Around here, the only time movies are pretty full is when they show old “classics” movies. If they made good movies people would probably go back to theaters.

Give us a fun night out, not a fucking lecture.

Going to the movie theater in the 70s and 80s was a beautiful experience. I really feel sorry for the young people of today.

I was watching an old TV clip of Johnny Carson talking with Carol Burnett. Carol Burnett stated that as a young girl, her and the grandmother would go to the movies and she qualified that statement in saying she would go to the movies eight times a week. Though that time was when it was not so expensive but in my younger years as a teen, friends and I would pay for entrance to see a movie and hide after that to see it again. Rare times we would like it so much we would do it again. Not so today. Cost has gotten too high and the movies that are produced now are not worth that kind of money.

When everything is politicized

Sequels aren't a problem. Risking on new "franchises " won't necessarily help. We just need better stories - even if they are rude, gay, misogynistic, anything. Just make a good story.

Hollywood has truly lost the ability to tell a good story. Plain and simple.

Lots of ppl keep going to the Alamo drafthouse cinema theater just to watch old school movies

I feel sad but Hollywood single handedly did this. Knowingly. Just to please the modern audience which doesn't go to movies.

There is so rarely a movie I want to watch.... Like once rarely twice a year I go. I use to love to go.

Haven't been to a theater in over 10 years. Between the $10 popcorn and all the phone screens lighting up during the movie its just doesn't appeal to me anymore.

I'm sick of the people in the theater...

I watched “The Family Man” and “Girl Interrupted” over the weekend. I was completely blown away at how enjoyable it was to take in these films that were earnest ORIGINAL stories. The performances were captivating, the scores were memorable….it was like the people back then were interested in telling stories. I could not imagine going to a theatre with MULTIPLE films just like these. Truly it was a golden age and we don’t realize how far we have fallen. It’s no wonder no one wants to go to the cinema.

I would LOVE to go to the theaters, if Hollywood gave me a reason to.

In a lot of the opinion pieces, I see a lot of blame being put on streaming, but less on the fact that Hollywood is putting out way below mediocre products weekend after weekend.

Robert Myer Burnett is always a treat to listen to. He is like a cinematic philosopher, always articulating insights that few ever express, or repeating sentiments that others have expressed before, but doing so in unique and engaging ways. Thank you for inviting him on your program.

There was a time when serious people made films. This is not the case for 99% of films these days.

This is, without a doubt, one of the best group analyses of the failings of the film industry I have ever seen! Six people, all very knowledgeable, making salient points and, this is the main point, SUPPORTING EACH OTHER'S ARGUMENTS WITHOUT TALKING OVER EACH OTHER! I love Gary at Nerdrotic, but I can listen to about thirty seconds of nine people talking at the same time before I tune out! Great job to everyone involved in this video!!!

I was a lucky teenager. I'd go to one of many local independent theaters at least once a week in the 70s. Saw first runs of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Taxi Driver, Rolling Thunder, Annie Hall, Deliverance, Rocky, Star Wars. Apocalypse Now, Alien, Jaws, Love and Death, as well as big screen revivals of Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Two Lane Blacktop, etc. Incredible era--- we didn't know how good we had it. Masterpieces were an everyday occurrence. The last time I was in the theater was a couple of years ago, right after covid, when I saw The Northman, and the Pattinson Batman. I'll go again to see Joker 2, but sadly, the thrill of the 70s-80s-90s movies is long gone.

That beginning clip was mind blowing when I realized it included the only theatre that's in the town I currently live in. I watch movies on my home projector anyhow but seeing that blows my mind. The last film I saw in a theater was there and it was for Endgame.

My city where I live in Australia used to have 4 cinemas, 2 chain theatres and 2 indys. Now though it has zero, they only exist out in the suburban mall theatres

Folks will go to theaters if they think the movie is worth it, like Top Gun Maverick, FNAF, or Super Mario Bros. The problem is most movies aren't worth it.

Dante is right, during the Great Depression the film industry did great because people wanted escapism. Now a time when we need that type of escapist entertainment Hollywood has basically proverbially spit in the face of the general public, calling fandom toxic, pushing agendas and politics and basically showing its disconnect from the working class more then ever. That and bad storytelling are killing movies.

