The Film Directors Superhero Movie Haters Club

[Merzbow]

How many people even knew The French Dispatch was playing? I've seen zero advertising for it and only knew myself because I was following the London film festival which luckily plays films at the Uni down the road from me. Compare that film to The Grand Budapest Hotel which I saw a whole bunch of advertising and general chatter from media outlets.

Edited November 19, 2021 by Merzbow

[Devon Malcolm]

9 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

I asked first. But you’ve accused Disney of not promoting Fox Searchlight films (but they did). You hate anything to do with Disney and some of it, entirely justified. But no other studio is putting stuff out that would keep cinemas in business. There needs to be room for theme park ride movies and art house fare. The argument they are killing cinema is lazy because they are keeping the doors open. If your only cinema has 3 screens, I get it. But that’s not the case for most places. The French Dispatch was on one of the smallest screens at my multiplex opening weekend. But there were 5 people on a Saturday night watching it. That’s not keeping cinema alive. The 500 people watching Venom 2 in the next screen are though.

In much the same way I knew that you would come up with a caveat-riddled excuse for the comparative lack of promotion that Disney have given to independent films that have inherited as part of their Fox purchase, I also know that if I or @Merzbow or anyone else listed any films that have clearly been negatively affected by the ever-presence of Marvel films in cinemas this year, I know you'll do the same for them. It'll be to do with Covid or 'the films have actually done quite well if you look at the figures!'

This suggestion of yours that Disney are actually keeping cinemas open with how ubiquitous their releases are is just the absolute height of Disney apologism and I'm not going to repeat myself about lack of competition because it's clearly a waste of time. If you think one company owning over one-fifth of the film industry and taking 40% of total cinema revenue is healthy for cinema then we've got nothing to talk about.

[King Coconut]

3 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

owning over one-fifth of the film industry and taking 40%*

*two-fifths

[Keith Houchen]

There’s a difference between keeping cinema going, and keeping cinemas going. Much like jukebox musicals are the most popular things in theatres, they don’t keep theatre going. They keep box offices going, not the art form. 

[Hannibal Scorch]

Just now, Keith Houchen said:

There’s a difference between keeping cinema going, and keeping cinemas going. Much like jukebox musicals are the most popular things in theatres, they don’t keep theatre going. They keep box offices going, not the art form. 

Most theatres aren’t chains

[Keith Houchen]

Just now, Hannibal Scorch said:

Most theatres aren’t chains

What does that have to do with my post?

[Hannibal Scorch]

15 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

In much the same way I knew that you would come up with a caveat-riddled excuse for the comparative lack of promotion that Disney have given to independent films that have inherited as part of their Fox purchase, I also know that if I or @Merzbow or anyone else listed any films that have clearly been negatively affected by the ever-presence of Marvel films in cinemas this year, I know you'll do the same for them. It'll be to do with Covid or 'the films have actually done quite well if you look at the figures!'

This suggestion of yours that Disney are actually keeping cinemas open with how ubiquitous their releases are is just the absolute height of Disney apologism and I'm not going to repeat myself about lack of competition because it's clearly a waste of time. If you think one company owning over one-fifth of the film industry and taking 40% of total cinema revenue is healthy for cinema then we've got nothing to talk about.

So you’ve said something that isn’t true, or you can’t find the facts to back it up? And why this year? Marvel which is the studio mentioned have been dominating for about the last 7 years. Films have been so spread out this year that I don’t think any film was impacted by a Marvel film coming out or had already come out when they released. And if you don’t think films have been affected by Covid, you’re on crack. F9 and Bond have clearly been affected by cinema closures and also China’s releases this year. In fact if you look at the worldwide grosses this year, not even a Marvel Studios film in the top 5.  Guess that shows there premium VOD model impacted the Box Office more then we saw.
 

Simple solution to the 40% remark is for other studios to produce more films. But they aren’t. There isn’t even the same windows of exclusivity from studios and cinemas that there used to be. Unless it’s IMAX or Chris Nolan. So why are more films not being made? 
 

Also, I don’t remember Fox Searchlight films being known for being extensively marketed unless they were nominated for awards. So I don’t know where this idea of no promotion is from, especially when it’s because you haven’t seen it.

