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The State of the Industry


Brian Dzyak

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Well, yes. Three cheers for that article and its consistently factual correctness.

 

Maybe they should make a far larger number of much cheaper movies, enabling greater risk-taking.

 

 

Costs so much to market movies now, that making more movies for less per movie doesn't make sense under the studio business model. This is because movies have become dependent on opening weekend. Which means big marketing spend.

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I thought they made the money on the DVDs and treated the theatrical release as a promotional tool. Or is that now an outdated idea?

 

Hey, I thought they were a theme park. I didn't know Universal made movies.

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I thought they made the money on the DVDs and treated the theatrical release as a promotional tool. Or is that now an outdated idea?

 

Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?

 

R,

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The author talks about shutting down 'At The Mountains of Madness' as if that's a bad thing. Really? Lovecraft isn't accessible to mainstream audiences in literary form. He has a cult following primarily composed of people who enjoy using their imaginations. That's not the demographic that throws money at movies with James Cameron or Tom Cruise attached. Studios shouldn't adapt stories that need to be dumbed down and FX'ed out to sell tickets. It's disrespectful to both art forms.

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Well here's an axiomatic argument:

 

"... If the general public ever heard the exact price tag of "Avatar" or "Titanic," they would flip out, but those films cost exactly what they had to cost based on who was making them, when they were being made, and how they were being made. ..."

 

Yes, if you insist on doing everything exactly how it was done, it will cost you exactly the same.

 

 

And here's where I scratched my head:

 

"... Tom Cruise is one of the few people working who I think is a genuine movie star. He opens films. ..."

 

Did he know that "Knight and Day" was made? Has he heard of the Oprah show? Yes Tom Cruise is a big star in that he gets great tables, paparazzi follow him and every detail of his life are a fascination for people. But his name can't open a movie. For example, Johnny Depp and maybe Christan Bale can.

 

 

Let me get this straight, it's a tragedy that a sci-fi horror story that most people have never heard of is not being made using the A++ list talent, director and producer. Every great, entertaining story doesn't need a Tom Cruise. Films like "Star Wars" were made with much lesser known people and comparatively lesser budgets. This writer needs to channel a lot less Jim Cameron and little more Roger Corman.

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The author talks about shutting down 'At The Mountains of Madness' as if that's a bad thing. Really? Lovecraft isn't accessible to mainstream audiences in literary form. He has a cult following primarily composed of people who enjoy using their imaginations. That's not the demographic that throws money at movies with James Cameron or Tom Cruise attached. Studios shouldn't adapt stories that need to be dumbed down and FX'ed out to sell tickets. It's disrespectful to both art forms.

 

 

There hasn't been a GOOD adaptation of a Lovecraft story to the screen IMO, except for the film IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS, which was really only reminiscent of lovecraft anyway. His writing is so subjective that it seems to cheapen it by inserting images into the text. Add some CG creatures and a watered down story and you have a bad Sci-fi movie, so maybe the shut down was a good thing.

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I agree, David. I am not a Guillermo del Toro fan anyway. He's way overhyped, IMO. The only film of his that I really enjoyed was Cronos, one of his earlier films. He needs to get back to that style. He's falling into the Hollywood trap recently of thinking he has to make giagantic, big, huge films. And by the way, Tom Cruise would be incentive for me NOT to see the film. Any why del Toro like Ron Perlman so much is beyond me.

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