By George Robbins
The movie industry is having the fun that never ends right now of not knowing how they are going to handle future releases. At the very least, they have no idea how they are going to handle releases in the near future as it is a lot to think about. For instance, although theaters have started reopening to the public, they have plenty of restrictions in place which limit the amount of people they can have in their venues simultaneously. This makes it just a bit more difficult for theaters and by extension, studios, to make money. Therefore, studios are now trying to make the best decisions they can to make sure that they end up making money on their movie releases.
Studios have been trying to release their films the best way that they can over the past few months by either releasing their films straight to digital or waiting out the pandemic. The latter option is one that is probably safer, but will result in them waiting a very long time if they want to make the amount of money that they were hoping for. They have been releasing movies to VOD in an effort to make money now while waiting on bigger releases to determine if it would be worth a theatrical release. The most recent releases we have seen have gone to both mediums and have been about as equally successful in the short run thus far. Disney in particular has been going more for the VOD release method as of late.
Disney was originally opposed to having their films release straight to digital, but in a sense they have come to accept it recently. This is mainly due to the fact that they really don’t want to have to keep waiting for a proper timeframe for release. They recently put ‘Mulan‘ up on Disney+ for a $30 premium for subscribers to own the movie and it resulted in a spike of downloads for the service as a whole. Seeing this as a prime example that this could help them out with other movies as well, it seems they will also be releasing Pixar’s newest movie ‘Soul’ on Disney+ as well. While this may not be guaranteed at the moment, it is most certainly a strong possibility moving forward.
By George Robbins
The Academy Awards, or the Oscars, are an awards ceremony where people who are a part of the eponymous Academy award films for their cinematography. This applies to more than just how a film is shot as it covers topics ranging from best actor or best actress in a set of films to best make-up or even music. In other words, they go through various parts of films and award those aspects for being so well done. They also take into account just how much effort has been put into each of these aspects across all movies which have been released over the previous year. With this in mind, a lot of thought actually goes into what films or people involved with them end up getting awards.
The Oscars are in the unique position of being a set of awards that are tuned into yearly by people from all over. They take a look at films that have been nominated and then seriously give consideration to which films should have the best chance at winning. One of the biggest issues with this is that people in general have no say as to what will actually win and it is all just subjective. This essentially means that anyone not involved with the academy has no say in what actually gets to win or even what gets nominated for an award to begin with. Within the past few months, this has even been brought to a head due to the BLM protests, as well as various protests in the past about the lack of diversity in the awards.
The overall lack of diversity in films has been noted and made aware of by many different people over the past few years. The academy have tried to somewhat make up for this fact, but they are still not doing a great job at at all. In order to try and rectify this, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has introduced new rules, to be enforced from the 2024 ceremony, to ensure more diversity in their Best Picture nominees. The four categories are: Standard A: On-screen representation, themes and narratives, Standard B: Creative leadership and project team, Standard C: Industry Access and Opportunities and Standard D: Audience Development. All of these categories have to do with overall diversity in the development of the films and in order to be put forward as a nominee, movies must meet at least two of the four criteria.
By George Robbins
Star Wars is a franchise the likes of which many different franchises try to become due to just how large and in charge the franchise has become over the years. It spans countless parts of the the media industry with shows, movies, books, and video games which further enhance the hold that the franchise has on society. This is yet again something that is not so easily achieved as nowadays it is kind of difficult for a franchise to take hold. Considering the fact that it is difficult for companies to come up with something which is pretty much wholly original, it is no surprise that it would be difficult for them to come up with something new. Something that would attract the attention of many different people would be difficult in and of itself, let alone something that is good.
While there are many polarizing aspects of the Star Wars franchise as a whole, much off the franchise is loved by fans. It is not very often that a franchise is capable of making fans want to become a part of it in some way shape or form. This is how we ended up with so much fan content over the years, and while much of it remained non-canon, some of it actually made its way into the universe. If it was not for the popularity that the franchise had, a lot of different content over the years would not have been inspired. For instance, many futuristic, science-fiction, and/or fantasy media over the years have been influenced by the Star Wars franchise and we would not have them without it. There is no doubt in anybodies’ minds that the Star Wars franchise played a significant role in the forming of much of today’s pop culture.