Edited November 19, 2021 by Hannibal Scorch

[HarmonicGenerator]

1 hour ago, Tommy! said:

Take Watchmen, it's enjoyable enough but it's a terribly bloated mess as a film yet some people at the time (and to this day) say it's the best film ever made because they like the comic and can't divorce the two.

I rewatched the Watchmen film last year and the scales did fall from my eyes. I loved it at the time but watching it now it is very bad and I did not like it at all.

14 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

Most theatres aren’t chains

Quite a lot of them are. Cameron Mackintosh owns bloody loads of the West End ones, Ambassador Theatre Group have quite a few, and three of the biggest theatres in Edinburgh are part of the same company.

[Keith Houchen]

2 minutes ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

Quite a lot of them are. Cameron Mackintosh owns bloody loads of the West End ones, Ambassador Theatre Group have quite a few, and three of the biggest theatres in Edinburgh are part of the same company.

Three companies own most theatres in the West End. The biggest two in Manchester, the Palace and the Opera House are both owned by Ambassador as well. 

[Devon Malcolm]

9 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

So you’ve said something that isn’t true,

Fuck off.

9 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

 Also, I don’t remember Fox Searchlight films being known for being extensively marketed unless they were nominated for awards.

Yeah, I don't remember seeing an iota of promotion for Ready or Not, Jojo Rabbit, The Favourite, Isle of Dogs, Three Billboards, The Shape of Water and so on. You're absolutely right, Grace Randolph.

[Jesse]

Ever the hipster, I dislike the MCU films, but almost entirely because of my comic book fandom.

I think they're awful adaptations of the medium, all of which tend towards blandness in their portrayal of the thing I love, where the high moments are just them repeating things from the comics and expecting you to like it because it's that thing you've read before (or, more likely, heard about through a ScreenRant article).

Into The Spider-Verse is one of the few superhero films I truly love because it uses the source material to develop its own story, with a visual identity that delights in comic-book presentation, allowing things to be vibrant and exciting. Everything I've experienced from the MCU has to fit essentially the same mould, and characters I love have to be warped to fit into the existing universe without ever challenging it, and smaller characters with any emotional pathos quickly get reduced to one-note jokes.

[Carbomb]

40 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

Three companies own most theatres in the West End. The biggest two in Manchester, the Palace and the Opera House are both owned by Ambassador as well. 

Four - Nimax, Delfont Mackintosh, Ambassador, and Really Useful/LW

[Mr_Danger]

I’m probably the wrong person to make this point because whilst I like Marvel flicks in the way they’re meant to be enjoyed (as big fun family films) and I prefer my stories told through the longer format of television but there’s absolutely no way I can have Disney as being portrayed as some kind of patron saints of cinema. They’ve completely conditioned the audiences to expect big flashy spandex films every time they go and see a film with explosions in it. Of course Ridley Scott’s latest will pale in comparison to the latest instalment of £300m sequels. Even James Cameron’s did.

Disney are more like the toxic pimp daddies of cinema. Eventually people will become fed up and bored of the formulaic slush they serve up and cinema will change again. There might me a resurgence in more original fresh films but I imagine cinema houses will mostly belong to ‘event cinema’ and the good films of substance will continue to thrive on streaming services.

[Hannibal Scorch]

57 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Fuck off.

Yeah, I don't remember seeing an iota of promotion for Ready or Not, Jojo Rabbit, The Favourite, Isle of Dogs, Three Billboards, The Shape of Water and so on. You're absolutely right, Grace Randolph.

Superb, you’ve remembered a load of film titles. What you fail to do, or anyone else, is what isn’t being done now that was then. Those films had the usual trailers and print media campaigns. But your failing to produce any actual facts l, it’s just your interpretation. That’s no proof. But to throw something back, Disney were making noise about Nomadland and were pushing it pre Oscars and coming to Disney+. And that was their first big film post takeover of that nature.

[LaGoosh]

The worst crime of Marvel films is that it's led to the rise and spread of crap snarky Joss Whedon-esque sarcastic dickhead humor across all major blockbusters instead of actual proper jokes.