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"People aren't going to theaters anymore" has become to go-to excuse to justify failure

posted 20 days ago by stevewyzard (1583)
4 replies | jump to latest

Whenever a film bombs these days, the first excuse rushed out to explain it is "people aren't going to movie theaters anymore". Naturally a studio/production team is not going to publicly admit they made a terrible movie, or a movie that no one was interested in. It's much easier to justify the expenditures by saying the audiences were the problem, not the filmmakers. Then when a movie is actually successful, they can take credit for themselves without mentioning the audiences, who were just "doing the right thing" by actually going to the theaters.

Even the traditional other excuses for bombing (marketing / competition / release date / "people just didn't get it" / "it will eventually become a cult classic") have pretty much fallen by the wayside these days.

[–] fourlemons (1662) 20 days ago

Sadly, deflection of blame is a human nature problem in general.

[–] 123Guy (7259) 20 days ago

what's funny and contrary to that is that people clearly ARE going to theaters:

top gun 2
Barbie
Oppenheimliche
etc etc etc

So it is a very weak excuse. But, you will note the movies above, are made by people who know how to make good movies. Tom Cruise, and Chris Nolan RARELY have a missfire, meaning they know the best formulas.

If you can make TWO hit movies, you know what you are doing. And can repeat it more.
Writing has just gotten lazy.

[–] M1sterDoct0r (4423) 19 days ago

It's kinda true though. Not the whole reason but one of the reasons is due to streaming services.

Another being subpar offerings & Theatre experience sucking (due to inconsiderate people).

There are still some exceptions but the majority of things that play at theatres, you can just wait a month or even less & just watch it from the comfort of your own home.

[–] blue1981 (7735) 19 days ago

I feel like it's a lost cause wanting to see movie theaters survive. I'm reduced to only going on my closest theaters discount night and it's only on occasion when movies are actually good enough to see. The rest of the time it's for classic movies back in theaters.