But Is It on Netflix? - Streaming Video Service Thread: Hulu, Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, Disney+, Peacock, YouTube TV, AT+T Watch, Philo, Playstation Vue, HBO Max, HBO Now, Facebook Live and many more

I put theaters in the company of restaurants, tbh. I'm really not sure what they can do or are supposed to do as long as there's a pandemic.

I don't think this is because of the pandemic, the pandemic is the excuse to escalate what they wanted to do anyway.

restaurants arguably have more options - every place that's survived has gone delivery/pick-up only at a minimum

but yeah, the answer would've been bail them out like the airline industry. or you know... pay everyone to stay home like many other civilized nations :(

xp jon true - and I thought the Universal deal was weird/bad enough, Warner's move here is even more markedly aggressive

restaurants arguably have more options - every place that's survived has gone delivery/pick-up only at a minimum

I'm seeing more and more restaurants going dormant, a la movie theaters, even places that had been making a go at it doing delivery/pick-up/pared down menus.

Anyway, I don't really know the economics of it, but if (some) movies can make billions in theaters, I assume they will continue to make some large portion of that in theaters again after theaters reopen. Unless, yeah, studios don't *want* that to happen, but again, I don't really know the economics of this. Disney+ made something like a billion its first quarter and $4 billion its second, but if one movie can make that much alone it probably makes sense for them to keep supporting the theater model. Right?

I don't think whatever theaters survive COVID are going to disappear right away, but the streaming services have clearly wanted to make theater going irrelevant for a long time and this is a huge escalation in that war.

Restaurants have delivery and takeout, but they're paying rent and utilities on spaces that are dedicated 70% to seating people.

Movie theaters deserve to go out of business. Super high ticket prices on top of an increase in commercials before the film starts, and the insanity of the concessions prices. If you are going to sell ads that ticket buyers are forced to sit through, your ticket prices need to be much cheaper. Going to the movie theater is a total waste of money to me. For $30 I could own the movie, buy a record and lunch or many other things besides sit through commercials and waste 2hrs of my life stuck inside a building.

If you get nothing out of the cinema experience, sure. People seem to dig 110db surround sound for superhero movies, though, and even my 55" screen isn't comparable to getting to see Blade Runner or Breathless in a theater (once upon a time when I had an art house theater close enough that did rep screenings).

Eh, it can be expensive, but I still enjoy the ritual of the theater and I don't think I can ever agree that they "deserve" to go out of business.

My guess is if this streaming same day really takes off, they'll become niche things for art flicks, cult classics and retro "theme" pairings.

But seriously, this fucking Roku deal needs to get taken care of, it's insane that this still hasn't happened.

20-seat five row "stadium theaters" you rent out with friends to see your favorite movie on a 15-foot projection screen streamed in 4K from a central server.

Sure, I have heard of people who actually like going to the movies. I’d rather spend my money on a record I can own forever but people are different.

HBO presumably thinks they can big dick Roku by having Roku users riot when they can't watch Wonder Woman 84 on Christmas. Doubtful IMO. The lesson of streaming seems to be that people will find whatever to watch even if it's not what they wanted.

If they don't riot over WW84, they're not going to raise much of a stink over anything in that 2021 lineup.

Seriously, tbh. If Ryan Gosling couldn't get people to Blade Runner 2049, Timothee Chalamet ain't getting people to Dune.

brotherlovesdub, you do know that there are theatres where tickets don't cost a fortune and don't play an hour's worth of commercials beforehand, right? and that you don't have to buy concessions (I personally rarely, if ever, buy concessions but also I don't care for popcorn I know I know)

anyway this news bums me out immensely as someone who deeply enjoys going to the movies and went at least once or twice a month for the past few years

But seriously, this fucking Roku deal needs to get taken care of, it's insane that this still hasn't happened.

This, several times over. Christ, even that Peacock thing got worked out after a couple of months.

warner's big neverending list of comic movies and sequels and reboots is going directly to streaming. the last part of that sentence is the part that's supposed to be bad news for cinema

— Patrick Cosmos (@veryimportant) December 3, 2020

I don't get that take. Of course I wish there was more original ideas getting made and distributed through the big chain theaters, without a doubt. But it feels so dumb and disingenuous to pretend that the MCU and endless reboots are killing movie theaters and not pretty much 90% of their business for the past five years.

Again, not to dismiss the real, very unfortunate side effect of said MCU films squeezing out everything else, but that's not what is killing theaters.

That’s why he uses the singular cinema instead of cinemas, probably?

Oh haha, I guess I misread that. Ah, never mind me then.

I guess art house theaters only superhero movies now?

I assume this is going to have a trickle-down effect to arthouses, which is why I'm sad - I couldn't care less about WW84

what's killing theatres is wages remaining stagnant for forty years while ticket prices rose from $3 to $18. this is the result of actions by major movie studios, commercial rentors, and inflation, not the fault of independent operators running arthouse and repertory cinemas.

