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Thread: Theatrical releases vs Streaming Debate

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    Theatrical releases vs Streaming Debate

    Quote Originally Posted by marodi View Post
    Denis Villeneuve is not happy about that HBO Max thing:

    https://variety.com/2020/film/news/d...234851270/amp/

    I think we should have a new thread to talk about this. What I thought was brilliant a few days ago is a lot less shiny now. Not because of Denis, but because I've been thinking.

    Mmm...
    Indeed this topic pushes me back and forth. I certainly understand and can agree with much of what Villeneuve is saying. I have been extremely excited about Dune since it was first announced. If it was going to premier in theaters only, and at the time it comes out i feel safe being in a theater, i would certainly see it there. if it's streaming at the same time, i'd probably opt to watch at home even if the world has regained some normalcy.

    I'd love to hear some of these directors, who have some very valid points, respond to some of the criticism of the actual movie theater experience as described over in the Controversial Cinema thread by me and others. When the sound in a theater sucks, and the picture is not as good as medium-sized, previous generation flat screen tv.... is there still an argument that these films MUST be experienced in a theater?

    As i said, i go to the theater (before 2020). but it's not because it's an immersive experience, but because i'm too pumped for a movie to wait for home release. And i don't tend to go to arty films at the theater either. Someone mentioned The Lighthouse here. Not a movie i'd see in a theater, but i did want to watch at home, and i enjoyed it. I was able to watch without the distractions and nonsense that come with the modern theater setting. alone... in the dark... not having to smell the fake bistro cafeteria level food that somehow is now being served inside the actual theater, during the movies.

    this being the NIN forum, i assume many here have already watched MANK. I don't know what kind of numbers a movie like that would do in a theater in normal times, but it's not a movie I'd see in a theater. I like the big blockbuster popcorn flix, comic book films, etc, but i also like "fine art cinema"... just not IN the cinema... I'd rather see the next Wes Anderson film at home. (perhaps not the best example of "fine art" but i love him).

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    To be honest, I take issue with the idea that theaters should only be for blockbusters or action films. The best theatrical experience I had last year was seeing Parasite on a huge screen with Dolby Atmos sound. I was completely immersed in the experience, and while I've watched it at home and still enjoy the film, seeing it in a theater first made a huge impact that seeing it on a small screen might not have. Since you brought it up, The Lighthouse was another great experience. That film was definitely made for theaters. The idea that "artsy films" don't really need to be seen in theaters is flat out wrong in my opinion, especially when it comes to films where a lot of attention has been paid to the finer details like cinematography and production and sound design (see: Parasite and The Lighthouse). I'm not trying to shit on action films, but I can watch an Avengers movie on an HDTV and not feel like I'm missing anything. I know what I'm going to get with those sorts of films. There's more of a WOW! factor in watching something unexpected.

    Look, I can't act like I'm some sort of film snob who is completely against streaming. I stream lots of stuff, and I've seen stuff that I might have missed in theaters because of streaming, but I don't undervalue the cinematic experience. It's incredibly vital, and sadly underappreciated at the moment, especially in the US.

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    I guess I don't necessarily mean that arty films don't need to be seen in a theater, just that in my experience over the last several years, the theater doesn't do them justice in terms of picture quality, sound, and atmosphere. I think some of this has been changing lately and probably is very dependent on the individual theater.

    I absolutely don't want people to stop making interesting films and I want the people involved to be supported and paid for their work. I also definitely don't want dennis villeneuve (or the studio) to abandon his plans for the next dune movie.

    I think my first post makes me sound like I land squarely on one side here, but I don't really. I do like the idea of going to the theater, I just wish that it lived up to the ideal. I am admittedly a bit of a misanthrope, so the people 2 seats down who can't chew with their mouth closed and the people a row up who brought kids to a movie that's totally inappropriate for their age and the actual adults who have paid to see a movie but are pulling out their phone every 10 minutes drive me bonkers. There might be less of that nonsense to deal with if I went to see the Lighthouse and waited for home to watch the next disappointing star wars movie.

    What I don't get is why there isn't a campaign by some of these directors who are dismayed at the decline of the theater to get people talking about improving the audiovisual experience in more theaters. Maybe it's just the one I go to that sucks. It has the nice power recliners but shit sound. I also wonder how much of that is modern sound editing.

