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- The HTN Oscar Wrap-up
The HTN Oscar Wrap-up
PLUS: Prying the Theatrical Window Back Open
Hola Hollywood tech nerds!
In this week’s post:
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The HTN Oscar Wrap-up
No, I’m not going to cover the Oscar telecast, that’s not my beat! However, over the course of the past year I’ve written a few articles covering some of Sunday’s Oscar winners, so I’m resurfacing two of them for your reading pleasure!
As I wrote at the time:
I think people in the business and cinephiles typically overestimate how educated general audiences are on these matters, and frankly the business did the moviegoing public no favors with the 2010s-era glut of unnecessary 3-D releases. During this time period, going out to the movies would include a fat $2-4 surcharge per ticket for — aside from the Avatar films, Werner Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams, and a few select others — 3-D retrofits that turned out dark and ugly…
Unlike 3-D, the value of large format presentations is immediately apparent to the casual moviegoer… Coogler’s simple, helpful breakdown of these formats is welcome.
I stand by everything I wrote in that article except for this line:
My (complete lack of) desire to see this movie notwithstanding, faithful readers know cool theater experiences are one of my constant bugaboos so I will always favor any instance where audiences are encouraged to go out to see a movie.
You know what? I do want to see this movie now, and I regret being a weird snob about it. That said, at least I wasn’t so crass as to cut their acceptance speech short!
I didn’t write about this directly, but The Film Stage has a fantastic interview with OBAA editor and now Oscar-winner Andy Jurgensen at the link above. Check it out!
Prying the Theatrical Window Back Open
Regular readers should be unsurprised that I opened the trades the other day and read news that put a giant smile on my face (instead of a rictus of Tilly Norwood-generated rage):
Universal will be extending the exclusive theatrical window for its 2027 movie releases to 45 days (seven weekends), Deadline has confirmed.
You’re reading that correctly, the major studios are at last waking up to the reality that their tech- and COVID-influenced theatrical window-shortening has been an unmitigated disaster for everyone: studios, filmmakers, audiences, and the business as a whole. Only streamers benefited from the rush to quickly conclude theatrical runs.
More from the above article:
Among the major studios, Disney is already leading the charge post-Covid with an exclusive theatrical window of 60 days to PVOD (and even longer to streaming, sometimes 90-100-plus days). Its version of day-and-date during the pandemic was levying a surcharge to Disney+ subscribers for movies such as Mulan, Jungle Cruise, Cruella and Black Widow to name a few.
Keeping theatrical windows open longer has been part of my very simple list of recommendations to revitalize moviegoing in our current era:
Extend theatrical windows to 30/45/90 days over time
Reduce theatrical pre-shows to 15 minutes
Expand matinee-pricing hours
Increase repertory screenings
Build more large format venues
Budget for cheaper films that can take bigger swings
Kernels (3 links worth making popcorn for)
Here’s a round-up of cool and interesting links about Hollywood and technology:
The secrets of The Secret Agent’s cinematography. (link)
The AI bubble is an information war. (link)
Gamers’ worst nightmares about AI are coming true. (link)