The movie theater chains/Hollywood lost the youth to Video Games, Twitch, KZfaq,Podcasts, Tik Tok, and even to streaming which the movie studios themselves created their own competition for people's time. There will still be theaters for an experience much like arcades or bowling alleys that are sometimes still around but it's cultural relevancy is starting to fade as all of our favorite movie stars are starting to age and pass away.

Anime, largely looked on by outsiders/tourists as predominately conservative media, is hugely diverse in numerous aspects. As Epic Mike said, It has genres for just about anything and all sorts of stories. The unfortunate thing is the Hollywood types are slowly infiltrating it and politicising it, much to the displeasure of most western anime fans who are looking to escape that nonsense and just be entertained above all else.

A buddy and I were just having this conversation a day ago after seeing Furiosa in an empty theater on a Saturday night. We were lamenting the state of films and cinema as we both went to film school and work in the industry. Many of these points came up but there's one that didn't that I think could be a contributing factor. It could be put in the politicization category. Not by the studios but by the actors that can't stop tweeting or putting themselves into a box for just a certain segment of the audience. I noticed a weird thing recently when I was backing up my movie collection to a Plex drive and there were many movies I love or are amazing classics that I didn't want to upload because the actors have become so political or such a hyper woke mouthpiece that it's impossible to separate them from the characters they play. I couldn't help but think this isn't just me feeling like this and wondering how much it could play into audience apathy toward movie stars in general. Yes the Hollywood agenda is lecturing the audience but I think the actors that can't shut up are ruining the turn out even for the films that don't preach and are actually good. There used to be a time when actors were coached and trained to give non-offensive interviews and the rest of the time either keep their mouth shut or just keep a low profile. No body knew the political opinions or life choices of movie stars. In fact the studios worked very hard to keep their private lives private. Sometimes for all the wrong reasons but there was an understanding the stars were the face of a product and could not just go on a bender and ramble off a bunch of rage tweets before passing out. There was an air of mystery about them. They could play any part because they didn't fit into any ONE box. But now actors feel like they need to make their lives and every waking opinion a tweet or interview that limits the audience with every condemnation of the people they need to come see their movies. Michael Jordan, when asked to comment on politics declined and later famously commented "Republicans buy shoes too". I think this mindset is sorely lacking in Hollywood. I don't think this is the sole reason but just one part of a perfect storm of terrible choices that I just don't see talked about very much by industry KZfaqrs. That's my 2 cents for the night. Great panel everyone! Always happy to get a dose of RMB.

With movies, we aren't trained to watch them. We no more need to be taught to follow storytelling than do dreamers in a dream. Movies aren't and never have been work. Games, on the other hand, are work. We MUST be taught to play them every time we pick up a new game.

I would say, “Belle,” for Japanese teens that also was well-liked by US audiences. “Suzume” is another one. “Godzilla Minus One” (and the Minus Color version) also did extremely well, too. The thing about these Japanese products is that they all have great stories, and have something that Hollywood has completely lost, these movies have soul and feeling. I have fond memories of seeing “Akira” in a movie theater with the aircraft carrier scene and being blown away. “The Weathering Continent” is another one with more poetry to it. Have to agree on, “Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass,” being one of my favorites, too. In none of these do I see myself and yet, these are some of my favorite movies and stories.

The expenses mixed with the low ROI as far as quality and the release windows shortening has all contributed. I think niche theatres and small movie houses will still be around and you may get a renaissance at some point but who knows.

You NEVER can miss with Mr. ROBERT MEYER BURNETT and VERBAL RIOT on your panel! - James D. Watkins

I go to the theaters quite a bit still, mainly because I have the Alamo Drafthouse Season Pass. It's about $20 a month for unlimited movies, paying normal ticket prices though per each ticket would be expensive though.

Movies we so fun in the 90s and 2000s. Modern movies just lecture and pander

Short sellers are trying to destroy theaters for profit, and you are trying to help them. When the movies are good, theaters are doing great.

