Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

A Good Movie Is a Good Movie No Matter Where It's Seen

18/07/2024

A Good Movie Is a Good Movie No Matter Where It's Seen

Andy Marken July 18, 2024

0 Comments

The life we enjoy is very much worth the sacrifice. - Rudolf Hoss, Zone of Interest, A24, 2023

Shortly after the end of CinemaCon, we were chatting with a friend down in SoCal about the roll-out of A24's action film Civil War because the build-up hype made it a project we both were determined to see.

The big question was how, when do we see it?

At the time of our discussion, it was going to hit the theaters right after the NATO (National Association of Theater Owners) week-long movies for movie houses event, but the thought-piece project was also scheduled to be available later for people to buy for their permanent home library (PVOD). Then, Warner was going to encourage folks to sign up for their Max streaming service to build their subscription base.

Then, at some time in the distant future, it will probably be made available on Prime then Pluto and/or Tubi.

Yeah, we both decided we'd wait to see it on our own screens with our own home popcorn.

And that just about summed up the shape of the movie-going industry, despite the optimism that Michael O'Leary, the new head of NATO, the studio executives and theater owners are facing.

Even O'Leary had a tough time believing the industry was prepared for a revival when he said, I believe the future of the theatrical industry is limited, and then quickly corrected himself and said limitless.

Yes, it's been tough for the movie house industry in recent years.

First, we had the pandemic shutdown that put padlocks on theaters around the globe and then just as they were struggling to reopen and entice people to come back and put their seats in seats, the creation industry had the double six-month SAG-AFTRA/WGA strikes.

Studios had to make a hard call - shift the most expensive projects to 2025 or push out as many projects as possible and beef up the potential for their streaming services to gain subscription numbers/profits.

Since they are all hustling to improve their bottom line, they did both without a huge bright outlook for theater owners who need a steady flow of great video content and ticket buyers.

Don't get us wrong, the theater industry isn't going to head in the same direction Peak TV seems to be moving toward, but it is going to have to reassess and realign its future.

AMC's CEO Adam Aron sorta set the tone late last year when he tweeted that AMC didn't fall into bankruptcy, that the company is still here and, in his words, is blazing new trails. In addition to investing in a gold/silver mine, it's offering its AMC-branded popcorn in grocery stores, and even selling popcorn holder collectables.

Collectors' Item - AMC has tried almost everything to attract folks to put seats into seats, including collector popcorn specialties. The Dunes Part 2 limited edition package even attracted the Utah legislature that probably never saw the movie.

Of course, the Dunes Part 2 popcorn bucket may have gone a little too far because the Utah state legislature banned it because it might give young men impure thoughts.

Maybe; but you kinda wonder what they thought when they first saw it, but the added drama probably did help sell added tickets and expensive buckets of popcorn.

But more importantly and professionally, they also signed direct deals with Taylor Swift and Beyonce to show their concert films in their theaters.

Now that and other modest events AMC is probably also exploring shows how thinking outside the box can rejuvenate the industry and was well worth Aron's salary bump to $25M plus!

Depending, of course, on the ups/downs of Wall Street.

Changing Habits - It takes planning and money to go out to the movies but on a whim, you can sit at home and watch what you want, when you want it. Tough choice.

The theater industry has been rearranging the lifeboats since 2002 when it had its true peak ticket sales.

Since then, people have been steadily turning to their home/personal screens as the cost and hassle of going out for a special evening became special.

Ups, Downs - Theater ticket sales may be down but the box office for theater owners remains healthy. Volume will take time to return with more, easier film viewing options.

With fewer seats in seats, theater chains made up the difference by raising ticket prices which helped their grosses but didn't do much to entice more folks to visit their houses.

Big Budget - Going to the movies on an impulse is becoming more difficult with the costs continuing to rise especially since the cost of one ticket can give you a month's of streaming enjoyment.

Since that didn't help much, they figured the next best thing was to improve the cost of the concessions which enabled them to brag about steady box office increases rather than a growing number of folks in the seats.

That helped them but didn't do a thing for the studios that had to foot all the marketing costs of the films that were gracing the huge screens but still only gave them a share of the actual ticket sales.

When tech giants like Netflix and Prime showed folks they could enjoy good to great films/shows without leaving their living/family rooms and that they could pay for a whole month of home entertainment for about a quarter of their burdensome cable bill, they caught the attention of consumers.

Delicious, Filling - A big tub of fresh, greasy popcorn at home may cost a dollar so at the movie theater, you need to savor every expensive bite.

But then Wall Street jumped into the picture and said after showing their movies/shows in the theater and on their networks, renting content to the techie streamers rather than going direct to the consumer themselves would be a lot more profitable.

