MBAR said:

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TCTTS said:

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This is starting to feel less like an attempt to save theaters, and more like a hostage situation. By the time Tenet hits NY and LA in-full - which is likely still weeks away - it won't be making a dime anywhere else in the country. I just don't see how this is an even remotely tenable situation. Theaters have to be losing massive amounts of money right now. At what point do they just throw their arms up, tell WB "enough," and have to close?

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Nothing about Tenet ever said save theaters to me but rather was 100% about Nolan's ego. I say that as a fan of Nolan's work.

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Eh, the more I've read, the more it really did feel like a genuine effort on the part of WB/Nolan. Theaters were literally banking on Tenet, and I think he and WB did everything they could to oblige. It was simply a combination of being the "wrong" movie and audiences not being anywhere near as ready as many of us thought.

Rick Dalton said:

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Nolan's ego may be part of it, but all of the theaters wanted to reopen too and he was the only one willing and able to put his film out there first to make it happen. Nobody knew how it was going to play out until they opened and I'm sure they all wish it was going better. Nolan's doing his part though, he's been spotted several times at this theater in Irvine:

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Hmmm. Just looked it up, and that theater *is* only 51 minutes away...

That said, two hours before showtime, the afternoon IMAX showing is nearly sold out. Even with social distancing gaps in place, roughly 75 tickets have already been sold, which is obviously great for business. But while I'd feel comfortable seeing it with maybe 20 other people in theater, 75 likely mostly mask-less people chomping on popcorn in an enclosed area is still a bridge too far for me. Especially when they aren't skipping every other row. Seats are being sold directly in front of/behind others, and I that's a no-go for me. Might check again in another week so.

Ha, as much as I hate to admit it, when I saw that that theater was "Nolan approved", via your pic, I thought "If it's good enough for him, it's probably good enough for me," and was enticed. And yeah, maybe a weekday at some point over the next couple of weeks...

So... there's a Cinemark in Orange, CA, 40 minutes away from me, that's doing the reserve-theater thing. Times are sold out today, but available basically every hour all this week. You pick your time and then pick your movie and they just play that movie in your theater. Tenet is $149. Hmmm...

How does that work? You rent the theater and can invite as many people as you want? But it is only limited to your people?

Basically a $150 PPV?

Basically, yeah. It's pretty cool...



Pick your day/time...



... and then pick your movie...

Recruited one friend so far for next weekend. But another friend and his wife are so paranoid, they won't even sit in an empty theater with just the two of us, even though we each live alone, work from home, and hardly come into extended contact with anyone else. They're talking about going to a drive in instead. SMH.

TCTTS said:

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MBAR said:

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TCTTS said:

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This is starting to feel less like an attempt to save theaters, and more like a hostage situation. By the time Tenet hits NY and LA in-full - which is likely still weeks away - it won't be making a dime anywhere else in the country. I just don't see how this is an even remotely tenable situation. Theaters have to be losing massive amounts of money right now. At what point do they just throw their arms up, tell WB "enough," and have to close?

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Nothing about Tenet ever said save theaters to me but rather was 100% about Nolan's ego. I say that as a fan of Nolan's work.

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Eh, the more I've read, the more it really did feel like a genuine effort on the part of WB/Nolan. Theaters were literally banking on Tenet, and I think he and WB did everything they could to oblige. It was simply a combination of being the "wrong" movie and audiences not being anywhere near as ready as many of us thought.

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Fair enough

Will there be theaters left by the time Hollywood feels it's OK for people to watch their movies in such locations?

Sine poena nulla lex.

I'm afraid you're likely right on all accounts.

Sine poena nulla lex.

C@LAg said:

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the other side of this, Hollywood is likely to have such a HUGE backlog/glut of projects and potential projects I fear there will be a second crisis for them in about 2 years as the production houses try to work through their backlogs. Yes, exceptional new projects might be considered, but I have a feeling there will be lean times for lots of wannabees.

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Before streaming, maybe. But streaming is now responsible for such an insane amount of content that I don't think anyone will be looking for work, or that jobs will ever be scarce. Also, you have to factor in that filming completely ceased for six months across the board as well. It's not like Hollywood kept producing content while theaters were closed. And now, maybe only a quarter of the production workforce is back to work. For all intents and purposes, 2020 has basically shifted 2021, 2021 to 2022, etc, with some overlap, of course, but a backlog is the last thing I'd worry about overall.

Sine poena nulla lex.

Sine poena nulla lex.

Development hasn't shut down. In fact, more is currently being developed than every before. And that's what most of those deals are - development deals. The studios are getting their money's worth for sure. The amount of actual production missed from greenlit projects that spring from those deals is negligible.

And now I suddenly want to listen to "Everybody Wants to Rule the World."

TCTTS said:

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J. Walter Weatherman said:

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I think my biggest fear is this becoming a chicken/egg situation between no one going to theaters because there aren't any good movies and no new movies releasing in theaters because no one is going to the movies. It seems like most of the country outside of the west coast and NE is basically back to normal outside of wearing masks, so at some point the production companies will be the ones responsible if the theaters go under right?

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I'm not so sure. For instance, my dad, who lives in Texas, is looking forward to Top Gun: Maverick more than just about anyone, and if that had been the movie to "save" theaters instead of Tenet, he *still* wouldn't have set foot in a theater. And he's not even that overly paranoid about the virus. My parents used to go to the movies all the time, but neither of them nor anyone they know their age has set foot in a theater in months, and won't until we have a vaccine. I know that's an incredibly small/specific sample, but I don't believe that things are "basically back to normal" in terms of indoor habits, at least. I still know tons of Texans who aren't setting foot in restaurants, theaters, etc.

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I don't disagree, and I'm sure there are still a percentage of people, especially older ones, who aren't ready to go out yet. Anecdotally I think maybe 10-20% of people I know either socially or through work have similar perception, including my parents who are still being really careful. I'm just speaking to the overall atmosphere at least in Houston, where restaurants and bars are getting full, traffic is getting bad (again), and I think we're down to reporting a couple hundred cases a day, which is basically a rounding error in a city of 4 million+.

I guess my bigger concern for theaters in particular is that production companies will base their decisions on the atmosphere in California where things are still significantly shut down, vs most of the rest of the country where you even have football games with 20k people in them, etc. Regardless of why that difference exists and whether it goes away after the election or not, there's no question the situations are very different.

Either way, I'm just yelling at clouds at this point as it's not like there's anything anyone can do. Guess I just need to see Tenet again this weekend and order 8 bags of popcorn plus a few drinks to do my part haha

Yeah, I hear you. I'm sure things overall are way more normal there than they are here. Whatever the reality, I'm afraid the damage has already been done, though. With Death on the Nile now exiting October, and Black Widow now exiting November, I just don't see how theaters can stay open until Thanksgiving, when the next two major releases are currently scheduled (No Time to Die and Soul).

If I had to guess right this moment, I think No Time to Die moves to 2021, theaters shut down at some point in October, Tenet goes to streaming/VOD in November, as does Soul, and theaters don't open again until February/March (with some chains likely under completely new ownership by then). Especially if COVID cases continue to trend up into the fall/winter, as they currently are in certain parts of the country, Canada, the UK again, etc. I'm not at all worried about the movie industry as a whole, or a backlog or anything like that. More movies will go streaming/VOD over the next few months, and development will continue, as will a number of productions. But I think things are about to get really, really ugly for the theatrical market. I would love nothing more than to be wrong, though.

https://theplaylist.net/gerard-butler-greenland-pvod-hbo-release-20201001/

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/01/ron-howard-the-movie-theater-industry-is-not-going-away.html