Cinema release dates around Mothers Day indicates why the film industry is dying

Honey, no one goes to theaters anymore. Get yourself a home entertainment center.

[quote] Baby boomers aren’t Gen Z. They actually want to go out to the cinema

No, dear.

Films like you describe seem to be streamers these days. I’d like to see the, back in cinemas too.

R3 is right on. Mid-budget films have been moving to streaming for years.

No one is going to pay $30 to see a made-for-TV movie on the big screen. Theaters are archaic now. It’s of a certain time that’s long gone. They’re phasing them out as the consumer is no longer going.

Go see “Wicked Little Letters.

The "Middle-Aged Good Boys Treating Their Aged Mothers on Mother's Day Market Segment" isn't what is used to be.

Mom doesn’t want to go to a large enclosed space with strangers on their phones, talking and coughing during the movie.

OP May has never been a significant month for prestige movies because the Cannes Film Festival is in May and everyone in prestige’s attention (including acquisitions and marketing) is focused on what is premiering there.

This is how the film market works now:

1) A film premieres at Sundance (Jan), Berlin (Feb), Cannes, Telluride and Venice (both Sept).

2) It is acquired and then held until after Venice.

3) Everyone dumps their film within the last four months of the year so they can be “fresh” for awards voters.

4) The films all flop. But they must have BUZZ. Buzz is its own natural resource.

5) The Academy gives the Oscar to a film which premiered earlier in the year which became popular because it didn’t have anything to compete with for the prestige moviegoing market when it premiered (Everything Everywhere All At Once - March, $100mm domestic; Oppenheimer, July; $330mm domestic)

6) Nobody learns anything.

One year we went to see Florence Foster Jenkins on Mother’s Day weekend. We actually watched EEAAO for Mother’s Day the year it was released.

None of the following are fantastic life-changing movies, but there would be a market for something like 80 For Brady, the Kenneth Branagh Poirots, Where The Crawdads Sing, The Boys In The Boat. Even something like Napoleon.

I loved going to the movie theater, there were times when I was a teenager that I'd plan it out to see films back to back, make a day of it. I went regularly until about 2011. In the years since, I've only gone twice, with friends who wanted me to join them.

I still would love to go, but there is never anything playing that I really want to see. Movies have changed.

Hollywood is mostly formula- Marvel, action, special effects. Sometime something creative sneaks thru (Dune 2, Barbie) but it’s mostly dreck for teenage boys. Meanwhile the streaming venues are chock full of human drama, story telling and great acting and editing over special effects- and of course foreign (not Hollywood) films.

So… have you seen Tom Cruise in anything in the last 20years that feature story telling and character? Top Gun 2 anyone? Julia Robert’s has retreated to streaming venues like most actors- even the Hollywood stars like her.

My son is a millennial and he and his friends have bought monthly movie passes because they love going to the movie theater.

Cinemas still have their value, but one thing that bothers me a lot are the commercials ahead of the film. I paid good money and you STILL show me advertisements?!

And yes, I would like a break somewhere halfway a 3h movie, please.

Most movies are 💩 nowadays.

R12 Valkyrie

I don't mind the trailers before a film. Usually their selection is informed in some measure by the film I'm seeing, so for me it's informational rather than annoying advertising. The difference kicks in when seeing a big box office title and then it's guaranteed lowest common denominator choices (which blaring sound effects.)

Smaller productions, independent films, foreign language films get good trailers, Top 10 films get trailers for more predicted Top 10 films. It's rare that I see anything wildly popular at the cinema, so maybe my perspective is skewed.

[quote]and partial to an action movie as she is

You and mom can stay in and watch Pornhub.

I used to look at the Arts & Leisure section every Sunday to see what would be opening the following weekend. They don't even have movie ads anymore - print or online. I have no idea what movies are opening, and the ones in the theater are streaming less than a month later.

So I guess you do know what movies are opening...

Sometimes a person just wants to go out a see a good Meg Ryan movie.

[quote] Sometime something creative sneaks thru (Dune 2, Barbie)

Quit trolling.

[Quote] EEAAO

You mean EIEIO, silly!

Now r21 actually makes a very good point

Meg Ryan was the queen of “counterprogamming.” She would typically have a summer movie and it would open against a big blockbuster. Off the top of my head I remember “Addicted to Love” opened opposite “The Lost World: Jurassic Park.” That was for people who wanted to go to the movies that weekend but did not want to see a big popcorn action movie.

That world no longer exists because habitual moviegoing no longer exists.

Oh and that was also a world where people would show up to the movies and not know if it was sold out. So if Jurassic Park was sold out you would go see Meg Ryan’s movie.

The world changes so fast. It doesn't seem real that cinemas and movie rental chains are going or gone. They were such a part of day to day life.

I love streaming for convenience but I mourn the loss of the experience of walking into a Hollywood Video or a Blockbuster and strolling alone the New Release wall, looking for a movie. Or venturing into the collection of older films to find something unexpected.

I miss the days of going downtown where you would have 4 or 5 movie palaces of 3 to 4 thousand seats each and seeing the new Hollywood studio films. The small art houses on the fringes would show the foreign films. Going to a multiplex is about as exciting as a 4 hour tour of my living room.

Oh wow I didn’t even realize Sleepless in Seattle opened against the original Jurassic Park. She was dinosaur counterprogramming.

Amazing Jurassic Park only opened to $27 million and the was considered an out of the gate blockbuster.

The surprising thing is that cinemas survived as long as they did. There has been a series of increasingly viable alternatives to them for over 70 years.

I'm one of the many Dataloungers who've seen movies at the old Loew's State in Times Square.

I love seeing films in a big theater with a giant screen, but alas, the Loew's Astor Plaza and the Ziegfeld are gone.

This just happens to be a slow month for theatrical releases. I think Furiosa will make a vast amount of money.

R28, movie tickets we're about $4 in 1993.

So over 6,750,000 people saw it on opening weekend.

I doubled checked the cinema times near in the remaining city Arthouse. In fairness, Challengers could fit the bill and has one screening per day. There is Civil War, a Golda Meir biopic, The Taste Of Things with Juliette Binoche, Fremont, La Chimera, Perfect Days, Monster, Fremont and rereleases of the animated Beauty And The Beast and the Les Mis musical.

With the exception of the likely heavy Golda Meir film, any of those could do. Yet, it’s an uninspiring selection.

La chimera is a lovely little dream of a movie, not much happens but it is so delicate and enchanting, if you're in that kind of mood. And who wouldn't want to spend an hour and a half with Josh O'Connor speaking Italian?

Perfect Days was a foreign language Oscar nominee this year, and the Taste of things was expected to be nominated but didn't make the cut.