After all, studios were great at pr
LINK: https://creativecow.net/a-good-movie-is-a-good-movie-no-matter-where-i...
See more stories from creativecow

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

09/10/2026

Dolby Expands Dolby OptiView Platform with New Capabilities at IBC 2026

September 10 2026, 06:00 (PDT) Dolby Expands Dolby OptiView Platform with New Capabilities at IBC 2026 New Sports Intelligence helps providers better unders...

07/10/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Media Operations from Ingest to Distribution

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...

22/09/2026

New TVU Pocket Offers Broadcast Features In Phone-Sized Unit

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

22/09/2026

Operative Launches Unified Platform for Advertising and Broadcast Management

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

22/09/2026

Element Launches New TiVo-Powered Smart TVs in the U.S.

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

22/09/2026

NOAA Taps Tomorrow.io for Improved U.S. Weather Forecasts

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

22/09/2026

Gray Media Promotes Tim Maloney to GM and Director of Sales at WBKO

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

22/09/2026

Reports: Paramount Reaches Settlement with State AGs in Antitrust Suit

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

22/09/2026

New Research Lays Out Streaming Services Best Defense Against Churn

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

22/09/2026

Sinclair Expands The National News Desk

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

22/09/2026

Paramount Settles Antitrust Lawsuit over WBD Merger

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

22/09/2026

U.S. Broadband Industry Investment Hits $92.6 Billion

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/09/2026

Manifold Taps Ryhaan Williams for North America COO Post

Manifold Technologies, developer of software-defined, FPGA-accelerated infrastructure for live production, has named Ryhaan Williams as Chief Commercial Officer...

21/09/2026

SNS Wins IAMT Best Journal Article Award

Studio Network Solutions (SNS) has won Best Journal Article at the 2026 IAMT Impact Awards for What Video Editors Need When Everything Is Changing Around Them,...

21/09/2026

MLW Announces Streaming Deal with Tubi for Weekly FUSION Series

Major League Wrestling (MLW) has announced a streaming distribution agreement with Tubi for its weekly series MLW FUSION. Beginning September 17, new episodes w...

21/09/2026

Adam Smith Named Chairman of Direct-to-Consumer at Disney Entertainment

Disney Entertainment has announced that Adam Smith has been named Chairman, Direct-to-Consumer, with responsibility for Disney and Hulu including product, engi...

21/09/2026

United Airlines and DISH to Offer Live Football on Starlink-Enabled Seatback Screens

United Airlines and DISH have announced an agreement to bring live professional ...

21/09/2026

SES to Provide Satellite Distribution for JioStar Channels Across India

SES and JioStar have announced a multi-year agreement under which SES will provide satellite distribution services for JioStar's television channel portfoli...

21/09/2026

Detroit Red Wings Announce Detroit SportsNet Broadcast Details for 2026-27 Season

The Detroit Red Wings have announced details for their inaugural season on Detro...

21/09/2026

Manifold Technologies Appoints Ryhaan Williams as CCO for North America

Manifold Technologies has appointed Ryhaan Williams as Chief Commercial Officer for North America, effective October 1, 2026. Based in Jacksonville, Florida, Wi...

21/09/2026

DAZN Pick Up L.A. Kings DTC Streaming Rights; ABTV Will Continue as Local TV Home

Angels Broadcast Television (ABTV), the local television home of the Los Angeles...

21/09/2026

Inside ESPNs US Open Effort: Embracing the Cloud and a New 20,000 Sq. Ft. Broadcast Center

The 2026 US Open Tennis Championships marked a year of change with respect to TV...

21/09/2026

Behind The Mic: Andrs Cantor Joins Netflixs FIFA Womens World Cup Commentary Team; Doc Rivers Joins NBC Sports NBA Coverage

Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...

21/09/2026

iDrumTune from RT60

Drum-tuning app now available on Android RT60 describe their iDrumTune app as the world's most advanced, accurate and intelligent system for assisting ...

21/09/2026

SoundGhost release Orbit

Innovative multiband auto-panner introduced SoundGhost's latest plug-in takes an innovative approach to auto-panning, and divides incoming signals into ...

21/09/2026

Apple Mac Studio With M5 Max: First Impressions

We check out the M5 Max-equipped model The same, but different. The new Mac Studio models feature M5 Max and M5 Ultra silicon, dramatically improving the perf...

21/09/2026

From Graphic Novel to 30-Minute Animated Film: What I Learned Building an AI-Assisted Production Pipeline

From Graphic Novel to 30-Minute Animated Film: What I Learned Building an AI-Ass...

21/09/2026

Liam Hopkins Builds Recording Studio with Blackmagic Design

Liam Hopkins Builds Recording Studio with Blackmagic Design Brie Clayton September 20, 2026 0 Comments Video complements audio production with music v...

