Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Finally, a voice of reason about the "slump"

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Topic: Finally, a voice of reason about the "slump"

Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 01-06-2006 06:01 PM

quote: Mark J. Marshall
That's a different kind of movie, Mike. No one had to push people to see Passion.

No, I guess the millions of promos that were sent to all the churches didn't help a bit. "Passion" was promoted just like any other movie, probably more so. It had many of the same things going for it that "Titanic" did: Everyone knew the story, it was a popular story, and a well-made film.

quote: Mark J. Marshall
The studios who originally shunned Mel Gibson should be following his lead to the bank. But they choose to leave all of that money on the table for some reason.

I agree with you that the studios were dumb to pass on "Passion." But, you seriously think a slew of non-English-speaking, Bible-related pictures should have followed it? Nope. You can't MAKE lighting strike.

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Mark J. Marshall
Film God

Posts: 3188
From: New Castle, DE, USA
Registered: Aug 2002

posted 01-07-2006 01:42 AM

Of course the promos going to churches helped. I said Narnia is a different type of movie, not that the promos didn't help.

And YES I think that Bible related movies should have followed Passion. Why not? They could probably follow it now and still be successful. Whether or not they're English-speaking is irrelevant, as Passion demonstrated, provided they're good stories that are told well. Why do you think that Bible related movies should NOT have followed it?

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Jack Ondracek
Film God

Posts: 2348
From: Port Orchard, WA, USA
Registered: Oct 2002

posted 01-07-2006 01:55 AM

quote: Jeremy Fuentes
All that matters is how your theater is doing. All the "crap" movies, like King Kong(a matter of opinion BTW) equal good weekends for us. Thats all that matters. Right?

... an interesting observation. Looking at the IMDB listings for '06 releases, I'd be wondering if I couldn't do better by filling my auditoriums with video games.

On the other hand, I don't have an indoor anymore, and most of the stuff coming out this year will play GREAT at my drive-in.

... go figure.

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Matt Fields
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 545
From: Ohio, United States
Registered: Jun 2005

posted 01-07-2006 09:37 AM

One of the reasons The Passion was so sucessful was that Mel decided to use the ancient languages.

There have been many Jesus movies over the years..."The Passion" was different in that it claimed to be authentic.

Also, I think that many Christians wanted to support somebody from Hollywood making a movie for them .

I remember many customers, the ones who haven't been back since, asking me: "Why don't they make movies for Christians?".

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Mark J. Marshall
Film God

Posts: 3188
From: New Castle, DE, USA
Registered: Aug 2002

posted 01-07-2006 10:04 AM

EXACTLY. But it wasn't just Christians. Jews showed up to see it too despite the idiots that were claiming that the movie was anti-semetic. Folks of other religious stripes also showed up to see it just because of its content. Something like 98% of the country has some sort of religion in their lives to one degree or another, and there are hundreds of stories in the Bible that could be told. They just need to pick one and make a good movie about it.

The fact that Hollywood hasn't picked up on this and acted on it yet strikes me as arrogant. They seem to be asking "Why aren't people coming to see our movies?" As if something is wrong with YOU the movie goer. Instead they should be asking themselves "What are we doing wrong?" Until they start honestly asking THAT question, the problem is not going to get fixed.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 01-07-2006 12:15 PM

The reason why Hollywood hasn't done more with the religion movie genre in recent years it because it is fashionable to be agnostic. The fashion trend is deep enough to make them stay away from making more religious themed movies. The fashion is overriding some valid pricinples in marketing. I'm not saying its bad to be agnostic, but Christians should not be made to fell ashamed for being Christians. Same goes for Jews and Muslims. Too bad some outspoken crackpots or violent nut jobs assassinates the character of anyone having faith.

Anyway, Hollywood used to make a LOT of religious oriented movies. The first CinemaScope movie was "The Robe." The most well known VistaVision movie is "The Ten Commandments." And "Ben Hur" got the Super/Ultra Panavision 70 process rolling toward a lot of use in the 1960s. All sorts of wide screen bible epics were being made in the 1950s and 1960s. There were even a few in the 1970s.

Overall I think the shift in movie making fashion to more grungy based movies at the end of the 1960s began the end of that trend. It almost goes hand in hand with the 65mm production format going dormant.

Now to get back to The Slump.

The down box office of 2005 is translating over to the home video market and then some.

Reports were released this week on DVD sales for 2005: a mixed bag of results. 2004 was definitely a better year. The DVD format is "reaching maturity" far faster than anticipated. Many movies have had to be marked down to really low prices, often far lower than music CDs in order to be attractive. Lots of DVD player owners have already populated their movie libraries with their favorite titles and buying habits are leveling off.

In the past DVD sales have been able to hide down years for Hollywood. The studios could use catalog title sales to greatly improve an otherwise bad slate of current titles. Now that most DVD player owners have bought up their favority titles Hollywood won't have the luxury of bringing up the past. More and more their balance sheets are going to have to stand on what they released over the past year.

2006 could be a rough year for video sales for several factors. Many people have just been renting DVDs due to the collectively lesser quality of 2005 titles on the whole. Who wants to actually own a copy of "Bewitched" or "The Dukes of Hazzard"? The brewing format war between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray will also hurt DVD player hardware and software sales. Now that both formats are definitely coming to the marketplace many folks will resist buying movies in standard DVD-V format. Gotta have "The Matrix" in HD-DVD -whenever I can get a HDTV that's worth a damn for less than a king's ransom.

On the HD front, sales are sure to be SLLLOOOOOOWWWW on those new HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players. Lots of people will be fully satisfied with the standard DVD format. The new players will need phone line or broadband Internet connections to authenticate players and discs. Who needs that complicated anti-customer bullshit? More reason to stick with DVD.

Anyway, the market in home video is getting murky and will put more pressure on Hollywood to deliver decent movies that play well immediately in theatrical release. They're going to need to do that, or those studios are going to wind up getting into a lot of financial trouble.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 01-07-2006 12:27 PM

quote: Bobby Henderson
Lots of DVD player owners have already populated their movie libraries with their favorite titles and buying habits are leveling off.

That describes me. I haven't bought a new-movie DVD in at least 3 years, I own most of the "oldies" that I want and most of my buying these days is TV show collections. And I'm running out of desirables there too.

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Phil Hill
I love my cootie bug

Posts: 7595
From: Hollywood, CA USA
Registered: Mar 2000

posted 01-07-2006 05:20 PM

Gosh Mike and Bobby, I don't agree with that. I keep updating my DVDs with some of my favorite new and old TV shows and features.

I think many people keep buying DVDs even knowing that a HD disc of some format is around the corner.

[ 01-08-2006, 07:27 AM: Message edited by: Phil Hill ]

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Steve Scott
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1300
From: Minneapolis, MN
Registered: Sep 2000

posted 01-07-2006 10:54 PM

Format wars may stifle a stalled market once these films come to stores this quarter, but retail stores will try to excite the buying public into buying both new formats and accepting none of the blame for the obsolete units sitting in joe blow's rack system. By the time its all sorted out, the winning format will have found its compatibility in $99 Home-Theatre-in-a-box systems, and I'll die just a little bit more inside.

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