We get a major Sci-Fi release every Oct/Nov
2012: Cloud Atlas
2013: Gravity
2014: Interstellar
2015: The Martian
2016: Arrival
2017: Blade Runner
Interesting. And there were nothing before 2012.
There're In Time in 2011 and Skyline in 2010 but they're nowhere near major releases.
I'm not sure any of these last 6 Oct/Nov releases are very good, maybe The Martian?
shareWell, good or not but those sure are major releases.
Gravity even won some awards (don't know why though). Interstellar was Nolan's and every Nolan's movie after Batman has to be BIG. Cloud Atlas was Wachowskis', you know, of The Matrix fame. Arrival, not as big as others, still kinda have big names with Lois Lane and Hawkeye in a single film. Blade Runner is one of the biggest scifi release of the year.
I think there's a shift here since 2010. Maybe has something to do with superhero movies dominating the summer. Scifi used to be there, now they're being moved into oct/nov.
Your theory fits as good as any other. The Sci/Fi genre ruled the summers for a long time, I wonder when it started to fade away? I can think of a few bombs or disappointments like AI, Red Planet, Mission to Mars, Solaris, Alien 3, etc. but I can't recall a definitive line of demarcation where Sci/Fi summer releases stopped.
But your'e right, the answer lies somewhere with the superhero movie. When did the Superhero genre really take off? Spiderman? The Dark Knight? Iron Man?
I'm not sure when exactly the superhero genre took off. But Spider-Man did it first. The Dark Knight shifted the gears. Iron-Man, and inevitably The Avengers, took them into new heights.
However, I think Summer scifis never really stopped. I mean, this year alone we had Alien: Covenant in May, War for the Planet of the Apes & The Dark Tower in July, plus Valerian in August.
Hmm... nothing in June though.
Also not single one of those summer scifi flicks is successful indeed. Covenant, Apes, Tower and Valerian all kinda disapointing. I just realized this!
All the while Wonder Woman and Guardian of the Galaxy Vol.2 broke new records!
I'm convinced that more major scifi releases will move away from summer (and maybe into oct/nov), especially if Blade Runner is successful.
I don't even think the new Star Wars movies are being released in the summer, that was unthinkable from the 70's to the 00's! How about 2015 Terminator: Genisys? A lackluster Terminator movie that did terrible in the U.S. and had to be saved by the overseas markets? Ghostbusters 2016 anyone?
I think Blade Runner will certainly be successful, I'm just not sure if it will live up to standards of yesteryear. I remember back in the 80's where you almost went to the movie theater every week..and rarely did you see a complete dud(Ishtar, Heaven's Gate). Now, the bar is set so low, a pretty looking movie like Blade Runner 2049 will seem like a 2001: A Space Odyssey compared to everything else released this year!
Yeah, you've made me thinking. Are we not as excited about science (thus scifi) anymore? I mean, in real life we kinda hit a technological plateau nowadays.
Valerian is pretty. As pretty as Guardian of the Galaxy Vol.2. Yet, the scifi bombed and the superhero soared.
We used to dream about flying cars, interplanetary or even intergalactic travels, robots and androids, time travel, etc. that they are actually possible in the (hopefully near) future.
In the year 2000 we should have been driving nuclear-powered flying cars while holstering laser weapons!
Yet the reality is bleaker. We're 17 years past the year 2000 and what we got today? Smartphones, social media and toy drones.
No flying cars, no anti-gravity, no nuclear everything, no holographic displays, no planetary travel. We got to Mars and sent probes to Saturn and even Pluto. Yet no alien lifes found. Not even bacteria.
It's depressing actually. Our computers still do the same Excel and word processor as decades ago. VR is still a gimmick. And we're about to hit ceiling for Moore's law soon.
We now know that there's no aliens in sight as far as we can see and we may not even meet any in the entire lifespan of humankind on Earth.
We know time travel is basically impossible. Ever.
Interstellar travel is as fantastical as dragons.
The only interesting thing happen in science right now is A.I. That's why Ex Machina is my only favorite scifi of recent years.
I really hoped Blade Runner will succeed because I love scifi. But now I'm not so sure anymore.
We certainly didn't get those hoverboards and time travel and just think, 2001 was such a ground breaking movie they actually have devices that look like iPad's.
Also, Hollywood is all about markets. It seemed to me around 2005 they were making lots of silly movies just to make a quick buck of DVD sales, like Dukes of Hazzard..it was released on DVD probably just 2 months after it's theatrical release. When the money from DVD's diluted, Hollywood looked for another way to make money; the much despised, gimmicky 3-D fiasco. They even try to lure us into those oversized IMAX theaters for $22..and the $8 normal theater is actually better because it's not so overwhelmingly huge. Along this post 2005 DVDless era they went all out for the overseas markets so they made the same superhero movie over and over again. How about that one atrocious Star Trek movie where they put in a Khan reference at the last minute? It didn't really appeal to anyone in the U.S., it's like they threw a bunch of junk in there because they had no real story to begin with.
Now, after a couple of decades of buy outs Hollywood is owned by a bunch of banks. They know how to make money, once they beat this superhero market to death they'll have to find some other genre. I expect to see a lot of theaters in the U.S. go extinct in the next 10 years. Right now the only reason to go see a movie is to get out of the house but all those movies are rotten. People will go hide in their room and play with their smartphones and video games for much better entertainment.
I was excited for this Blade Runner movie, but these last few trailers lead me to believe it's not another visionary, futuristic film-noir detective film..it's starting to look like just a smash em' up, chase em' in spinners movie. That's just boring!