By George Robbins
I’m sure by now that just about everybody has seen ‘Avatar’ which was a phenomenon that nobody wanted to miss out on when it first released back in 2009. At the time, the movie was a technological marvel and it drew in crowds in droves to see the movie that everyone was talking about. The biggest selling point at the time for the movie was the fact that the 3-D technology that was used for the making of the film made viewing the movie an experience no one wanted to miss. It was a masterpiece of its time and it still kind of holds up today, its just that it doesn’t hold up as well. The movie industry moves quickly and even 10 years means nothing to them nowadays because technology is always vastly improving.
A lot of the time technology in the movie industry is what helps determine what films will actually end up making a decent amount of money when they come out. This results in movies going into what is essentially an arms race in order to try and beat out other films when it comes to tech. This is what happened with the original ‘Avatar’ because it was the pinnacle of movie tech at the time and the word of mouth from that alone made it popular enough to hold the top spot on the Box Office for 10 years. What really gave the movie its edge was the 3-D tech that made the film what it was and made people want to see it.
That 3-D technology that made the movie so popular actually helped make the film as much revenue as it did and it kicked off the age of 3-D in movie theaters. This made it possible for the movie to bring in approximately 80% of its revenue because it was just impressive in general and people were impressed with the 3-D. The upcoming ‘Avatar 2’ movie will not have the same edge as the first film though as 3-D films died out almost immediately after the first film released and over the past few years, there have been no films which actually use it anymore. This has essentially created insurmountable odds against the new film and its has given it a huge hurdle that it must overcome. We will just have to wait and see what happens when the film releases next December.
By George Robbins
The ‘Jurassic Park‘ series is one that has captivated the world over a couple of generations now and it has changed the movie industry as a whole. The series took the concept of dinosaurs which captivated the world and put those dinosaurs on screen fully realized. While the dinosaurs we saw may not have been true to their real life counterparts, what we were given was something astounding. We got the chance to see incredible lifeforms which came before us and what they probably looked and acted like. This was a huge opportunity the likes of which had never really been seen before then and it changed approaches to monster genres moving forward.
The original films were based on the book by author Michael Crichton who created a fantastic adventure fantasy centered around these things which have fascinated people for years. Although the story was not completely adapted the way that it was told in the novels, we still got an incredible story about what it would be like to bring prehistoric creatures into a modern age. The result of which was kind of interesting as it essentially became a meta-commentary about itself as time went on. By the time we reached the ‘Jurassic World‘ part of the series, it circled back on itself.
What I mean to say is that by the time of ‘Jurassic World’s’ release, the original trilogy was definitely beloved but people were so used to it by that point that it just wasn’t as fascinating anymore. This became something of an important plot point in its own right in the film and we got something new that we didn’t really expect. That was the fact that, in the story of the film, people were generally getting tired of the dinosaurs in the film as they weren’t really anything new in that universe. Therefore, they cooked up an entirely new dinosaur in a lab in order to get people’s attention. Just like the plot the film, the movie itself was essentially the same and it didn’t pay off as well as expected. This is something that happened both on and off of the screen.
The movie was most definitely a financial success, but there is no denying the fact that there were many who came out of it disappointed by certain aspects. This is mostly due to the people who were in love with the original trilogy and that love is making its way back in for the final film in the new trilogy. ‘Jurassic World: Dominion‘ is set up to be the final film in the new trilogy and they have already made it known that they are essentially going back to basics for this one. The movie will not feature any kind of new hybrids or anything like that and it is bringing back the original cast. This is all great news for fans, but that is not all as it has been confirmed that the movie will see dinosaurs essentially let loose upon the open world.
‘Dominion’ was one of the first films to start up production again after the start of the pandemic and they have been working hard to get the film finished. They don’t actually have to work so hard now though because even when they were shut down, they didn’t actually lose out on time. They were able to get in a fair bit of CGI work during their shut down and now, the film’s release has been delayed pretty much a year to summer of 2022. They just had to temporarily shut down for the next two weeks because members of the team have tested positive for the virus. Although they are only a few weeks away from being done filming, it isn’t too big a deal and they will still have plenty of time to finish this much anticipated film.