Although the franchise is responsible for how pop culture has turned out today it is still, as previously stated, a highly controversial franchise. This controversy stems from the fact that Star Wars itself has managed to build up a fan base in all different kinds of social groups from the lowest to highest points of society. This means that various people with countless points of view see the franchise differently which causes a lot of arguments to break out. It doesn’t help that the series spans a number of generations at this point and due to this, certain generations hold a dim view of other generations. This is why many of the older Star Wars fans don’t see the newer Star Wars movies with a great pair of eyes.
The newest movies in the franchise are seen as being not as good as the previous two trilogies by the older fans of the franchise, but this has been the case with every single aspect of Star Wars as a whole. This will never change as time goes on because people just want to be right that their version they grew up with was the best version. In truth, no one version is better than the others as they all have their own issues. What can instead be taken away from the franchise as a whole is the fact that people can make whatever they want from the franchise. It is a universe that inspires many different people to create new content or become something inspired by the series. No one would have ended up being involved in the creation of the newer films if it wasn’t for this fact.
Lately, the newer Star Wars films to release have been ones that have received countless criticisms, but they are still a part of an incredible universe. Everyone who was involved with the creation of the Sequel Trilogy was excited to see how the films would turn out. Even though many people involved with the project are now saying that it wasn’t what they originally expected it to be, it became something that will define a generation. The actors may not be all that excited to be tied to the films anymore but when things first started up for the sequels they were nothing but excited about being involved in some way. Not only the actors, but fans put their all into being involved in the movies in some way shape or form.
Countless theories ended up coming out in regards to the films and the direction that the films were going in with many people trying to figure out what would happen next. This wouldn’t just be a game for fans to play though, as the actors were also trying to figure out what was going to happen. When Emperor Palpatine appeared in voice-only during the ‘Rise of Skywalker‘ trailer, theories started flooding in with people trying to figure out how and why he was in the film. One thing that was revealed in the film that many people expected but didn’t see coming was that the main character Rey was actually his granddaughter. This fact was one that shocked and confused many a fan and resulted in many people facepalming in some way.
After the end of ‘The Last Jedi,’ everyone just assumed Rey was just a random force-user in the franchise, but ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ turned this on its head. That reveal in the new film made it seem to some that it was something thrown in at the last minute and an interview given by actress Daisy Ridley, who played Rey, made this seem even more plausible. The actress revealed that the decision didn’t come until late in the process and, in fact, it wasn’t even confirmed when they were already in production. Ridley also revealed that during the early process of crafting her arc, she was supposed to be a Kenobi which was an idea that was very popular around the release of ‘The Force Awakens.’ Needless to say this didn’t happen and another route was found, but only much later on.
By George Robbins
There are a few different films that have become societal staples over the years due to just he sheer audacity that it seen throughout them. Many of these films are often made as a parody of some aspect of the society in which we find ourselves living in. Others are parodies of society itself and this is the type of film which is often viewed with many favorable eyes as they are movies that make fun of everything we see on a daily basis. When it comes to these satirical movies, they are often times raunchy looks at parts of society that can be seen as just straight up ridiculous from an outside perspective. No one has really done better at showing off this type of film in recent years as Sacha Baron Cohen.
Cohen is responsible for a number of films over the years that look at various forms of comedy, but they usually center around cringe comedy, black comedy, and the aforementioned satirical comedy. He has been a huge part of the comedy scene for a good portion of his life and he is known throughout the world for the roles he plays in his films. He is single-handedly responsible for the creation of some of the craziest films some people may ever see. He has also received countless commendations for his role in the movie industry as a whole for everything he has ever worked on. The one project that most people will end up knowing him for, however, is one by the title of ‘Borat.’
