War of The World
The movie business is abysmal right now. Sales have been down. According to an article in The Wall Street Journal "weekend box-office receipts have been down for 18 straight weekends, the longest stretch recorded in at least two decades". Also according to WSJ movie chains are at the mercy of Hollywood, which is a content-driven industry. In other words we all knew the principles we learned in grade school—I'll call it "show-n-tell", for lack of a better word—that is "content is king."
If content is king, and by content we're talking about original, entertaining, and _______ storyline, then Hollywood has lost this focus. Instead of gambling and taking chances with great stories (see Batman Begins, and the stalled Darren Aronofsky's "Batman: Year One" project) studios have resorted to formulaic and dull reworking of old materials. Let me prove this point with the Gross Box Office for the weekend of 6/24-6/26
- Batman Begins
- ** Bewitched **
- Mr. and Mrs. Smith
- ** Herbie: Fully Loaded **
- Land of the Dead
- Madagascar
- Revenge of the Sith
- ** Longest Yard **
- Sharkboy and Lavagirl
- Cinderella Man
Of those ten movies, three are remakes. And on slate to be release are: War of The World, Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, and Dukes of Hazard. That is the state-of-affairs for young Hollywood screenwriters, forced to rewrite old materials.
What are the real problems?
One: Lack of innovation. Production on a typical film involves a bunch of people-talent and energy as well as money. So to downplay these inherent risk movie studios put together a package, starting with the talent agency (thus packaging Bruckenheimer, Michael Bay, Bruce Willis), spreading risks with multiple studios (see War of The World article below), and prescreening to audiences. With so many opinions it becomes a process by committee. Gone are the days of Billy Wider, Stanley Kubrick, Akira Kurosawa, and James Cameron.
Two: Enhance the moviegoing experience for those of us who don't live in Hollywood. In Hollywood they throw a big party for new releases. And if you're lucky you'll get a Q&A session with the Producer, Director, and Screenwriters. If you're lucky. What do we get here in Silicon Valley? A line full of teenagers and pre-teens who hand over $10 to get out of the heat.
Why not give away a prize for those attending the movies? For every screening give away a couple of iPod Mini™ by raffling away your ticket stubs. And for those who didn't win keep your ticket stubs because 4-6 months down the road you'll get a discount on the DVD released.
Three: With the advent of digital filmmaking and ease of creating DVDs why not sell the DVD the day the film is released. We know that instead of fighting illegit companies like Groskter and StreamCast, why can't the studios come up with a way to allow downloading of a film in the way of iTunes.
For example I'm expecting to see War of The World this weekend. I have heard of the Tom Cruise-Katie Holmes-Scientology marketing bonanza as well as having somewhat of a respect for Stephen Spielberg points to me enjoying the film. Now if I enjoy that and walk out, go up to a counter and purchase the DVD now for full price.
Another example would be tailored towards family folks. Let's get everyone out to the movies by incentivizing with "Buy Three Get One FREE" ticket deal.
My sister used to work for AMC back in her high school days and one advice she told me was that the 4th of July weekend is the biggest attendance for movie chain. Well for my part I, along with my siblings and Dad, will help with the fraction of the pie.
Having say all that anyone heard good reviews of War of The World? Anyone want to see it?
I think the cure for Hollywood would be for us, movieviewers, to go see 'good' movies. Let's go watch independent films or foreign films. Tell some real stories. Let the little dogs catch some of the action. Don't let Bewitched or Mr. & Mrs. Smith become blockbusters.
Arv I agree that in order to fight these formulaic summer movies one can make better decisions in terms on what we choose to see. i.e. more indie films.
I wouldn't touch Bewitched with a 10 foot pole. I saw Mr. & Mrs. Smith which was entertaining (Doug Liman of Go, Swingers helmed it). But I forgot the storyline like a day after.
Interesting note on Mr. & Mrs. Smith. I saw it at the Mercado AMC and they were asking us for feedbacks...of the trailers you see which one do you want to see. Weird. Why?