By George Robbins
Movie theaters are kind of in trouble right now and that doesn’t seem to be something that will change any time in the near future. It has already been discussed at length, but theaters are very much losing revenue due to this pandemic and nothing will change the fact it is going to continue. Not only is it going to continue, but from what we can glean from the near future, it is going to continue for a long time moving forward. The pandemic has essentially made it near impossible for theaters to actually make money during this period in time due to the restrictions in place. With those restrictions, there are way too many obstacles in the way for theaters to actually bring people in.
People are wary of theaters now due to the pandemic and it is for very obvious reasons as people are not sure if they are safe enough. In order to follow new standards set by the government as a means to alleviate people’s fears as well as prevent more virus cases from cropping up, theaters have been given restrictions. Mainly, those restrictions are set up as limiters for the number of people who are actually allowed to be present at one time in theaters. This is not the only limitation as theaters must also adhere to the distancing policy, so smaller theaters won’t even really get the chance to reach the limited occupancy numbers. Needless to say, these restrictions have not been easy on movie theater owners.
Beyond just the restrictions has been the fact that nobody is truly willing to put their own health at risk just to go see a movie that they can wait to see digitally. People are getting used to waiting for movies to come out at this point. There have been delays left and right in terms of movie releases and people recognize that the delays are only getting worse. This directly relates to the fact that people don’t want to take any chances by going out to theaters. This is why ‘Tenet’ pretty much failed in the domestic market where the pandemic is a pretty rough situation right now.
Domestically, no one know how to handle the virus and it is affecting the market as a whole because people are trying to navigate the pandemic. It is the same in the rest of the world, but the domestic market is where the film industry works to make a good chunk of their revenue. This is why we are now seeing so many movies being pushed back so far after ‘Tenet‘ failed to maintain an audience after its first week. The movie actually had a fairly strong opening weekend in both the international and domestic markets, but the following month or so in the domestic market was nothing other than disappointing. As such, studios came to understand that people would not be going out to theaters much for the foreseeable future.
In all actuality, people will more than likely not be going out to theaters in mass once again until there is some kind of vaccine out there. This is to be expected given the nature of the pandemic and the fact that the virus can spread so easily. People are much more wary nowadays and the restrictions keep them even more wary. If people hear that there are restrictions in place when they go out somewhere, then they are much less likely to want to stay there. With this in mind, most films have been pushed out of this year’s and, some even, from next year’s line-up by studios who still want their films to be released in theaters. Even now, nothing is set in stone and dates can once again change around at any point.
Although studios are in the same boat with everything they’re going through, they are still competing, so there is still a lot for them to think about right now. If something changes with the pandemic situation, they have to be able to very quickly move their release dates around. This makes things even more difficult to maneuver, but it still doesn’t change the fact that they are still working on making money. This complicates things heavily against movie theaters though, as at least theaters were making some kind of money when ‘Tenet’ released, but now they won’t be getting much else. They could get some money here and there with movie re-releases, but it just isn’t all that cost effective.
Due to cost effectiveness, movie theaters have been thinking about once again shutting their doors to the public because they didn’t think the current climate was a good one for them. Until recently, though, many were not really willing to take the plunge to re-close their doors, but one company did it. Regal Cinemas made the announcement that they would once again be shutting their doors to everybody and that they would not be re-opening any time in the near future. This was certainly not any kind of surprise because of the aforementioned issues with delays and people not wanting to go out to theaters. The issues now are the fact that there are still theaters that want to open their doors.
It would make sense if theaters that haven’t opened their doors back up to the public yet would be okay with just leaving their doors shut at this time. This is not the case though as many theaters still want to actually open back up again to the public as some need to bring in some kind of revenue. It is mainly theater chains that have been trying to decide whether or not to shut their doors once again. Unfortunately for the smaller theaters that want to reopen, they don’t really have much of an opportunity to do that now. Between restrictions and movie delays, they have no choice now but to keep their doors closed to people. The most interesting case of this is being seen out in San Francisco.
