This reporter Ben Fritz has no idea what he is talking about. It's never about the story. It's about known actors, from A to B to C, and then the genre. Then the trailer. Never about original stories.
The recent movies he is talking about are published in the dry season. And 7m box office is great for Drop, with not a single known actor. Who would go there?
In these months until the summer blockbusters the studios crank out the cheap loosers and see what sticks. Not a single named title will stick. Everyone knew that before. That's why they got no budget and such a release date.
thinkingemote 5 days ago [-]
Hollywood has lost something - the ability to connect with people. In a hundred years, film and cultural studies will look back at this period with fascination. The visual art world (e.g. painting) is the avant garde of culture and we saw this decades ago by the total disconnect from normal people e.g. "I don't get it", the abandonment of beauty "that's messy", the embrace of chaos "my kid could do that" and the priority of individualised isolated views "that's weird". In this meaningless soup the political, radical and critical become a form of stability for artists and so the art becomes a way of transmitting this as it's a) a thing the art can say with some kind of authenticity and b) a thing that art can say with other artists that's in common with each other.
But is it a simply a mirror of our lives now? Are our lives like these films? Do artists just tell it how it is?
Is life meaningless, un-authentic, chaotic, not-connected, isolated, algorithmically determined, ugly, full of negative emotion and a stage for competing political messages? I think there is some truth here, modern life can feel like that but the postmodern viewpoint can actually help us in that we can see that the film makers are being subjective. Their art is the interpretation of Hollywood not the actual world. Hollywood makes bad movies because the film makers view the world as a kind of modern hell, and so, as people live their lives and see that they have love and beauty, a sense of right and wrong and family around them or at least inside them, they cannot actually connect to this view of life. In that I have hope.
dlachausse 5 days ago [-]
Movie theaters are a tough value proposition. Most of the movies coming out aren’t that entertaining, tickets are expensive, and concessions are completely out of control. Also, I think streaming services are cannibalizing the box office. If the trailer looks meh, why not just wait for it to hit Netflix and friends in a couple months.
hoseja 5 days ago [-]
Have they tried making good original movies.
jmpman 5 days ago [-]
Mickey 17 was good for the first 60%, and then turned into typical Hollywood drivel.
Are they making original movies? Most of what I’m seeing are remakes, reboots, and yet another entry in tired old franchises that should never have gone past whatever 3. The creativity just isn’t there.
sparky_z 5 days ago [-]
Literally the entire article is specifically about films that aren't remakes/reboots/franchise films, and how they aren't doing well at the box office. It would be impossible to read even a single sentence of the article and not realize that.
fvdessen 5 days ago [-]
Well I can’t read a sentence since it’s paywalled
yorwba 5 days ago [-]
You could use the paywall bypass posted by 'bookofjoe.
karmakaze 5 days ago [-]
Maybe "cranking out" is the part that's failing not "original". Like this post cranking out non-news.
sometimes_all 4 days ago [-]
I'm not sure what the reporter means by "original". Does "original" now just mean something which isn't "sequels, spin-offs, and adaptations of comic books and toys" (reporter's words)? Or does original mean fresh concepts, new ideas, a different way of looking at things? I haven't watched the movies he has mentioned, only looked at the wikis, but the examples the reporter gives sure don't seem original, they seem to be running on the standard tropes found in most movies, or even worse, something an algorithm would think that people will like.
And anyway, does the reporter expect that just because something isn't a Marvel movie, people will come, watch, and like it? What gave him that impression?
I rarely go to the movies any more. Ticket prices are high even after discounts, it's basically robbery for stale popcorn, and for what? Content that is already neutered by producers, censored by the government du jour and over/underacted by actors which got there only due to nepotism? There used to be a time when I would go to watch an interesting movie alone. That time has long gone now because there's nothing interesting in the cinema - primarily because movie halls know they are dying, are too risk-averse, and in many cases are arm-twisted by distributors to show only the big-budget movies. I'd rather while away a weekend reading a good book or watching a movie or series on a streaming platform. There are plenty of those with original ideas which can be easily found.
instagib 5 days ago [-]
“I don't need nonstop gun shootings, 2 1/2 hr movies that could be shown in 90 min, endless duologues, and woke lessons. I need solid movies with the right mix of action, fun, and sophistication.”
A comment I’ll repost.
janalsncm 5 days ago [-]
> the right mix
I asked ChatGPT if it were possible to eat too much fruit, and it said as long I don’t eat too much I should be fine. How much is too much? That is left as an exercise for the reader.
NoPicklez 5 days ago [-]
Sounds very ambiguous to me
abenga 5 days ago [-]
And a comment we'll file with all the other stuff complaining about "wokeness".
adfm 4 days ago [-]
Seriously, can someone explain "woke" to me like I'm five years old?
krapp 4 days ago [-]
Woke is an adjective derived from African-American English used since the 1930s or earlier to refer to awareness of racial prejudice and discrimination, often in the construction stay woke. The term acquired political connotations by the 1970s and gained further popularity in the 2010s with the hashtag #staywoke. Over time, woke came to be used to refer to a broader awareness of social inequalities such as sexism and denial of LGBTQ rights. Woke has also been used as shorthand for some ideas of the American Left involving identity politics and social justice, such as white privilege and reparations for slavery in the United States.
