Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Thank You Martin Scorsese!! Martin Scorsese Compares Marvel Movies to Theme Parks: ‘

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 10-06-2019, 09:02 AM:

Thank god there is one person left who appreciates real cinema!!

https://variety.com/2019/film/news/martin-scorsese-marvel-theme-parks-1203360075/?fbclid=IwAR0BkCns4sL8oqmgO0qOB_3SwzikMtpss6lQt735xLcGoMytpezOhtv21Ic

Posted by Aaron Garman (Member # 1653) on 10-06-2019, 09:17 AM:

I'll never understand the hate the Marvel stuff gets from an exhibition perspective. I can fully understand not enjoying the movies, but they make billions of dollars and get a large amount of people into cinemas. This in turn generates a lot of revenue for exhibitors.

What is not to like??

Posted by Martin Brooks (Member # 1269) on 10-06-2019, 12:21 PM:

The problem isn't all the superhero and comic book movies. The problem is that there doesn't seem to be a willing audience to see serious films in theaters anymore. There's no audience today for films like "12 Angry Men" or "Sunrise at Campobello" or the Truffaut or Louis Malle films. The first film the woman who I married and I saw together was "Closely Watched Trains", a Czech film. And we saw it in a local theater in a working class section of Brooklyn. Think 18 year olds are rushing to see films like that today? It's still surprising to me that a theater playing those kinds of films existed for so many years in that particular section of Brooklyn. Obviously, it's long gone.

And while I love Scorsese and most of his films, one could argue that the extreme violence that most of his movies incorporate is as ugly as the violence and destruction in comic book movies. He might incorporate better actors and rely less upon CGI, but take "The Irishman" and put it in space, and you have a comic book movie.

Hollywood always made a lot of garbage. The films that Scorsese loves were mostly seen by relatively few people. We tend to remember the great films, but if you pick up a newspaper from back in the day, you'll see that there was always plenty of trash - it's just that we've now forgotten about it.

Back in the day, there were enough people to fill art houses and they were viable because as cities declined, rents were low. But in today's world, it's hard for movie theaters in prime locations where real estate is expensive to survive playing any type of movie. And when leases are up, I expect a lot of theaters in many cities will close.

I don't blame Hollywood or its directors and writers. I blame ourselves. Hollywood generally makes the movies we want to see. And the enormous revenues that many comic book movies earn is proof that we (and international audiences, which for most films, is now the majority of the revenue) want to see them.

Adjusted for inflation, Spider-Man (2002), Spider-Man 2 (2004), Spider-Man 3 (2007), The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame and Spider-man: Far From Home all grossed over $1 billion each (Domestic + International).

But looking back 39 years to 1980, it really wasn't much different. The top 15 domestic films were The Empire Strikes Back, 9 to 5, Stir Crazy, Airplane!, Any Which Way You Can, Private Benjamin, Coal Miner's Daughter, Smokey and the Bandit II, The Blue Lagoon, The Blues Brothers, Ordinary People, Popeye, Urban Cowboy, The Shining and Seems Like Old Times.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 10-06-2019, 01:11 PM:

Thats not true here. The Belcourt, our art theater does gangbuster bidness and always ha a big line up. It may depend on the local mentality as to how good intellictual filma do in any given area. Clint Eastwood stuff still does pretty doggone good as does Fox Searchlight. Fox Searchlight movies have won more Best Picture Oscars than all the Comic Book films put together.

Mark

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-06-2019, 03:43 PM:

Well that's because the "comic book" movies aren't seen by the larger filmmaking community as "real art." It's the same mentality that guarantees that an animated film will never win Best Picture.

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 10-06-2019, 04:07 PM:

The Belcort is a very special place. Right location in big city. And from Stephanie on down an amazing crew. I see their grosses and they are great, but not Avengers great. And they are, after all, a non-profit and rely on donations to survive.

They prove there are people who want to see those movies, and there are ways to survive showing those movies. It's just not the business model that many theatres can emulate.

Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 10-06-2019, 09:08 PM:

You refer to the guy who whores himself out to Netflix ... scorning a theatrical release as the "one good person left who appreciates good cinema"?

Posted by Joseph L. Kleiman (Member # 3097) on 10-06-2019, 10:45 PM:

I doubt Scorsese would ever compromise artistic vision for mass marketing. Except for that one time he did it in Asia....
Scorsese's $17 million casino ad