The movie was made as a comedy where he would play the titular character playing a fictional journalist who would ask questions of American citizens about what life was like in America. The movie covered countless aspects of American life and it was a comedy that no one would ever be able to forget due to his portrayal of a character who was actually interacting with people in real life. It was something not really seen by the public before and it drew in a ton of attention. Cohen had said years ago that the character was going to be retired because it became too popular, but not too long ago it was reported that people saw him in-character driving around. It turns out that he has apparently already finished shooting the movie and it has been screened to a few select people in the industry. So we may just end up seeing the movie in the not too distant future.
By George Robbins
Disney is a company unlike most others in the world due to the fact that they are a media company which controls countless forms of media. Essentially, Disney is just inching closer and closer to becoming a full-fledged monopoly and controlling most franchises available on the open-market. They still have a long way to go before they legitimately control anywhere close to everything in the media medium but they have control over some of the biggest franchises in existence. This most certainly helps their case and makes them a force to contend with. However, they did not start out as being this massively powerful company and, in fact, they originally only really started off with a couple of cartoons, movies, and a small amusement park.
While I make this out to not sound all that impressive, it actually is because not many companies can do the same thing. In fact, they have become famous for those things over the years and this is extremely difficult for any kind of company to pull off these days. Their movies, animated or otherwise, are what they are mostly known for in the worldwide market, but they are not the only thing that make them famous. A huge part of their fame stems from the fact that they have amusement parks which are world famous that show off the countless franchises and films that they have produced over the years. Most of these parks have actually managed to reopen at this point in time as well.
Many people were not happy to here that the amusement parks would be reopening in the midst of the pandemic and it has been a pressing issue ever since. They have limitations in place, but many feel that it is nowhere near safe enough for them to actually be open to the public again. Now, there is even more information which has been coming out that is showing us that these fears may just be justified. According to Disney employees, the company is still having people work even if they have tested positive for the virus. This has given people a lot of pause and a lot to think about moving forward because it just makes people think that they don’t care about what is going on.
By George Robbins
Disney+, the Disney Company’s premiere streaming service, is a service that has managed to cement its place as a solid online service. When the service was first announced last year, it immediately gained the favor of almost every single Disney fan out there. This is due to the fact that the service boasted the fact that pretty much every single movie and show in the Disney library would be available to everyone who subscribed to their new service. This gave plenty of incentive for fans to almost immediately sign up for the new service and very quickly, Disney exceeded their own expectations. Disney+ became even more popular than they ever really expected it to be and it has gone strong ever since.
Disney has always had a strong presence all over the world and that has only become more and more apparent over the years as they continue expanding into as many media markets as possible. Essentially, they have the world itself in their pockets and it only continues to show more as time goes on. For instance, they continue to release new content and people all over the world will jump at that content in no time at all. Thus, it is actually more surprising when Disney says that something they are doing has exceeded their own expectations. Disney+ is the prime example of this in recent history and on Disney+, ‘Mulan‘ has demonstrated this fact best.
‘Mulan’ is the recent live-action iteration of the classic animated film which was released by Disney over 20 years ago. The film itself has become a classic film to everyone in the western world and, as such, it was a prime candidate to be remade in a live-action format. Disney has been making it a trend in recent years to go back to their most popular animated films and make some kind of live-action versions of those films. While the live-action versions do well on their own, they don’t do as well as the original animated films had done. This doesn’t really matter though as, like already stated, they are overall successful. Disney wanted to take advantage of this with ‘Mulan’ but due to the pandemic, they had to change up their release method.
Originally, ‘Mulan’ was meant to have a theatrical release, but due to the pandemic, they instead decided to release the film straight to Disney+ with a premium. This means that subscribers would have the chance to own the film on Disney+ if they paid a $30 premium on top of their subscription. Meanwhile in China, where Disney+ is not available, the movie would still have a theatrical release in order to cash-in on the theatrical market. This past weekend was the release weekend for the film on Disney+ and it saw Disney+ downloads spike by 68% just for this movie’s release. There is really no way of telling at the moment what kind of trend this will cause, but it is definitely an increase that people were not expecting.
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