slams streaming services
share
I think he needs to follow my advice and direct a movie set in outer space, on another planet even. All his directed films have been set on Earth where the aliens come to us. Then he'll be more happy.
share
MovieChat Forums > Steven Spielberg Discussion > slams streaming services
He's a fool.
In NYC, theater prices soared from $8 to $16. People would've been willing to pay $8-$10 for an okay film, but not for the garbage that's being turned out lately. In a free market, people will pay what they think something is worth and right now, people are willingly choosing streaming over theater releases because even if the offerings range from crap to average, at least they're getting what they feel is their money's worth or that they weren't cheated if the movie was really bad. They also can just revisit better movies from the past.
Someone tell the most overrated director of all time to ask his peers in the film industry to put out better caliber movies instead of blaming movie fans for jumping ship to streaming. If there were anything remotely as trailblazing, interesting, funny, romantic or cool as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars, North by Northwest coming out in theaters, I would go back. Right there, there's nothing worth $16 and fare + concessions, so it's streaming and OTA for me.
you are right about film quality. movies began to suck IMO around 2007. That is when i noticed a change.
the problem is in the distribution model. they put movies in theaters and get low numbers, so next time you get more of what earned big, like marvel universe crap. i agree they need more good movies, but people 40 and over don't like to go to the theater as much as they like staying home. and people under 40 are not interested in the kinds of movies you and i prefer. so, hence, the numbers of the movies WE like are down year after year, because A-- older audiences don't leave home and B--younger people would rather go see Thanos or whatever. our category suffers low boxoffice, so the next year they make fewer of those kinds. and the next year even fewer. and on and on.
I don't agree that older people prefer to stay home. I think this situation was manufactured.
I'm 50 and would definitely go to the movies. The problem is that so many movies skewed to specific demographics that we were soured out of the experience. It's like if you had a favorite bar that you and your friends went to because it was a great place for people like you to unwind and talk about sports, politics, etc. all of a sudden, no matter where you went, every bar started catering to the Tik Tok crowd or the Tindr crowd. Over time, you would just feel as though bars weren't your scene anymore and you'd stop going.
This is what I believe the film industry did. Many of the films they released skewed young, but also pissed off or turned off older fans of IPs by being snarky or disrespectful. For example, I remember how upset older people were when Burton did an adaptation of Dark Shadows, and many of them hated JJ Abrams Trek. Stuff like this made middle agers turn their backs the movies, so that's part of the problem, I think. The comic book movies are also turning them off, because the dark turn they've taken don't resemble the comics they grew up reading.
i agree with you 100%
i said the same thing ten years ago. in fact i railed against it quite loudly, as i recall it was around the time Taken came out in theaters. i can't remember where i posted those rants, but i remember it well, and i said basically what you are saying, that if hollywood would just make good stuff people would still come, and my evidence of that was the strong turnout for Taken and also for Gran Torino. (I remember the house was packed for weeks for those two movies, full of 50-70 year olds)
but....
i am not so sure that older demographic would still turn out, were they to start returning to making good films again. for one, the trust has been broken. the momentum interrupted. to restrike that would be impossible imo. that was a cumulative effect of decades of movie culture penetrating all demographics.
second, everyone i speak to or hear talk about it has become so enamoured of netflix et al that they seem perfectly content to just continue consuming that trash. (some of it is okay, but imo the quality of MOST of it is really bad, from the writing on down) The competition in the streaming world is fierce and that is where the marketing dollars have gone. as well as production dollars. as well as cultural focus. so, to turn that ship around and return to 'everyone drives to the theater every weekend' is IMHO a bridge too far. (like that? haha)
here's a good article from several years ago: https://writerunboxed.com/2017/05/19/an-arms-race-of-monetized-distraction/
third, we gotta think about where we are at on the timeline. the world is RADICALLY different from where it was in the 1990s. I talk about this all the time, how it was "a big thing" to go to see a movie then. really, from the 1930s until the late 1990s (roughly) a theater experience was our culture's go-to entertainment event. TV was okay but a movie at the theater was a SPECIAL experience. even normies et al were in agreement. i often cite how common 'water cooler talk' was back then. (btw i am close to your age) i remember people would come in to work monday all fired up about this or that movie, telling you their opinion on it. and they ENJOYED giving their opinion. it MATTERED to them. some would give spoilers, some wouldn't. I remember those days well. i actually remember specific examples of titles where coworkers would tell me 'youve GOT to see this film, dawg'
and fourth: facebook is the other part of my equation... the fact that social media has kidnapped so many people's attention in a way that has eclipsed their desire to watch produced content, because they'd rather seek attention via likes and comments on facebook or tiktok etc. Our population is so drunk on dopamine hits from likes etc that they derive the bulk of their satisfaction that way, and hence their focus matriculates in that direction and away from movies. this is my unofficial take on it, but eh take it for what you will.