    I do like to complain. Sometimes I just feel like in addition to me perhaps undervaluing the cinema experience, the movie houses are undervaluing out butts in the seats and not delivering an experience that holds up.

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    I must admit that most of my theater experiences have been subpar lately. The last memorable theater experience was seeing the last 2 episodes of Game Of Thrones season 4 in IMAX. That was massive to witness the battle at the wall on the huge screen. It really helped translate the enormity of the wall. Besides that, I have found the theater experience a bit bleh. I have a lovely big 4K TV with sound at home. I've found many times the picture was too dim when I went to the theater. I saw Desolation Of Smaug in 48fps and 3D. That was unique.

    P.S. I wish they did more GoT IMAX events
    Last edited by neorev; 12-13-2020 at 09:21 AM.

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    For now, I guess it is nice to have the option for people that may be in worse circumstances depending on where they live to watch from home, but I sure do miss the theater experience and I think it would be a huge mistake to lose them all together.

    There is a certain ambiance when it comes to the theater that enhances the experience depending on what you're watching. I've only ran into a few theaters where the audio was subpar, but it never altered my experience to the point where it ruined the viewing or made me want to watch at my house instead. Sure, if a silly movie comes out and also on demand, it wouldn't mind popping it on, but the entire feeling of making plans with friends and meeting up, joking, laughing, talking about the movie in the parking lot, sitting in gum without thinking about getting sick... It just doesn't match up sitting on my couch.

    Imagine watching Endgame at your house alone, or with a few friends compared to those audience reactions me and others experienced? Lord of the Rings when the theme music plays? I do agree that people have become even more oblivious to their surroundings these days, and that bad luck of having a baby crying the entire time just infuriates me, along with all the other movie audience noises, but collectively, I still love the movie experience and am dying to go back.

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    My emotional experiences with movies rarely hinged on the size of the screen or the place I watched it in. It would often be equal as when I was a kid with my head less than a couple feet in front of my parents' average 90s tube tv than it did at our local theater or the nearby multiplex. OTOH more recently I knew there were certain films I had to see theatrically. The last one was Blade Runner 2049. The sound and vision was incredible and not to be missed. But I just had a similar experience watching it on my new 65" 4K tv.

    So I see both sides of the argument but I tend more towards streaming because of not just the technological advances, but the more practical ones of the convenience of being at home and able to pause if nature calls or if something urgent has to be dealt with. That more or less comes with getting older too, and maybe sways me more to this side of the argument.

    But I obviously truly hope this isn't the end of theaters, but I hope it makes everyone involved aware of the problems that were plaguing the business even before Covid. Not just for their bottom line and to preserve that precious experience but also for the sake of the work force that so depended on this for their livelihoods too.

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    I can't really add anything that hasn't been said, but from a personal perspective i really don't want to see cinemas close. I'm an introvert, and i have almost zero friends i can hang out with. I do have my family but they are a fair bit of travel and honestly, other then my nieces, they aren't great to hang around with (*cough constant racism cough*) Cinemas were my only real excuse to leave my flat. I had a cineworld card so i could go to a cinema as many times as i liked for the price of a netflix and a half a month. Forcing me to leave to see the latest Marvel, Scfi or rare Anime screening, without it i have zero reasons to convince myself to go out, especially now i'm being allowed to fully work from home. There's also the small issue of only having a 19" PC monitor that streaming would just...not look nearly as good. There's a special feeling seeing a film in a packed cinema and experiencing it with them, like with Parasite last year, if we lost that...that would be really REALLY sad.

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    As someone who, due to disability, doesn't go out to the movies, I'm okay with simultaneous releasing with both. I'd even pay movie theatre prices for that (sure, I'd pay 13.50$ for the duration for a theatre run and then pay 5.99$ as a rental 6-12months later... )

    But what I'm not doing is subscribing to multiple streaming services for that privilege. There's no movie or show I have to see in a pressing, time-sensitive way. I had to hop off the expensive hype-train machine a loooooong time ago.

    Exclusivity will do nothing positive for this...

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    Truly wonder how high of a priority people will find going to the movies once they're able to, for all intents and purposes, go out and do whatever they want. Seems smart to try to take advantage of everyone at home now and charge $15+ to stream a brand new movie.

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    I think once theaters open again, there will be a strong resurgence. It was something that was petering out over the last several years or so, but considering that it was taken away from us, I think once it's cool again there will be a strong attraction to go do something that we maybe took for granted before.

