What kind of idiot doesn’t understand that when you change your entire delivery model that your entire delivery model will change?

“When we dammed the river, we weren’t expecting this lake to form!”

Nah, it’s plenty good for a 2 or 3 season show. I can’t see how you can pare it down to a 2 hour movie and still have the ending hit nearly the same.

There’s a generational component to the advertising part - YouTube has a LOT of ads, including movie trailers, but people over ~20 don’t consider watching YouTube a viable form of entertainment, and younger people don’t necessarily see a trailer and plan to go to a movie theater.

“but the general result was a drastic cut to the expected window between a film’s theatrical and VOD/streaming release.”

I would add that CEOs are all about maximizing short term profit (I may not be here in 5 years!) and if that means killing the goose that lays the golden eggs for goose meat now, they’ll do it.

Notes on this (significantly compiled from things others have already said):

Amen on the marketing. Without broadcast TV ads or newspaper listings, there’s virtually no way to find out about a movie by accident. We only learn about the stuff that’s already targeted to us based on our previous clicks. I found it particularly aggravating last year that, even after the Academy Awards, my fellow…

At some point they’re going to have to raise the price of streaming subscriptions to show a profit. So the result will be paying $30-40 each for multiple services, and it’ll basically be a wash compared to visiting the theaters a few times per month.

Come to L.A. You’ll be spoiled for choice.

“Saturday morning cartoons ... for adults.”

Thank you for this. You have crystalized a complex feeling of displeasure I’ve been experiencing into a succinct phrase I will be using in all of my future convos on the topic. For real though, I do feel like the modern streaming offerings are an insult to my intelligence.

i mean anything is possible, but i was just trying to relate with you and tell you something positive i’ve noticed about the point you were initially making.

To a certain extent Netflix, with their shift to original programming, did spark the massive escalation that’s now a problem- it’s not just that everyone put out their own streaming service (itself not a great idea) but they all felt compelled to spend absurd amounts of money on original content exclusively for those…

...what? yeah i’m saying i’m seeing it as a trend amongst young people at rep screenings. i was trying to agree with you, and saying there is a market for rep screenings of classic movies, which was your point.

I’m sure you had good intentions with this take, but it’s a fucking shit take. In the UK assigned seating has been the norm for years and it hasn’t affected a god damn thing. Currently I work in a one-screen cinema and people who show up right before the movie starts have no issue with getting a less good seat. Seems…

I would also add that tvs got better.  For example, I got a discounted last year OLED screen a few years ago rationalizing the purchase that my theatrical usage would drop, funding the premium I paid for a better, albeit smaller, screen.  So far, I have went to the theatres twice.  Once for endgame where I was…

...what? my point was that young people are energized and excited about rep screenings and old movies, are actively seeking them out and learning.

they aired ‘the curse’ weekly in theatres here and i saw the finale in a packed house with a group all seeing it for the first time. it was a really, really fun way to end a series.

As a theater and streaming patron: Both services suck.

I like going to the movies, so, selfishly, I hope theaters survive. But I think audiences have made pretty clear that there are really only a handful of movies per year that they’re willing to pay for a full theatrical experience to see. And I don’t think that makes them assholes or philistines.

It’s called “market cannibalization”. It’s a very basic concept of product development. I imagine they had very smart analysts who warned them about it, but management loves to ignore research they pay for. I have a theory that becoming a C-level executive is harmful to your cognitive abilities.