my point: movies were in our hearts/minds then. now, people go viral with posts on facebook about birdbox on netflix, or tiger king (march 2020, again, netflix) or (recently, literally last week) the murdaugh trial. etc etc etc
point is, people don't get excited about movies now. partly due to what you said about poor content from the filmmakers. but, i'm just saying we need to be fair in our assessment that viewing tastes have changed, and people seem to prefer series Tv now over films, and they prefer streaming on roku over driving to the theater. (ie, take a look at the huge support for yellowstone in the past few years)
i guess if suddenly good films were getting made and released (the 'and released' is a huge part of it too, because that is the biggest challenge, not the making of it) like we used to get, we could see if your theory is correct. but sadly we will probably never know, because i don't see them ever ditching the endless comic book crap and other trype to take a chance on some new film with a solid plot and good name actors. I'm sorry to report that the sun has set on our beloved movie industry. netflix and stupid producers and facebook killed it.
LTUM
EDIT----
case in point, see the comment below from another user here: "snuck into a theater last year and walked back out to watch tik tok in my rv van in parking lot"
second, everyone i speak to or hear talk about it has become so enamoured of netflix et al that they seem perfectly content to just continue consuming that trash.
Yes, I've seen that with my own friends and family. I was depressed when I learned how so many of them now watch garbage on streaming. I've literally had to play school marm and remind them that they should be watching something better.
and fourth: facebook is the other part of my equation... the fact that social media has kidnapped so many people's attention in a way that has eclipsed their desire to watch produced content, because they'd rather seek attention via likes and comments on facebook or tiktok etc.
Yes. And actually, it's gotten 10x worse with Tik Tok, because the younger generation are literally being weaned on social media now and nothing but social media--no books, play dates, shows, fairs, concerts, nothing. It's such a disruptive platform that I think that Tik Tok should be banned. This stuff is killing souls.
i often cite how common 'water cooler talk' was back then. (btw i am close to your age) i remember people would come in to work monday all fired up about this or that movie, telling you their opinion on it. and they ENJOYED giving their opinion.
I remember those days, too. And what was great, too, is that if people didn't have "water coolers", there would be radio and TV programs that filled the void. The night of the Seinfeld finale, I'll never forget how radio hosts would just talk up a storm about it and ask call-in listeners to give their impressions about it.
I'm sorry to report that the sun has set on our beloved movie industry. netflix and stupid producers and facebook killed it.
The death of the movie industry actually started with "New Hollywood." That was the beginning of the end. I'd elaborate, but I reached my character limit in this post, LOL. share
""The death of the movie industry actually started with "New Hollywood." That was the beginning of the end.""
i agree, it began with that but it took 35 years to put the final nails in the coffin, which were netflix/fb/cellphones/etc
as i look back at the 90s i realize it was already headed for a cliff even then, but we didn't realize it yet. yes it started with new hollywood, and i don't see any way the eventual blows to the hull could have been avoided. it's just the way the technology AND CULTURE evolved. (sadly)
curious if you read that article.
Yes, I read the article. I would've responded, but literally, I got cut off in my last post.
I'm well aware of the whole "war for attention" thing. In fact, the thing that he's talking about is so much worse, pervasive--and depressing--than the author was aware of.
