Death of Cinema Part Three

Yeah, I wasn't around for Part One in the late forties and there weren't blogs in the 80's for Part Two when video tape was going to kill them. But we are around for the Internet. The death of theatrical releases still hasn't proven true.

(An off-side is that at the beginning of the rennaisance, they thought the same thing of the printing press in relation to books. Really it was about controlling content and distribution. Also Books were going to be killed off by audio recordings and later video recordings, but we have more books published now, than ever before.)

Of course if they keep raising the price of tickets dramatically, they will kill Theatrical release. Well, that and playing crappy movies. They need to slash prices at the theaters by at least a third and food by maybe half.

As for movies this past year:

They say that the economy will now kill movies and that the movies aren't making money. What most people look at are the biggest box office hits and major losers. But it's more interesting to see #11, #12 & #17 for the year, since they're not F/X or Animation oriented.

#11 Sex and the City
Budget: $65 million
World Wide Box: $415,129,126
DVD sales: $85,376,850
If you figure they take about 50% of all that, and subtract about $50,000,000 for advertising and prints; they made around $340,000,000 minus percentages for above the liners and residuals.

#12 Momma Mia!
Budget: $52 million
World Wide Box: $572,225,617
Figuring 50% of that, and subtracting $50 million for P&A; they made around $470,000,000 minus percentages.

Compare that to Dark Knight
Budget: $185,000,000
World-Wide Box: $996,889,925
DVD Sales: $158,737,619
Giving it a standard of $50 million for P&A. It did probably no better thatn Sex and the City around $340 million; though they'll get better merchandising.

By the same Calculations, Hancock did $250 million, IJ4 did $215 million, Kung Fu Panda did $195 million, Iron Man did about $135 million, Wally $105 million, Horton Hears a Who made $30 million, QOS, Mummy3 making up $ on the DVDs, Madagascar2 spent so much advertising that it will have to make it up in merchandising.

Twilight will be making a big splash, with a $37,000,000 budget and a box so far of $237,027,235 it's already in the black.

And not to forget #17 Juno at a tiny budget of $7 ends up with around $225 million.

Wanted turned around $110 million.

(Note all the above doesn't subtract above the line percentages of box nor residuals but also doesn't cover all other streams of income).

Point of the above, is that Big budgets sometimes equal smaller profits than lower budgeted films; which is not to say there aren't crappy low-budget films, or that there aren't great large budget films. But then there's sometimes ALOT of waste on large-budget productions and they aren't as challenged to be inventive to remain inside a smaller budget.

If you ever read on Hollywood accounting, it doesn't appear that any movies made money, but if they really didn't as often as Hollywood claims, the theaters would have closed years ago.

Star Wars: The Musical

At leat they didn't do 'Episode One'. Officially it's called Star Wars: A Musical Journey.

In the Christmas SPIRIT

Went and saw The Spirit tonight. Very stylized. Very comic-like. If you can appreciate the theatrics of 60's batman, then you'll enjoy this. I liked the noir look. I'll post more on this later, so I don't spoil it for anyone. Overall, an okay movie ... just nothing to rave about. There are a couple things in it, though, that I'll rave about later (in a good way). It's a Frank Miller film so it's not just stylized, it VERY stylized. Everything Frank Miller does is over the top, that's his style.

Hollywood futures

Taking the Hollywood futures to the next level.

I'm not sure that this will benefit much of anyone except the largest studios. Their design is too closed. What actually occurs on HSX is probably a better system. More importantly, the reporting systems would have to be overhauled.

Dream or Hallucination

I was up for way too many hours the last few days. I had a dream yesterday in my short sleep. I think it may end up as a comedic/fantasy. Y'know Princess Bride, Monty Python's Holy Grail, Willow ... that sort of thing. Now my keyboard is dying. It's ancient anyhow. The H and G keys are randomly not functioning. The N and M keys are almost worn away, with E being worn off soon.

Off to deliver the sister K to work.

Still Around

It's not that I'm not around, it's just that I haven't had sleep. And I need to take the dog to the vet today, and a dozen other things. I'm driving my sister to work because she hasn't had a vehicle for about 4 weeks. She was bad about protecting her information on the net, got her bank account cleared out ... twice, and then couldn't make payments on her truck. They repo'd it, and sold it, in under the time for state guidlines, so she can either find another vehicle or sue them for two years. Supposedly there's a good chance she'll have one by the weekend. But I've been running 2-3 times a day for that, plus runs for mom, plus meals for mom, plus trying to straighten things up.

*UGH*

It gets frustratingly difficult sometimes. One sister doesn't help, and just consumes, and is basically just a pain in the ass. The other is too consumed by her own problems, but at least she does dishes sometimes. I get to do the rest.

I know there's a contigent who wonder why I'm at home. I spent 10 years with my father and his cancer. It only was difficult in the last few years at the end. About a year after that, my mother went all Parkinson's and lost most of her vision. In between I went to school for computer technology. But then 9/11 happened and all the jobs went away, mostly outsourced to India. Then I was laid off, compounding multiple financial crisis. Et cetera, et al.

