On 12/16/06, Manar Hussain <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Or maybe movies are getting better:
http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/12/did_movie_quali.html
<SNIP>
Did movie quality go up this year?
By Marc Hedlund on December 07, 2006
Every year, disgruntled movie critics overstuffed with aging popcorn
write some long diatribe about how far the great movie has fallen in
recent years. Every year, we keep going to the movies.
So let us differentiate here between the "Movie Industry" and movies
that get released. Because really, these same arguments get brought
out in the "Game Industry" as well, and I think there is a legitimate
critique to be made.
Go to your local mega-super-plex theater (or EB Games or Walmart of
you want to follow my game line of flight). Of the movies he lists,
the following were available (and I'm probably exaggerating, but bear
with me) at my gigaplex:
* Dave Chappelle's Block Party
* An Inconvenient Truth [On one screen for one week]
* Flags of Our Fathers
* Casino Royale
So significantly less than he lists. Now if I go to my local
independent theater, I probably could have caught most of those films,
true. However, "The Industry" really isn't all that interested in the
rest of those movies. Their bread and butter is what shows up at the
megaplex. Many of the other movies are experimenting/proving grounds
or "prestige" titles
(http://www.costik.com/weblog/2006/11/why-are-there-no-prestige-games.html),
which is why you have separate studios doing the work. If you detect a
runaway hit, you move it to the megaplex.
(A brief aside, Braveheart premiered in the US in May of 1995 in my
town it was released on one screen at one theatre. It was not until
nearly November and December when the film began receiving press and
nominations that it was re-released at nearly every theater in town
and often on multiple screens.)
So while those other movies were really good (and Netflix has
definitely made an impact here), I don't think they're what
"overstuffed" critics are talking about. What they want to see is some
experimentation at the megaplex.
It should bother us that really innovative titles get lost because
they're never given a chance by marketing or folks who decide what
shows up on the shelves or on the screens at the locations where the
majority of viewers/buyers go to make their purchases. This isn't to
say that never happens (American Beauty comes to mind), the point is
that it doesn't happen enough, and cinema goers seem to time and again
be smarter than they are given credit for.
Casey
