I can't believe this guy!

[Andrew Pratt]

Hollywood's 2003 summer session won't go down in history as one of the more profitable ones. Several big-budget flicks like The Hulk, Gigli, and Charlie's Angel's: Full Throttle met with disappointing numbers despite massive amounts of pre-show publicity and big-dollar talent. Movie executives are casting about, trying to find a reason for the low turnouts, and they've found a scapegoat. It's your cellphone--well, you and your text-messaging-enabled cellular phone.

That's right, text messaging is now responsible for the downfall of Hollywood, or so says Rick Sands, COO of film studio Miramax. "In the old days, there used to be a term 'buying your gross,'" stated Sands. "You could buy your gross for the weekend and overcome bad word of mouth, because it took time to filter out into the general audience." What Sands is essentially stating is that information flows much faster than it used to, and word of a movie's onscreen palatability now travels in hours, not days or weeks.

Text messaging is the key, complains Sands, because moviegoers are "txting" their friends while still viewing the movie. As a result, second week falloffs for films are at 51%, up from 40% 5 years ago. Movie execs are griping that their films aren't given a second chance because the movie comes and goes through the theater so quickly.

Right its our fault for not wanting to see a crappy movie...how about making a movie that reviews well instead of whining about bad reviews killing profits :roll:

[Burke Strickland]

In other words, he's upset that the studios can't scam enough of the public into thinking they are going to see a "hit" when actually the movie is "s..." (something less than a hit). :>)

How would Mr. Miramax account for Ishtar or Heaven's Gate (both big box office flops way before cell phones were popular)? I remember walking past the bank of pay phones in the theater lobby in the days before cell phones and overhearing excited movie goers calling their friends to tell them they really needed to see a particular show they had just enjoyed, or conversely, to change their plans to avoid seeing one that didn't measure up. Word got out on the really bad ones long before text messaging cell phones.

Burke
Spelling and grammar checked in MS Word. If you detect an error, please notify Bill Gates.

[Andrew Pratt]

I agree they have got to stop blaming technology for their woes...fact is people won't buy crap...goes for music and movies. The solution isn't to look for scapegoats rather they all need to stop and think what the real reason people have stopped going to over priced movies with no plot or stopped buying CD's for $20 that only have one over played "hit" on it.

[GregoriusM]

I agree they have got to stop blaming technology for their woes...fact is people won't buy crap...goes for music and movies. The solution isn't to look for scapegoats rather they all need to stop and think what the real reason people have stopped going to over priced movies with no plot or stopped buying CD's for $20 that only have one over played "hit" on it.

Amen! What a load of crap! Both his ideas and the movies he's talking about!

Garbage in, garbage out.

You put garbage in the theater, then garbage goes out on the text messages.

Put in something decent and the messages will reflect that.

What a crock! Does he phone his mother after each weekend to go Wah! Wah! when a film doesn't work out............ or maybe he just sends a text message to her! he he

[David Meek]

That's typical of the entertainment industry today. Blame everything except the sh***y product you produce. . . . Sheesh. Loser.
:evil:




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[Aeromos]

That's hillarious!! Doesn't he realize that people don't need text messaging or cell phones to spread negativity. A person who has something positive to say will tell less people than someone who has someting negative to say. It's almost as if the person who has something bad to say about something or someone is given a mission to spread the word. Someone in his position (the entertainment industry) should know better than anyone about this. Haha!! :LOL:




Aeromos
Enjoy life, it's too short to waste!!
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[Gordon Moore]

Hmmm how about blaming the fat cat execs who green-light *ahem* cr-aaaap?

Maybe on paper these are good ideas but somewhere along the way it falls apart. Be it direction, talent, editing...not sure. Why not loosen off on the already full production slate and take the time to fix the problem spots? So often in DVD commentaries you hear the director say "ohhh I wish we could have had time to fix this", or "This was cut for time". More often than not. Why don't the producers and other execs lay off the director's vision and let them make the movie they had in their mind? Often movies are cut short for time....why? Usually it's due to how many times they can show the movie in the theater (Titanic, Dances with Wolves, Lord of the Rings, even A.I. ,like it or hate it, bucked those trends). If it's good, people will go and continue to go back. If it's good.

I realize schedules are created for a reason...otherwise nothing would get done and the Lucas's of the world would constantly be re-inventing the movie....it would be years before we see the final project. Look how long Kubrick took to get A.I. off the ground. If you wait too long it may never see conception.
But if a movie has obvious problems...why barrel ahead??? Shelve it or back off the production schedule and fix the problems. ('Course the Matrix did that and ,so far, it wasn't a stronger product. It was more like a big f/x demo but I'm still gonna see the last one ) You won't correct things by creating a good trailer, promotional material...etc.

Take the Hulk, the kid promo stuff was incredible and was marketed to ages that either didn't care or were not even old enough to see the Hulk. It wasn't a kids movie by a long shot...the couple of kids I saw in theater were bored for 2/3's of the movie....I'm still not entirely sure what that movie was trying to be :??

So a bad movie in the end is simply a bad movie. You can't hide behind word of mouth killing a movie because , in the end, word of mouth will always do a movie in. It's just that word of mouth travels faster than ever before.




"A RONSTER!"