... although the term has been captured and repurposed into a generic anti-progressive pejorative. Basically anything that isn't racist, sexist and "based" is now "woke."
adfm 4 days ago [-]
Wikipedia adds spice, but deflects legitimacy as a primary source. The five year old has a hard time processing “generic anti-progressive pejorative” and wants to take a nap. #staywoke (am I using that correctly? See, I’m still unsure.)
krapp 4 days ago [-]
Sorry, I didn't realize you were literally a five year old. Your posting history suggests you're a prodigy for your age and should be able to comprehend more than basic Kindergarten level English but maybe you should ask your parents.
adfm 2 days ago [-]
I speak with children all the time and gain insight from the conversations I have consistently. They tend to cut through the bullshit. It’s great when you can quote someone without having to interpret or explain what they’re saying. Pass it on.
anonfordays 3 days ago [-]
>Basically anything that isn't racist, sexist and "based" is now "woke."
Wrong, plenty of the "woke" are racist and sexist.
slater 3 days ago [-]
No, they're not.
In any case, anyone using "woke" as a pejorative is doing everyone a favor, as they can be summarily ignored.
anonfordays 3 days ago [-]
Yes, they are.
In any case, anyone using "woke" as virtuous is doing everyone a favor, as they can be summarily ignored.
alganet 4 days ago [-]
Sometimes bad scary monsters lock people together in two different groups and trick them to fight each other.
Those groups always have funny weird names. It's a kind of uniform for them. Wherever the group goes, they use the same uniform.
"woke" is one of those uniforms, kid. If you see a funny weird group name, run from it and wear something else.
adfm 4 days ago [-]
When I was young, there was a point where I had to choose between dragons and dinosaurs. I admit the fire-breathing bit impressed me, but it was the “There be dragons” that captivated me. Actual dragons? Sure enough, all I found were dinosaurs. So many dinosaurs.
aaron695 5 days ago [-]
> Nearly every movie released by a major studio in the past year based on an original script or a little-known book has been a box-office disappointment. Before this weekend’s flops were Warner Bros. Discovery’s “Mickey 17” and “The Alto Knights,” Paramount’s “Novocaine,” Apple’s “Fly Me to the Moon,” Amazon’s “Red One,” and the independently financed “Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1” and “Megalopolis.”
These were all bad movies (Below 7 on IMDB), including "Drop". Most had a redeeming feature though.
The problem is multiverse that's bad still does OK, "Snow White" hopefully will make a loss but it's still pulled in $181 million so far.
The recent movies he is talking about are published in the dry season. And 7m box office is great for Drop, with not a single known actor. Who would go there? In these months until the summer blockbusters the studios crank out the cheap loosers and see what sticks. Not a single named title will stick. Everyone knew that before. That's why they got no budget and such a release date.
But is it a simply a mirror of our lives now? Are our lives like these films? Do artists just tell it how it is?
Is life meaningless, un-authentic, chaotic, not-connected, isolated, algorithmically determined, ugly, full of negative emotion and a stage for competing political messages? I think there is some truth here, modern life can feel like that but the postmodern viewpoint can actually help us in that we can see that the film makers are being subjective. Their art is the interpretation of Hollywood not the actual world. Hollywood makes bad movies because the film makers view the world as a kind of modern hell, and so, as people live their lives and see that they have love and beauty, a sense of right and wrong and family around them or at least inside them, they cannot actually connect to this view of life. In that I have hope.
And anyway, does the reporter expect that just because something isn't a Marvel movie, people will come, watch, and like it? What gave him that impression?
I rarely go to the movies any more. Ticket prices are high even after discounts, it's basically robbery for stale popcorn, and for what? Content that is already neutered by producers, censored by the government du jour and over/underacted by actors which got there only due to nepotism? There used to be a time when I would go to watch an interesting movie alone. That time has long gone now because there's nothing interesting in the cinema - primarily because movie halls know they are dying, are too risk-averse, and in many cases are arm-twisted by distributors to show only the big-budget movies. I'd rather while away a weekend reading a good book or watching a movie or series on a streaming platform. There are plenty of those with original ideas which can be easily found.
A comment I’ll repost.
I asked ChatGPT if it were possible to eat too much fruit, and it said as long I don’t eat too much I should be fine. How much is too much? That is left as an exercise for the reader.
... although the term has been captured and repurposed into a generic anti-progressive pejorative. Basically anything that isn't racist, sexist and "based" is now "woke."
Wrong, plenty of the "woke" are racist and sexist.
In any case, anyone using "woke" as a pejorative is doing everyone a favor, as they can be summarily ignored.
In any case, anyone using "woke" as virtuous is doing everyone a favor, as they can be summarily ignored.
Those groups always have funny weird names. It's a kind of uniform for them. Wherever the group goes, they use the same uniform.
"woke" is one of those uniforms, kid. If you see a funny weird group name, run from it and wear something else.
These were all bad movies (Below 7 on IMDB), including "Drop". Most had a redeeming feature though.
The problem is multiverse that's bad still does OK, "Snow White" hopefully will make a loss but it's still pulled in $181 million so far.
2024 Box Office, hard to find an independent movie too low - https://www.boxofficemojo.com/year/world/2024/
"Juror #2" is probably the worst as a solid movie for the genre and probably Clint Eastwood's last. It was mistreated by Warner Bros.