In San Francisco right now, a ban was made public where theaters that did reopen will not be able to sell any kind of concessions. This means that people would not be able to buy any food or drinks while they are at the movies which is how theaters make a good portion of their money. They only make a portion of their revenue from ticket sales as they have to split the money from sales with the studios that give them their films. Most of the income that they generate actually comes from concessions, so reopening their doors without being able to sell food or drink has essentially become a worthless endeavor. So even theaters that want to open up will have no choice but to stay closed in San Francisco.
By George Robbins
Around this time of year, we are always treated to a number of different cultural events that get us through to the end of the year. While this year is relatively the same in some aspects, in most things are most definitely different. The Covid-19 pandemic has completely changed the way that these events are held this year and we will most definitely be seeing an entirely different series of events as the year rounds out. Every live convention that was meant to be held in person this year was cancelled and some of them were made up for. They were mainly made up by the fact that online versions of them ended up being held.
Not every convention was actually so lucky because some of them were cancelled in their entirety for this year and some through next year as well. One huge example of a convention with good intentions that just wasn’t executed properly was Comic Con @ Home. It was a way for organizers to try and make up for the fact that San Diego Comic Con was cancelled. Unfortunately it was not very well put together and many of the panels people were hoping for were not going to be there because they had nothing to show. On the other side of things was DC FanDome, which was DC’s first convention held entirely online and it was a pretty big success.
Now, we are fast approaching New York Comic-Con which was cancelled awhile back but is now set for an online showing. In fact, it is going to start tomorrow Thursday October 8th and it will run through October 11th. Organizer ReedPop made the announcement that it would be held online back in August and it seems like they will really be trying to do as well as DC FanDome did. Really all they are trying to do is outdo their West-coast counterpart which shouldn’t be all too difficult, but we’ll have to wait and see. For those interested, all panels will be streamed for free via YouTube.com/NYCC and it will start at 8am PST, so have fun.
By George Robbins
Currently, the film industry is kind of in a state of suspended animation because nothing can be done with new releases. If movies cannot be released, then there is no way for studios to make their money to then make even more movies. Luckily this process can be boiled down a couple of different ways but not everything will end up working out the way they hoped. Nowadays, movies need to have a proper release window, but in order to do so, studios must know exactly what it is they will be doing with those new films. The main method of release for many new films still remains to be through theatrical means instead of straight to digital.
Due to studios’ reluctance to actually release films to digital since they will lose money in the long run, they are now trying to play the waiting game. As such they have all pushed back their movie release dates with many actually ending up in some time next year. Even further beyond that, many have been pushed to 2022 instead of retaining their 2021 release dates. The biggest problem of all is that even these dates may not hold as the situation remains fluid during the pandemic and it can change at almost any time. Therefore, it should be expected that the movie industry will actually start suffering from a bit of a decline in the meantime.
So while movies are being pushed back, what exactly can studios do to keep bringing in revenue and keep themselves busy. To be honest, it is really only the larger studios who can do this and they are doing it by keeping up with their new services. Beyond just that though, they are actually working on new films that they plan on releasing even years down the line at this point. This is why we now know that we will be getting ‘Scream 5’ after almost a decade and ‘Mallrats 2’ is a project that is getting worked on pretty heavily. Studios are finding plenty of ways to now keep themselves busy while they wait to release their films.
Among the new movies being worked on is a comedy that will feature Andy Samberg, Craig Robinson, and Common as the leads. It is an upcoming superhero comedy by the name of ‘Super High’ where smoking weed gives people superpowers. Needless to say the movie is already starting off as sounding like a joke film, but some films that start off like that end up being alright in the end. This film could end up being one that can take people’s minds off of everything that is currently going on and give them something to laugh at even if it comes out after the pandemic ends. Hopefully, it will be an entertaining film and it won’t be as bad as people think it will be.
