An editorial by Azzam Abdur-Rahmann
Editors note: Forgot to post this before the year ended. Oops. That's on the editor, not Azzam
In a few hours we will be done with this wretched year. And while some catharsis will come with this a lot of pain still remains, one wound still keeps. We are a movie blog and to some degree the art form and watching habits we once held are gone. As we start this decade we start it without a Christmas where the movies are available to us. Theaters in most major American markets are still closed. But let’s talk about the good. I know I am
normally mister doom and gloom but we have a lot of good that happened this year.
Upside 1: Streaming Movies became
relevant!
I don’t know about y’all but Hulu, Netflix and Amazon originals don’t matter to me if they are shows. For so long I didn’t watch many of them and ignored them outright. 2020 took me and changed that. Hulu release Happiest Season which was legitimately amazing and probably would have been a sleeper hit in a regular world. The Lovebirds, a movie that was at best going to do a Stuber, did pretty well with Netflix audience. Project Power was surprisingly great and a movie I just watched Unpregnant deserves way, way more praise. The lamp of the theater wasn’t around for my dumb cinephile moth brain. I caught up on films I missed but also finally did what I should have done.
Upside 2: Warner Bros saved us from Disney.
Hear me out. I know tons of theater loving moviegoers are gonna say the HBOMax experiment this year is going to fail. And it is but that’s the beauty in it here. It does two things and upside three will explain the other but here is looked the house of Mouse in the eye and said raise me. Disney sat on a bunch of movies this year. Let us not forget Black Widow never got the Disney + Mulan treatment. They just held it. 2021/2022 is going to be an absolute onslaught of content. A full blitzkreg and audiences will be overwhelmed. Warner Bros tried the theatre release and Tenet bombed. So Disney is left hoping audience show up to the theaters for the movies they held while Warner Bros gets to test the slate in a way that absolves them of risk. Dune may get the theater release but who is gonna go? If Christopher Nolan cant get people in the damn door I doubt anything will. And guess what the Internet was talking about all day, Wonder Woman 1984. Disney was on the way to a full take over. Now they have to provide a good product. 1984 maybe lukewarm but I didn’t drive for it. I didn’t wait in line. No one talked during the movie and I watched it eating Pancakes, people are far more forgiving while they are ready to fight. WB won this round also... they saw...
Upside 3: Studios see they need the theater!
Let’s be real streaming isn’t the future. It maybe for those mid-budget rom-coms I love and comedies are going there but great movies require a screen. Uncut Gems doesn’t slap anywhere near as a hard in my house where I can runaway. Michael Bay bombastic hellscapes don’t work when my cat can interrupt them. Not every movie works WW84 was a good ass TV Dinner ( I promise I’ll have a review later this week!) but when I want a steak I want a night on the town! The theater chain owners are scared and for good reason the system seems rigged against them but I promise it ain’t. The game has changed and finally the studios see it. VOD isn’t saving movies it’s showing what audiences want most. Now I know it doesn’t feel that way but a movie, small or large, will get audiences back in theaters because some movies need an audience to give them life. They need a large screen and for the studios need big ass ticket prices. To the theatre chains let WB put a bunch of movies that will take up space and fail there. To smaller Studios struggling like Lionsgate and Paramount now is the time to strike. Release fun movies you can afford to try to do a run with and make a Netflix or Hulu contingency. Suddenly when a “The Greatest Showman” falls into your laps you still win. It’s going to be weird for the rest of this decade but is gonna be good guys I promise.
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