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    I'm pretty misanthropic in general, so for me streaming movies instead of the theater is a win.
    I just finished WW84, and I'm glad I didn't pay ridiculous $$ for tickets to that, and then have to deal with crowds (assuming a non-COVID environment).

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    Quote Originally Posted by Magnetic View Post
    I just finished WW84, and I'm glad I didn't pay ridiculous $$ for tickets to that
    I just checked out how much Apple is renting the movie for... 29.99$ ... I mean, 15$ a "ticket" for 2 people isn't too bad but also not something I need to do... 25$ probably have got me though...

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    I got the trial HBO Max to watch the HOF stuff, and lapsed into a subscription. Figured I would keep it until Christmas.

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    I should throw in at this point that physical media is important to this discussion, as it still has some advantages over streaming. I'm starting to buy movies digitally, but I still would rather have a good Blu-ray release with special features (which aren't as much a focus nowadays because of streaming becoming more a focus).

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    Quote Originally Posted by onthewall2983 View Post
    I should throw in at this point that physical media is important to this discussion, as it still has some advantages over streaming. I'm starting to buy movies digitally, but I still would rather have a good Blu-ray release with special features (which aren't as much a focus nowadays because of streaming becoming more a focus).
    This. I just popped in my Back to the Future blu-ray and the features on it are pretty awesome and wasn't a pain to set up like earlier blu-ray releases. You can say this for physical video games and even music in some cases, but I can see why digital is chosen over it by many nowadays.

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    It's a shame that the music industry didn't embrace DVD and later Blu tech as a new avenue for physical media. There's perhaps a lot of practical reasons for that, but the fact remains that hi-res music is still seen as sort of niche, and the industry is just as happy going the cheaper (for them) route.

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    I want movie theaters to come back at some point when it's safe to do so. Right now, it's absolutely not safe to have them running, so WW84's experiment is something I'm all for as well as what WB is doing with their 2021 slate (even though they clearly need to do more to compensate those involved in the same manner that they did with WW84).

    When theaters do return, I do want the experience to change and I do want them to mirror more of the experience you get at Alamo Drafthouse and other local theaters who make it more about the experience and less about cramming as many people as you can into a multiplex. I want small films that struggle via test audience to get released straight to digital instead of taking up multiplex space that could be used for more events similar to how theaters have been showing classic and other older films for groups who are interested in them. Less smaller screens, more bigger screens and IMAX for the movies that demand the technical experience. Send the arthouse stuff to smaller theaters and if demand builds, move them into the multiplexes. Shorten the release window and do things similar to what Universal negotiated.

    That's a lot of my random thoughts crammed into a paragraph above. I don't need to take sides in the distributor versus production company debate a la WB vs. Legendary, especially when the people you don't see in front of the camera get shit pay and have to cling onto every job they can get as opposed to high profile directors and actors getting the bulk of the pay.

    Anyway.

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    Quote Originally Posted by onthewall2983 View Post
    It's a shame that the music industry didn't embrace DVD and later Blu tech as a new avenue for physical media. There's perhaps a lot of practical reasons for that, but the fact remains that hi-res music is still seen as sort of niche, and the industry is just as happy going the cheaper (for them) route.
    Amazon launched a lossless/hi-res streaming services. Deezer has hifi streaming, Tidal, Qobuz, and more. Lossless/hi-res seems to be becoming more popular. If people want the highest possible visual experience with 4K streaming, you'd think they'd also want the highest possible quality audio experience. I constantly see people asking if Apple Music or Spotify will include lossless. It has seem to move beyond niche.

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    Quote Originally Posted by onthewall2983 View Post
    I should throw in at this point that physical media is important to this discussion, as it still has some advantages over streaming. I'm starting to buy movies digitally, but I still would rather have a good Blu-ray release with special features (which aren't as much a focus nowadays because of streaming becoming more a focus).
    And in 4K it's no question how much of a quality difference there is from 4K physical to streaming.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Kodiak33 View Post
    And in 4K it's no question how much of a quality difference there is from 4K physical to streaming.
    Having recently gotten a 4K setup, including UHD Blu-ray, I have to say I don't notice a huge leap in quality but then again I do have a higher internet speed and maybe if I didn't I'd notice more of a drop-off.

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