The movie studios are making movies for themselves. For their interests. They forgot the customer and the customer said "forget you" right back. The movie theaters are downstream of the studios. I feel bad for them but they needed to band together and lobby the studios and im afraid several of them didn't have courage they needed

If i want to watch a movie, i wait for it come on VOD...the price is less than one ticket, no matter how many people come to my home to watch or how many times i want to watch it. No unwanted noise, loud speakers, my own concession stand in my house, more comfortable seating in my home as well. I can pause, start and stop the show whenever i please...why would anyone go to a theater...?

It’s interesting how film and TV are going through the decline that books seemed to have until the popularity of Harry Potter and Twilight. Kindle and Audible seemed to revive interest in books. Also, while TikTok seems to have shortened attention spans, paradoxically, long-form interviews and podcasts on KZfaq seem very popular. Nerdrotic’s and Critical Drinkers live casts exceed 2-3 hours, and Jenny Nicholson’s 3+ hour videos rack up tens of millions of views.

There are many actors now, after the floyd/blm/trump/wuflu bs I will never watch or rewatch

My kids love to go to the movies. The problem for the industry is that we dont need to gamble on the quality of a story anymore. Like we dont go see a new Indiana Jones on the chance that it might be good. Reviews make it clear now from folks we trust, like FT. 10 years ago, we'd take a chance, and if the film sucked we'd say we enjoyed the snacks, at least.

The message aside, IPs like Star Wars, Star Trek, Ghostbusters, are dated by at least 40 years. ET, War Games, The Goonies, were made for kids that parents could also enjoy, so why target parents with nostalgia their kids don't care about?

Hollywood killed theaters...

I went to the cinema in Nampa, Idaho. It closed 2 years ago. Sad.

Movie ticket sales in the US/Canada peaked in 2004. Movies have been in a slow death every since staved off only by higher prices and a global market. Video games blew past them decades ago as the dominant form of entertainment. Then you have KZfaq, TikTok and more. Movies are going the way of theatre. It'll always have a nice audience but it's time in the is in the past.

4 rounds of both _Dune: Part Two+Challengers_ on the big screen cement their towering reputations in cinema history.

i taught my boys to watch movies too- that's why they still enjoy the classics, and understand what a good film actually is. their friends seem so easily entertained by just anything, and my sons are genuinely sad for them, that their parents didn't introduce them to the old school movies. but i feel sad for my sons, since they DO know good versus bad, but also because i know good storytelling isn't a thing anymore and they may only have the old movies to fall back on from here on out.

I am a younger guy who’s always liked going to the movies. Most films these days I don’t go to see just due to work and time not being on my side but when I have time at work I’ll watch one or two. The other night I watched late night with the devil, sleeping dogs, and civil war back to back and while I didn’t like all of those I did enjoy seeing movies that were new to me and had different things to say

It also doesn't help that it's expensive just to go to a movie nowadays.

Theatres are at the mercy of studios based on product quality and streaming/home release dates. Also, inflation a big impact.

Awesome discussion, even if the topic makes me feel sad

0:44-0:50 The Regals in San Diego all stayed open after that announcement was made. As far as I’m aware, only one Regal theater from that announcement closed, and it was in Hemet, CA.

Last movie I watched in a theatre was The Last Jedi. Star Wars killing more than its own franchise. It's killing theatres.

Last time I went to a theater, a while family with kids were playing with their TABLETS at FULL VOLUME.... that was a long time ago.

Yes. They refuse to adapt. Instead of only showing movies nobody wants to see they could encourage more social events by allowing people to rent them for whatever they want to show. They could. It would work. They won’t however. So they will fail.

Theaters are dead because the films are too political, the movie goers are impossible to sit with and the prices are astronomical.

I was visiting Tokyo last week and went to see Kingdom of the POTA. A Saturday matinee showing. Every single seat of the 100+ seat IMAX had someone in that seat. The multiplex lobby was completely packed with people there to see not just POTA but other movies. The cultural shift happening in America away from movie theaters is not happening (at least not yet) in Japan. I think in America, kids just want to see stuff on their phones. They don't care about big screen and sound effects. 20-second morsels on Tik-Tok is all they need. I've got three kids that when they were little (12 and under) they wanted to go to the movies. Today, they are in their mid- to late-teens, and they don't want to go to the movies.

