What killed the Blockbusters?

What happened to the good old days of mega-block-bluster movies everyone waited for?

  • Woke culture got hold of Hollywood and its now all trash.

    Votes: 33 55.9%

  • The Pandemic showed companies there was more money in streaming... bye-bye high-cost movies.

    Votes: 7 11.9%

  • We're just in a dry spell, it will pick up in a year or two...

    Votes: 2 3.4%

  • The era of big blockbusters and "wow!" movies is over now. We just have to accept and adapt.

    Votes: 7 11.9%

  • Other (comment)

    Votes: 10 16.9%
  • Total voters
    59
  • Poll closed .
N

neoprema

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So, i'm sure everyone here remembers the days of queuing for a new Star Wars, rushing to get IMAX tickets for Avengers, laughing at the great humor in between action in 007, eating 2KG of popcorn through 4 hours of Hobbits, wishing we had the cars in FF etc etc.

These days i feel we just don't have that feeling of "man i can't wait for X date to see Y movie! Especially in IMAX/Big-Screen"

PS - not saying whether or not one wants to see a movie on the big-screen vs TV at home, i'm saying the excitement we had with such good movies coming seems to be lost..

What in your opinion has caused this?
 
Other. Greedy Executives pushing bad movies with bad scripts though purely on a marketing gimmick or nostalgia factor.
the truely memorable movies had rewatchability, and they hold up years later because there is substance to the story.
but now its nostalgia bait (ghostbusters, Jurrasic park, Top gun Maveric)
and people ate that up in the past because it was filler between experiences like the Matrix, Lord of the Rings, the First Pirates of the carribean, Batman the dark Knight, the 2012 Avengers movie and many other examples like that. there was at least 3 movies a year that was not just good, but an experience. watching it changed something in you.

now there is so much more filler that finding a movie that leaves an impact is difficuilt.
I have seen a few good movies that came out in the past 10 years, but nothing that really left an impact and made me want to watch it again.


the real reason is the impact of ultra short form content on the Zeitgeist. people are struggling to get invested in a 30 min Youtube video never mind a 2 hour movie.
combine those two things, the executive greed in hollywood and the short attention span and you have the state of cinema today.
and its only going to get worse over the next 2 years as the impact of the writers strike starts making its way to theaters.
and then its going to get EVEN worse when the AI generated movies start making its way to theaters.

were going to go fully into the world of Idiocracy and everything is going to just be "ow my balls" soon
 
All of the above.

1 - A trip to the cinema is costly.
2 - Hollywood is running out of fresh ideas. See all the reboots and rehashes.
3 - When Hollywood does land on something good, they beat it to death. The Marvel films being a great example. The build up to Avengers Endgame and Infinity War was lightning in a bottle with almost every movie hitting the mark. Now we have been hammered with series and more movies and it just too much. Burn out.
4 - The pandemic has changed the way a lot of people behave. People took to e-stores and delivery services during the pandemic and have largely stuck with it since, hurting brick-and-mortar stores. Cinemas, similarly, have been hurt by streaming services, which surged in popularity during the lockdowns and people haven't really changed their viewing behaviours since, preferring to stream from the comfort of their homes.

The woke stuff is overstated. The all-woman Ghostbusters didn't flop because it was woke-SJW-libtard, it flopped because it was yet another shitty reboot nobody asked for.
 
Other:

Creatively bankrupt. Everything is a sequel, prequel or requel. There's hardly any original thoughts out there anymore.

That - and I hate people...I especially hate people in cinemas with their phones out or their screaming babies or seat-kicking toddlers.
 
I went to blockbusters many years ago, looked for 2 movies that was released a while ago, they said it is still coming, might be in the next few months, so I went home and downloaded both of them and watched them, that is what killed blockbusters, availability.

With Movies and series being so easy to get hold of by legal or less than legal means, there is no reason to drive somewhere, watch the movie and have to take it back, its an archaic concept in this day and age. Like my parents used to tell about them making a whole night of going to the drive in and watching the movie with other people in their cars, the concept of going to the cinema or renting a dvd is foreign to todays generations
 
thestaggy said:
The all-woman Ghostbusters didn't flop because it was woke-SJW-libtard, it flopped because it was yet another shitty reboot nobody asked for.
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Do you think the new one released this year would be any better?

I have to be honest, after the all female cast one I have not even watched the trailer for the new one.

Oceans 8 was the same effect, so was Transporter 4 and the subsequent series that only lasted one season.

We are telling the world what we want to see but they are ignoring that and grinding out all the crap you get today.
 
R4ziel said:
I went to blockbusters many years ago, looked for 2 movies that was released a while ago, they said it is still coming, might be in the next few months, so I went home and downloaded both of them and watched them, that is what killed blockbusters, availability.

With Movies and series being so easy to get hold of by legal or less than legal means, there is no reason to drive somewhere, watch the movie and have to take it back, its an archaic concept in this day and age. Like my parents used to tell about them making a whole night of going to the drive in and watching the movie with other people in their cars, the concept of going to the cinema or renting a dvd is foreign to todays generations
Click to expand...
I think you misread the question....
 
As you say there's a distinction between hype for a movie, and people actually going to a cinema to see it.
Are the movies the same but now there's just more ways to consume it quicker so it appears as if there's less hype?
Also as we get older doesn't our general excitement for anything in life die down? I can tell you my kid is proper excited for the next Miles Spiderman movie, and the next Sonic.
And we want bigger and more dramatic so now one superstar in a movie isn't enough - we need 3 from different movies to come together in one mega blockbuster.
Like right now I'd argue there's a big deal of excitement around Deadpool and Wolverine. Will a bunch of people excited for it simply wait for it to come to Disney or wherever? For sure. I'm probably one of them. A few years back I might have been one of those queuing to see it. So while it'll still be a hit, it might not be the sensation it might have been ten years ago.
 
Dune: Part 1 and 2 are well worth seeing in cinema.

Having watched Furiosa and Fury Road, those would have been worthwhile to. Problem is simple, its too expensive to take the chance on a sh** movie.

Only go to cinema for those I REALLY REALLY want to watch on big screen and sound, and I've been burnt a few times by cinema's having crappy sound or a broken speaker somewhere causing aural issues for me.
 
Kosmik said:
Dune: Part 1 and 2 are well worth seeing in cinema.

Having watched Furiosa and Fury Road, those would have been worthwhile to. Problem is simple, its too expensive to take the chance on a sh** movie.

Only go to cinema for those I REALLY REALLY want to watch on big screen and sound, and I've been burnt a few times by cinema's having crappy sound or a broken speaker somewhere causing aural issues for me.
Click to expand...
That’s the point of my post - where are those movies that made the people above who don’t like going cinemas say “what the hell we have to go it’s gonna be so epic!” And just go.

True I agree home theatre is now basically in everyone’s hands with large screen TVs almost cheap as chips compared to just 5 years ago. But I still feel apart from the tech - story wise nothing is making us leave the cinemas or our tvs - with our minds and imaginations blown anymore.
 
I think streaming services like Netflix have mad it easier for creative storytellers to make lower budget movies and still be successful.

Previously a good storyteller had to convince a studio to fund a multi million dollar project so that they could make a movie, the studios naturally mostly funded movies they knew would do well, so we got "Pop" culture movies made at scale by great storytellers.

Now, you can make a movie for somebody like Netflix at a reduced cost and risk, so the really creative people make the movies they want to. Not what will sell the most tickets.
 
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