘Tenet’ as it meant that theaters were going to have a rough time moving forward, but it definitely affected ‘Tenet’ pretty hard. This is due to the fact that the movie has to apparently bring in a total of $500 million at the box office in order to cover the film before marketing costs. Needless to say that things just aren’t looking up for the studio and its movie given the fact that they need to make a lot more than the $500 million to break even after everything is said and done.
It would appear now, that the studio might not have an incredible amount of trouble to worry about as it seems the movie is still on its way to making its goal. Although it is still a long ways off, the movie has still been doing alright internationally, though still not to the degree the studio is hoping for. While the domestic box office is remaining pretty stagnant, the international one is slowly climbing as ‘Tenet’ is now sitting at around $300 million. This gives the movie a pretty good chance at getting to the break even goal within a couple of months time, but it still doesn’t fix the whole issue. The movie still has a long way to go before it makes the money Warner Bros. was hoping it would.
By George Robbins
There are not many films that hold their place among the annals of the most famous movies out there, but a fair number of comedies hold a place there. Among those movies are the ‘Ghostbusters’ movies which I am sure most people have seen and made sure that others have seen as well. It has essentially become a part of culture as a whole that people have seen the films and made their friends and family watch them as well. They are held at a high standard and for good reason because they are a part of a number of films from the 80’s that people will always love. It is because of this that, even now, they receive special treatment.
This special treatment can be seen in the fact that they are still coming up with new forms of media which rely heavily upon the two original films. The 2016 rendition of the film was pretty much considered a commercial failure as many did not like the direction in which the movie was taken. Not too long ago however, we found out that there would be another entry in the ‘Ghostbusters’ franchise which is aptly named ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife.’ Unlike the 2016 film, this one has become much closer to the original films in style, even putting in direct callbacks to the original movies. The question at that point became whether the film was actually going to have anything to do with the originals.
If this upcoming film did have something to do with the original films story-wise, then it can easily be called ‘Ghostbusters 3’ by the public. The things is that enough time has passed that it just wouldn’t feel right if people did this, but apparently it would be a proper naming convention. According to actor Ernie Hudson who played Winston Zeddemore in the original films, the movie will, in fact, tie in with the original movies. This means that we will essentially be seeing a new story which builds off of the old films which is what many hoped for with the 2016 film. Hopefully with this background to it, the movie will not be disappointing like the last release was.
By George Robbins
This pandemic has been nothing but a huge financial drain but there is not much anyone can do because of the threat it poses. There are industries all over the place which are greatly suffering from the fact that they can’t get back to things like they normally would. Unfortunately, those businesses have had no choice but to adapt to the new situation or have their entire livelihoods shut down. Fortunately, there are some safeguards in place to prevent businesses from just losing everything they have, but it doesn’t make things any easier for them. In fact, the full effects of the pandemic are starting to be felt now.
The industry which seems to be suffering the hardest due to the pandemic has been the movie theater industry and, by extension, a good part of the film industry. Movie theaters have been doing their best to get things back up and running the way they were before the virus started the pandemic. Unfortunately, this just cannot be the case as there are restrictions in place that are there to prevent more people from contracting the virus. This means that theaters are limited on the number of people that they are allowed to have be in there at one time, which makes things a little difficult for them to bring in revenue. This still hasn’t changed the fact that they were very much hoping people would want to go back out to the movies.
Recently, the blockbuster ‘Tenet‘ had its theatrical release where it first released internationally and then a week later it released domestically. Unfortunately for both the studio and theaters showing the film, the movie could not create enough draw to really make people want to go back to theaters during a health crisis. This shouldn’t really be much of a surprise, but it apparently was for them because after only three weekends on the market domestically, ‘Tenet’ is really not bringing anything in for the box office. This ended up being the driving force which made studios decide to push back their movie releases and it has theater companies in the U.S. deciding whether they want to stay open or not. Among the studios that decided to push back a lot of their content due to this was Disney.
Disney, like all other companies, is still trying their best to come up with ways of making money at this time and it doesn’t seem like it’s going well. Needless to say, they are still making money, but they will most definitely be reporting a huge loss due to theaters and their parks being shut down for so long. The amount of money they have lost out on this year is staggering to say the least, but they are doing what they think is best to keep making money. Unfortunately, the things they are doing are not great as they have already caught flak for much of what they are doing right now. For instance, the whole release of ‘Mulan’ on Disney+ is essentially cursed, but the $30 premium on the film has definitely made them money.
‘Mulan’ proved to them that they can actually make money outside of theaters for new films, but it just won’t be as much as through theaters at their peak. This is why they pushed all of their big releases, in the hopes that they can have theatrical releases for them when things calm down. What they are really looking forward to is a rise in consumer confidence in theaters once again, but it will be awhile before that happens because the pandemic situation isn’t looking good. Movies aren’t their only way of making money though, as we all well know by now because they have their amusement parks. These have been affected just as harshly as their film sector unfortunately and now it is taking its toll.
Just like their film sector, they have been catching flak for how they are handling their parks side of things. One such reason is because they have apparently been letting COVID-positive employees work in the parks with guests around and around their co-workers. So not only does this make it appear that they don’t care about their employees, but also their customers. On top of this, they have been getting complaints since they started re-opening parks because people didn’t, and don’t, think that it’s safe enough for parks to be opened back up again. This is why the State of California decided not to let them reopen Disneyland because it would make things even more hazardous than they already are. Now, Disney Parks is using this as an excuse to lay off 28,000 employees, citing the fact that the state won’t let them reopen as the reason they had to do it.
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