To save the movie theaters: (1) drop ticket prices to pre-lockdown levels (2) 180-day exclusive run (3) cut popcorn, soda, and hot dog prices in half

The "movie" experience was just centered around going to a theatre. It used to be you also looked forward to going to the video rental store (Hastings & Blockbuster) every week to see what new releases where out. One thing to add to the list is Hollywood killed their brands chasing the streaming dollar and the rush to put a movie on a service. Fallguy wasn't out a month before being slapped on Amazon to rent/buy.

Shout out to the Almao Drafthouse and Nitehawks keeping the movie going experience alive.

Lets put aside the obvious culprit of the increasing onerous cost and inconvenience of going to the theater in relation to cheaper and more convenient alternatives. Another major factor is people are being more and more conditioned to look inwards, with a sort of narcissistic perspective. Movies are about looking outward. They are aspirational. Hence, cinema at its best does not gel well with the myopic disposition of younger generations.

I am part of Generation Z and Candleshoe was my introduction to Jodie Foster. It is a movie that has stood the test of time. Even my Silent Generation parents like it.

This was a self inflected cost of the short sightedness during Covid by the people who run the entertainment industry. For a rebirth something has to die and before the industry can rise from the ashes it has to burn down. That is the cycle of all things.

That lone wolf Manga on Netflix is amazing

The main issue for me and my family is the whole theater experience. The ticket price, the food price. The other people's lack of manners, and the potential of a horrible movie make it not worth it. To see a movie where I love for a family of 4 is over $150. Nah we're good we can wait until Netflix.

Reduce the studio movie budgets by 80 percent. You can do so much with so little and adversity fuels creativity.

My local movie theater permanently closed down a couple of years ago. First time I've lived in a place that doesn't have a movie theater. If I want to go to the theater, then I have to go to the next town over and it costs over double what it used to. Now it costs at least $45 with gas, and higher ticket and concession prices. There are movies I probably would have gone to if my local theater was still open, but I skipped them as I wasn't going to spend $45 on them when I could just wait a couple of months and watch for free on those certain websites, wink wink.

I mean, to give the opinion of Average Movie Goer Guy, sorry, but I would rather watch the streaming service I already pay for than pay for gas, pay for parking, pay for tickets, pay for snacks and then sit shoulder to shoulder with people who might give me a virus or stab or shoot me? What would be the big draw? Also, we are all aware that theaters didn't exist at one time? Now we can watch a movie on the service I pay month to month for on my PHONE? Technology wins?

Anytime my folks were excited to go see a movie was enough for me and my brother to be all in, didn’t matter if it was mom or dad, we were locked in! Be it Murphys Law or Flight of the Intruder it was on!!! ❤️👍🏻🇺🇸🥃

home theaters are awesome. cheaper food. bigger menu. control over experience. remote control for breaks. less violence. 😂

woke killed the theaters & hollywood.

I teach middle school. It's the end of the year so we're putting on movies, but they're all on TikTok and Minecraft

The only movie I’ve gone to see this year was the 40th anniversary screening of The Muppets. Catching some Ghibli screenings later this year. If theaters pivot away from Hollywood, they just might survive.

The internet is a far better mind control tool than movies in a theater.

11:52 thank you

Part of me understands the modern audience.....in theory. Every decade has it's own type of audience. Changing trends and changing tastes with each generation. It was the job of the studios to play to the audience so the modern is not a complete fantasy. The problem is that they are trying to tweak classic stories from other decades for this current audience instead of giving them their own stories. It doesn't help when politics became the culture. People come to the theater or entertainment to escape life if only for a moment of time. The other problem is that studio and activists bombard the audience with the current message. We all know the message and escapism has been infected with it to a point where I'm in a completely empty movie theater on Monday in early 2023 watching Everything Everywhere all at Once. Not realizing until I get out of the auditorium that I was in an empty movie theater. That's how bad it's gotten. Could they make a comeback? Stranger comebacks have happened but a lot of things need to happen in order for them to comeback.

