The surprise success of this surreal duo proves cinema remains a powerful cultural force and suggests audiences want more than franchises
The surprise success of this surreal duo proves cinema remains a powerful cultural force and suggests audiences want more than franchises
Like it or not, Avengers Endgame was bigger. But so stoked to see the movies intersect with culture so hard right now, especially after covid. Shame the studios are shooting them selves in the foot with their greed and can’t ride the wave.
I feel like studios don’t know what to make post Covid, and they are still releasing pre Covid shit. There is this strange space where studios don’t know what to do, then this happened.
Matt Stoller has a good article on how vertical integration led to this situation, but I gotta go to bed. The article talks about how Back to the Future and Ghostbusters couldn’t be made today, if anyone wants to go looking for it. It’s very good.
They never really recovered from the 2008 financial collapse. That’s when everything became a sequel/prequel/reboot. Technology and streaming didn’t help but I remember it happening really fast after 2008.
It’ll be interesting to see how they process this, because it’s such in-your-face evidence that their whole theory of the the new business model is completely ass-backwards.
People don’t want tons and tons of mediocre crap, they want a few great things. They don’t want endless rehashes and drivel, they want things that are interesting and challenging. They don’t just want small screens to keep them company while they do laundry, they want actual cinema in a communal setting. The value doesn’t come from convenience or volume, or algorithms, it comes from artists.
I know that they’ll do anything to avoid recognizing these truths, but it’ll be odd to watch.
the fact that i have to do it in a communal setting is literally the worst thing about watching new films
I think the ideal arrangement is one of choice, where you have the option to enjoy movies in isolation and I have the ability to show up to a crowded theater and pay $25 dollars for the experience of having people ask to take a picture with me because I’m wearing a homemade costume made out of shipping boxes to see the fifth reboot of a film adaption of a cartoon adapted from a line of '90s toys.