For instance, that whole "binge-watching" B.S. that the streaming networks pushed when the streaming networks wanted everyone to spend an entire weekend watching one show? That was kickstarted by the entertainment media to "steal attention" away from the stuff that people used to do in their spare time. For instance, on a weekend, someone might've read a book, done a crossword puzzle, played a board game or gone to a movie. But because of that binge-watching, they were dropping all of these different things just to binge-watch a show for the entire weekend.
It's even worse in other areas of entertainment, like the gaming industry. The gaming industry has literally set up gameplay in such a way where people will treat it like a job and in places like South Korea with their computer cafes, turn it into a mini getaway or something.
So, yes, it's a terrible thing, and something needs to be done about it. We will lose an entire generation of young people to this "attention" fad, a generation of zombies whose brains have been shaped 24/7 by streaming, gaming, Tik Toking and nothing else.
i came here to post that article but i am glad you already put it up.
i gotta say, i agree with him.
i will confess here that i am very saddened by the state of our movie biz, and the apparent future direction of it.
guys, it's dying in front of our eyes. (if it's not already dead, and just surviving on life support)
IMO we will never see another age of hearty, zesty, vibrant filmmaking in our lifetimes (and probably not ever on the earth again)
it was like catching lightening in a bottle, looking back on the wonder of it all. seriously...
SO MANY DIRECTORS. SO MANY FILMS. COUNTLESS *COUNTLESS* ONES, YEAR AFTER YEAR. we had a healthy movie fan culture to go with the distribution output. we had award shows. variety shows like carson et al. we had fan movements like the star wars craze of the late 70s. we had it all. WE ENJOYED IT ALL. but it feels like it's all gone now. that's just the way i 'feel' about it now; i speak for myself, but i suspect many can see what i see.
it's just not the same.
i fought the change for a while. i tried to hang on, to NOT ACCEPT it was all fading away. but in the end it just couldn't be ignored anymore.
my whole adult life i set my week around what movies were coming out at the theater that week. i'd ride by there after work and if something caught my eye, a poster or title or perhaps i caught a trailer on the radio or tv, i'd park and go in (on a work day; when matinees were still a thing) and watch a movie. then i'd go again on the weekend. sometimes 2-3 in a day. definitely multiple trips every week, and always on the weekend. and in between i'd stay on imdb chatting with other film folks. i'd also stay up to date on new trailers for coming features.
but somewhere around the mid 2010s i began to notice things were changing. there were fewer desirable movies at the theater each week, so sometimes i'd be forced to skip a week, since nothing was on i wanted to watch. another problem was some of the movies i did go see were a big letdown. so that began the trend of going less frequently. then less, and less. till eventually it turned into i rarely go to the theater now. i look and look and check the listings and months and months go by with NOTHING on that i want to see. consequently, i have only seen maybe 3-4 movies in the theater in the past 3 years. they just suck.
this is one reason Top Gun Maverick was such a hit with me. i went to the theater three times to see it last summer. it was IMHO truly a throwback to the heady days of cinema in the 1980 and 90s.
but yeah, spielberg is on point. everything has changed. i guess it was inevitable, with the changes in technology which have driven these new distribution patterns, not to mention new viewing norms for the movie public. people today are way more fond of netflix than they every were of blockbuster, or of going to the actual theater. it's been a gradual decline ever since the advent of video stores. i mean, think about it. VHS stores gave way to DVD rentals that then gave way to netflix (the mail version) which then gave way to streaming (circa 2006) which then spawned lots of imitators. now, streaming is the go-to, and theater run feature films are becoming a thing of the past. oh sure, there's the marvel universe films, and other blockbuster franchises, ad infinitum-nauseum. something is more likely to be made into a mini series today than become a feature film.
eh, i will always be a 70s kid. i will always most fit in with the old model. yeah i have the streaming services etc etc but imo the experience was richer 30-40 years ago. there's too much content now, and it's low quality to boot. a million miles wide and 1/2 inch deep.
so yes, i am sad, for the loss of the movies as we once knew them. and this, i suppose, is the gist of spielberg's laments in that article.
cheers.
LTUM
movies suck so much now, all super hero trash. snuck into a theater last year and walked back out to watch tik tok in my rv van in parking lot
share