By George Robbins
As we have all become aware of by now, movie theaters are in kind of a rough patch due to the pandemic and it appears it will not be dissipating any time soon. This is something that theaters have had no choice but to deal with ever since the pandemic first began and it has greatly affected their revenue stream. In fact, they have not really had a revenue stream since this all began and it has resulted in a lot of issues for the movie industry as a whole. Movie theaters were looking for the longest time for a proper re-opening window to reopen their doors and show films and they eventually found that window.
Unfortunately for theaters, that window was still too close to the start of the pandemic, despite being months after it all began. No matter how much time passes, without a vaccine people will not want to go out to the movies. For the public at large, there is just too much of a risk involved with going out too the movies as theaters are easily one of the most potentially devastating areas for the spread of disease. People have been saying that while theaters have been opened, there have been no cases linked back to them. The easy counter-point to that is the fact that of course there wouldn’t be any cases because no one is going to them.
Theaters have restrictions in place to help in the effort of preventing people from contracting the virus such as limited capacity and a mask requirement. These two things can help tremendously, but there is still the issue that many people just don’t care and aren’t following those mandates out of petty spite. So although these rules will work if followed properly, there are sure to be cases because of people who don’t follow those rules. If people are not generally going out to movie theaters, then there is nothing to worry about as of course their would be no cases. Theater chains were hoping that they would at least be able to drum up some kind of business though recently.
Most theater chains decided that the middle of August was going to be a good time for them to reopen their doors to the public. When they had to shut their doors to the public back in the middle of March, no one had any idea how long businesses were going to be shut down for. What followed was an extended period of time where certain types of businesses were slowly given the greenlight to open their doors back up again. Theater chains were among the types of businesses that were given the go-ahead the latest of all and so they were finally able to come up with reopening dates. Those dates, of course, were centered around the release dates of movies put out by studios and vice versa.
The movie that we saw take the spotlight was one ‘Tenet‘ which is Christopher Nolan’s newest original blockbuster film. The idea was that the movie would actually end up serving as a method of getting people back into theaters. Since Christopher Nolan films are known by audiences to be experiences that they should not miss out on, theater owners were pushing the movie’s release pretty hard along with Warner Bros. Plenty of mystery surrounded the film as people were curious about what the plot would be about as the general public saw trailers filled with espionage and time manipulation. The movie released first internationally and then one week later it released domestically and while it did not make a killing, it certainly did well considering the current social climate.
For the first week, the movie did fairly well, but for the next few weeks it didn’t do so hot domestically. ‘Tenet’ has only been making a few million per week on the domestic market which is problematic for both theaters and the studio. Although the title is still doing fairly well in the international market, the domestic market has pretty much been a dud for the movie. This has presented a number of problems because it made everyone realize that people are not willing to take the risk to go out and see movies right now. Studios heavily rely upon the domestic market and Warner Bros. knew that, so when they realized what was happening they decided to delay most of their films.
Many may not know that Warner Bros. actually needs to make somewhere around $500 million to break even before marketing costs on ‘Tenet.’ They only just recently hit around $300 million because of the international market and this has shown just how volatile the industry is at the moment. As such, Warner Bros. took the opportunity to learn from this failure and pushed back many of their upcoming releases which essentially changed their entire line-up. Many of their DC films actually ended up being severely pushed back as a result of this. The main reason for these massive delays is because they decided to push back their upcoming reboot of the movie ‘Dune’ by almost an entire year.
Now that Warner Bros. has confirmed the changed release dates of many of their upcoming titles, theaters have had a lot to think about. They have already been broaching the topic of possibly shutting down again because after the failed domestic ‘Tenet’ release, many studios started doing the same thing as Warner did. Now that there are essentially no movies coming out, Regal Cinemas has made the announcement that they will be shutting their doors again for the foreseeable future. There is no telling how long they will be shut down again, but we now know that this Thursday, October 8th, they will be shutting down all of their theaters. If this is any kind of indication of things to come, we should expect similar closings for other theaters soon.
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