There were several other emotional roller-coasters in there, which I'm not blogging about right now. Basically, right now, I'm stuck. Stressed. Depressed. If it weren't for the internet, I'd probably implode.

Still Around

It's not that I'm not around, it's just that I haven't had sleep.

Buffalo

Was listening to NPR the other day. Steve Rinella was doing what he called a history of the buffalo. So he went to Alaska ... and shot one.

- shortly later in the show
(quote)
"We should all be glad that he's not an anthropologist."

Christmas Gifts...

15 ideas:



1. Pistol Hand Dryer - Talking about blowing your hair...


2. Two-Way Watch Radio - Just like Dick Tracey.

3. Darth Vader Tie Fighter Webcam - Look into the dark side.

4. Anime eye contacts - Now you too can look like manga porn!

5. Bloody Serial Killer Shower Curtain - For your favorite horror script writer!

6. Kickboxing Plug-N-Play Video Game - get that video game junkie some exercise.

7. Superhero Bobbleheads - For your lovable comic geek.

8. The Naughty Knot - let someone in on your Christmas cheer.

9. Knuckle Duster Mug - Don't get between a coffee lover and the pot.

10. Monty Python Killer Rabbit Slippers - The most foul, cruel,
and bad-tempered rodents you ever set eyes on.


11. Shooting Silhouettes of your Ex - Because keeping that anger in is bad for your health.

12. Yoda Backpack - Act like Luke Skywalker without making out with your sister.

13. Control Your Man / Woman Talking Remotes - Better than ESP.

14. OhMiBod - Getting off to the beat - MP3 music player vibrator adapter.

15. Kama Sutra : Oil of Love - Chocolate Mint - a tasty way to go down on you partner

Star Wars

Star Wars (now known as A New Hope)
Classic story structure put into a sci-fi setting. Because of this, it is the best of the bunch.

The Empire Strikes Back
Overall, a good movie. With the best cliff-hanger in the history of episodal movies.

Return of the Jedi
Meh. Incestous relations revealed, Wookies downgraded to Ewoks, and lots of other lackadaisical writing. Worst of the original three. Special effects never trump story. Probably the best thing was Leia in the slave-girl outfit.

- - -

The Phantom Menace
Just when you think the series couldn't get more provocative than incest, lucas goes for pedophilia with a nine-year-old Anakin(Jake Lloyd) and a seventeen-year-old Padme(Natalie Portman). Jar-Jar Binks who made C3PO look cool(not even touching the Jar-Jar french kiss candy). About the best part of this was the pod-races, as it made for a good video game. In fact, all the flying seems to be specifically to sell video games. That's not bad for the bottom line, but only if it doesn't detract from the story.

Attack of the Clones
Terrible Title, good action, but lucas had lost a huge amount of the crowd with his error in judgement for phantom menace. Now the main 'romnce' players are at least the same age(apparently using Star Trek Continuity). Zam Wesell rather than padme was the strong female. Padme's parts were missing the complexity that leia had. If Jango were a mandolorian, and storm-troopers were his clones, then genetic drift must have taken place by the time of episode IV as the troopers then were easy to knock-out and kill. Overall the best of the newer trilogy.

Revenge of the Sith
Lots of good points on this movie. Wookie warfare instead of Ewoks. The big battle scenes are cool, but lack the individual perspective that makes people love movies. Significant over-evilling of Anakin with the padawan scene. The worst of this movie is Padme. I died from heartbreak for anakin, rather than love my children. That's pathetic on a new level, and what makes this one a bad apple.

The Clone Wars
This one came down to small screen video game graphics for a big-screen movie. It should've just been direct to dvd. Again, this is directed more at selling video games and related merchandising rather than telling a great story.

- - -

So what could have been better? Well, I'll focus on the new movies since he was not limited by budgetary concerns.

The Phantom Menace
The kid should have been at least on the verge of teenager-dom. Age twelveor maybe a small thirteen would be a good figure. Remember, kids want to grow-up to be the hero ... Always. I would have probably used a younger Padme and an elder matriarchal advisor.

Attack of the Clones
Instant title change, not sure to what, but something better than this. I would have killed off the previously added elder advisor with the Padme deception. Given Padme a more girl-power role, and kept the focus on character rather than huge battle scenes. Make Anakin start the gradual descent to the dark side here.

Revenge of the Sith
Probably a different approach to Anakin's descent into the dark path. Padme should have died in child-birth, probably from injury rather than a broken heart. And the whole mention of midi-chlorians should have been avoided.

The Clone Wars
Live action or at least they should have invested in at least SHREK type of graphics. It's like sitting next to the X-box while someone else plays.

This is not a digg against Lucas as a whole, but he seems a tad out of focus with the movie-goer now. This is also shown by IJ4, but I'll save that movie for another post.