21/09/2026

Indigenous screen organisations from Canada, Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia launch new international co-production initiative

Indigenous screen organisations from Canada, Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia ...

21/09/2026

Why Deploying Physical AI at Scale Demands Safety at Every Layer

Physical AI is moving rapidly from research to large-scale deployment. By 2035, ABI Research projects an installed base of 49 million level 3-5 autonomous vehic...

21/09/2026

From Enablement to Execution, Egypt's AI Ecosystem Reaches Production Scale

Today, Egypt's AI builders gathered in the Grand Egyptian Museum for a reception that highlighted the nation's rapidly growing AI ecosystem - spanning A...

21/09/2026

NVIDIA Launches DSX Ready to Qualify Power and Cooling Products for AI Factories

Every AI factory needs power and cooling that fit its computing architecture. As AI infrastructure expands, power, cooling, water, site and grid constraints are...

21/09/2026

RT celebrates Irish Sign Language Awareness Week 2026

RT celebrates Irish Sign Language Awareness Week 2026 Special programmes across RT television, radio and online, plus special initiatives #ISL #IDSL #IWDP26...

21/09/2026

AI Security Is an Engineering Problem - How to Solve It at Every Layer of the Agent Stack

AI security is an engineering problem. That means defined security requirements,...

21/09/2026

5 Companies Using NVIDIA AI for Clean Energy

Clean energy isn't hard to come by, but the pace of large-scale adoption has historically been slow due to bottlenecks - including out-of-date infrastructur...

20/09/2026

Casio Sessions returns for 2026

Piano-playing singer-songwriter competition returns for fourth year Casio have officially revealed the list of 16 finalists who have earned their place in t...

20/09/2026

COW Jobs: Video Editor, Motion Designer - Remote, PT, 6 Months

COW Jobs: Video Editor, Motion Designer - Remote, PT, 6 Months Brie Clayton September 20, 2026 0 Comments Video Editor + Motion Designer (Remote | PT ...

19/09/2026

ART Pro Audio reveal the RPC Series

Three new rackmount power conditioners introduced Yorkville Sound have announce the upcoming launch of three new RPC rackmount power conditioners from ART P...

19/09/2026

Colorfront Elevates Workflow Versatility at IBC 2026

September 15, 2026 AMSTERDAM, SEPTEMBER 2026 - Colorfront (colorfront.com), the Academy and Emmy Award-winning developer of high-performance cinema mastering, ...

19/09/2026

Two High Profile Professional Sports Franchises Renew cre...

Two High-Profile Professional Sports Franchises Renew creative.space Contracts with DigitalGlue NFL team and Major League Soccer Club cite ease of use, secure ...

19/09/2026

Limited Edition Audio releases VoxSplit Pro for overlapping dialogue separation and cleanup on macOS

Limited Edition Audio releases VoxSplit Pro for overlapping dialogue separation ...

18/09/2026

IBC 2026 Tech Moves Beyond the Gloss and Into the Rack

IBC 2026 Tech Moves Beyond the Gloss and Into the Rack If you spent any time in the halls of the RAI this year, you noticed a clear shift in conversation. The c...

18/09/2026

SVG GameDay, Ep. 31: Seattle Mariners Tim Walsh - Creative Content in the Emerald City

In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...

18/09/2026

Qvest Appoints Jens Miedek as SVP Sales, Media and Entertainment

Qvest has appointed Jens Miedek as Senior Vice President Sales, Media and Entertainment. Before joining Qvest, Miedek spent 16 years at Riedel Communications an...

18/09/2026

Fonn Group Acquires everviz, Relaunches as Teikna Graphics Platform

Fonn Group has acquired full ownership of everviz, a cloud-native platform for interactive charts, maps, and data-driven graphics, and will rebrand it as Teikna...

18/09/2026

OWC Acquires OpenDrives to Expand Enterprise Storage Portfolio

Other World Computing (OWC) has announced the acquisition of OpenDrives, a provider of software-defined video and rich media storage management solutions. The a...

18/09/2026

Kaltura and Verimatrix Partner on Content Security for OTT and Cloud TV

Kaltura and Verimatrix have announced a partnership integrating Verimatrix's Digital Rights Management and security capabilities into Kaltura's Cloud TV...

18/09/2026

Movicom's Robycam Aerial Cable System Deployed at World Nomad Games

The sixth edition of the World Nomad Games combined traditional sports, large-scale cultural performances, and some decidedly modern broadcast technology. Held ...

18/09/2026

DAZN and Super League Basketball Extend Partnership for 2026-27 Season

DAZN and Super League Basketball (SLB) have extended their partnership for the 2026-27 season. Every Championship, Cup, and Play-Off fixture will be available l...