So this means Netflix has been lying when they were trying to acquire Warner Bros. - they said they would “respect the theatrical window”.
Honestly, still better than some right wing bullhorn “media” company getting them.
Netflix: Our movies aren’t worth paying for.
I just went to a pretty upscale movie theatre to see the Mando movie, out of curiosity. It:
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Looked objectively worse than our TV
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Was so loud I had to stuff napkin in my ear
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Front loaded with ads, took a while to start
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Was expensive,
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With comically expensive snacks; we just snuck chips in
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And we had to drive to it. And leave the dog at home :(
And we had a relatively “lucky” experience in a sparse theatre, upscale screen, with no one noisy near us or blocking our view, no ticket issues or unspeakable bathrooms or anything.
I’m not a cinema hater, either. There’s a Movie Tavern that serves real food during movies, and I find this enjoyable. Plus they run gimmicks/themes to make it fun.
But without an attached restaurant or something, I can’t understand why I’m supposed to go to the cinema anymore? I don’t have a lot of sympathy for them, if they aren’t going to try to adapt.
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To be clear, Dan Lin is specifically referring to filmmakers who are insisting on wide theatrical distribution of their films. They’re still planning on blessing their Oscar bait with the minimum exhibition required for award consideration (a week-long theatrical run in one or more of 6 markets: LA, NYC, SF, Chicago, Dallas or Atlanta) (per the rules).
Didn’t they just do well with Wake up Dead Man in theaters?
…
Maybe not. $1.6M on 600 screens.
Great movie though.
Netflix hates theaters because it’s a threat to their business model - it’s a way people can watch movies without subscribing to their catalogue.
I don’t have a source for this, but I’m pretty sure they only released Wake Up Dead Man in theaters so they could quality for awards.
I get that concept. It seems natural for them. But an awards release only needs something like a dozen screen in 2 states (NY and LA usually).
Dead Man I thought got a wide release. But not realy. I just got lucky with my local theater. It’s only a money question. If they think they can make enough with theater releases, they’d do them. If Dead Man made $100M off 600 screens that might be enough to cause them to reconcider.
Becomes a chicken and an egg situation thigh of they never actually fully commit to a long enough wide release. Not everyone watches a film the guest week so you need time for word of mouth to spread and then there need to be screenings near those people. Normies that hear good things about a film aren’t going to go further than their local to see it.
On one hand I just done give a shit about going to the theater on the other hand. Netflix movies tend to such dogshit I just dont give a shit.