This has the potential to be a very good thing. HBO's marketing is pretty highly tuned and often excellent, so if they decide to push non-superhero/non-tentpole movies to members who have previously shown an interest in that type of material, it'll likely have the effect of increasing the audience for that type of stuff and thereby causing more of that type of stuff to be made.

(N.B. I hate going to movie theaters.)

So prime video had channels on sale during black Friday. I decided to get MGM thinking I'd put on some musicals that I could half-watch while playing with my phone.

The MGM channel doesn't have any musicals.

― wasdnuos (abanana), Wednesday, December 2, 2020 12:36 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Pretty much all of the classic MGM musicals are, like most of the pre-80s MGM studio catalogue*, is now owned by Warner Bros.

*As in films made by the MGM as a studio, which were sold off to Ted Turner. MGM's currently touted vintage catalogue are all films they acquired through buyouts of United Artists, Orion etc.

I did a quick glance, and I've been wrong before (or, alternatively, am usually wrong!) but a huge number of musicals, from Top Hat to Oklahoma!, aren't included in any of the streaming services right now.

as i understand it rights tend to be more difficult with musicals because of the number of different people's permission you have to secure (and rights to buy) - there's the script, the music, the performance, etc

X PBoth of those were RKO productions, which are al so controlled by Turner/Warner's in the states.

Oklahoma can be rented from Microsoft, Redbox, Apple, Amazon, Google Play, Youtube, Vudu, and DirectTV. Top Hat can be rented from Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Google Play, Youtube, Fandango, Vudu and DirectTV. That means they're both extremely available compared to any previous time in the last 85 years tbf.

You can always pay, buy, etc. I mean included on subscription streaming services.

josh needs to watch top hat many, many times though

I know it's clearly just me, but it bugs me when I have pay subscriptions to (at least?) five major streaming services, have a few other free with ads ones, have a couple links to stuff like Kanopy and Hoopla, and *still* have to pay extra if I wanted to watch something like Top Hat or Oklahoma, even though both are owned by *one of the subscription services I pay for.*

Disappointment scales with number of services paid for. I get Netflix/HBO/Disney/CBS free via cell phone provider, family and password trades, Peacock/Tubi are free across the board, so all I pay for is Criterion and PBS - finding good stuff on the other ones always feels like a win.

brotherlovesdub, you do know that there are theatres where tickets don't cost a fortune and don't play an hour's worth of commercials beforehand, right?

This very much depends on which country you're in, for a start.

Once again I obnoxiously stumble into the thread to say: I can watch all kinds of musicals any time I want because hand-picked physical media is the ultimate streaming service.

This very much depends on which country you're in, for a start.

v true but this is also a function of consolidation of studios, not of the actual concept of going to a cinema

(Sydney's last indie/rep theatre lasted an extra six months after a giant mall/shopping centre, with a Hoyts inside, opened half an hour's walk away, because they got exclusive rights on a first-run surf doco. But that was 20 years ago.)

(ie brotherlovesdub and unperson dislike seeing movies projected on film on a giant screen, feeling the thrill of sensorally overwhelming art or entertainment as part of an audience of 10-1000 people, and therefore are arguing that nobody else should ever be able to enjoy that experience. the counterargument is that this experience could still exist, but they would not be forced to participate.)

Here's a non-netflix original suggestion: my wife and kid devoured all four seasons of Life in Pieces over the course of about 2 weeks. I saw probably half of it and it was excellent, what a good sitcom. Was surprised to find that it had been on CBS for four seasons (because I rarely watch anything on network tv now and almost always equate that to being awful) and also disappointed to learn it was cancelled unceremoniously with a series cliffhanger. Anyway, recommended if you like...I dunno. early seasons of modern family, but it's much funnier?

some good business observations here:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/filmmaker-steven-soderbergh-on-hbo-max-the-death-of-cinema-and-vibing-with-meryl-streep?ref=scroll

paywalled

incognito window

did not work on ios

Weird. I opened it up via Twitter and just copied the link, so don't know why it didn't work. My computer is currently inoperable, so I'm not sure how else to do it. I do know I didn't have to pay for it.

Soderbergh on the future of movies: "The theatrical biz is not going away. There are too many companies that have invested too much $$$ in the prospect of putting out a movie that blows up in theaters—there’s nothing like it. It’s all going to come back." https://t.co/Plq5OKrAPA

— Marlow Stern (@MarlowNYC) December 5, 2020

thanks Josh. just tried going via the tweet on desktop and on my phone, in incognito windows and didn't work unfortunately :( maybe it's a uk thing

put the most relevant stuff over here: the Disney-Fox merger and film/TV production/exhibition hegemony in general

I agree with him, it's kind of inconceivable to me that theaters would collapse entirely and I still don't see how studios can recoup their costs by taking things to subscription services. maybe home on demand rentals. But there will always be a theater-going audience if theaters exist, I think, for big films.

I forgot that Hulu did a 11/22/63 series. Worth watching? Thought the book was solid for latter day King.