Whilst I agree with all your points, I think you are missing the obvious reason, that technology has caught up to cinema. We now live in a time with massive TVs, 4K, surround sound in the home, with streaming services offering advert-free movies in HD/4K on-demand. Combine that with the cost of living and expensive movie houses and it is no wonder why it happening. A movie needs to be special to justify an expensive trip to the cinema these days. Films like "The World According to Garp" as great as I agree it is, wouldn't do that well in cinema today I think, as people would wait till they can see films like that at home, knowing in a few months it would be there. Look at Ferrari with Adam Driver bombed in the Cinema, but has done very well at home. The analogy I would give to the death of cinema is the video arcades in the 90s, suddenly video games in the home were comparable to the arcades so people didn't need to go to the arcades to play the games. So arcades mostly closed and those left downsized and moved to either experiences you couldn't get in the home or away from video games completely.

At West Edmonton Mall, largest mall in North America, most of the films I have seen in the last 4 years are nearly empty. Ingrid Goes West is free on Tubi and I loved it.

Growing up I saw movies like Kramer vs Kramer and The goodbye girl

I’ve seen every anime movie Cinemark that has come out for the past two years. I make sure to go twice to prove a point.

What with constant ring tones, message beeps, lit screens, crap movies, expensive snacks and dirty cinema seating. I can get the same experience at home, and save myself a bunch of cash and inconvenience.

another reason. reboots with the woke "Re-Imagining..."

cell phone use during movies, another reason.

Cinema is dying because popular culture doesn't really exist in the way it used to, where everyone agreed on what was important. We live in an age where people can gravitate towards their preferred niche online, and theaters don't, and often financially can't, cater to these niches unless you live in a big city. I predict that movies will go the way of record stores. They'll collapse and later revive at a lower scale due to renewed interest in the cinema experience.

$25 million dollar projects are possible, but 10 of them are just as dicey as $250 million for 1 big franchise. With P & A, that's $50 million typically and in the domestic market you get roughly 50 cents per dollar at the box office. If the project is only for USA then you need to make $100 million at the Box office to break even. If it goes international then you will get like 30 to 40 cents on the dollar after duties and taxes, and then there is the currency exchange rate because USD is the global reserve currency. Nowadays HLYWD can't get money from DVD rentals or much out of VOD etc. or even sales of dvds and blu-ray plus streaming clearly doesn't pay much either. Just in general Hollywood needs to drop its budgets on any kind of project by 50% and theatre chains have to drop prices of tickets and popcorn to get butts in seats. They need more projects below $20 million in budget.

Honestly i could not care less. People are ignorant and don't respect others in the theater, it's ridicously expensive and I no longer care to drop 3+ hours to go there, stand in line, squeeze in and be annoyed by people on phones, screaming kids, talkers, and all the other crap that goes with it. I have a huge HD TV and an Internet connection, I can watch anything I want, any time I want and it's way cheaper. Cinema is a holdover from a different era, they're not needed anymore. I think eventually all these studios will give up on proprietary streaming services and we'll go back to 4 or 5 amalgamated services and that will be the norm.

I watch a lot of reaction channels and what I often see (especially from millennials) is a longing for the kinds of movies they made from the 80s to 2000s. They were just made better, with better stories, scripts and dialogue and even younger people can see it. So why would anyone go to the movies anymore aside from the occasional blockbuster that actually delivers, which feels like a rare occurrence in the last 5 years.

They need to do movies for all generations, I bet they'd get more viewers if they did, sad but not surprising

it's the economy, mostly.

Why go see dune part 2 in theatre's? If I wait long enough it'll be cheaper somewhere else. I can wait

Video games are the next to fall…

Teenagers by me ( Jersey) are going to movies . I don’t know where you live.

I must admit there is a lot of anime i would be happy to see at a cinema, but when they do come to my area few people seem to be interested. As for Hollywood movies, there is very little i am interested in.

Their only hope is to rerun classic films for a couple of years. Start a business that buys old theaters that only play old movies called $5 Flix. If you only go from 1950 to 2010 you won't run out of movies for a while. Have a special pop and a small popcorn for $5. Have a cheap date for $20.

Movie theaters will not die. We still have live theater right? Same thing will happen to movie theater.

I can watch, from my sofa, on my surround sound, 80 inch tv. That is why the theatre is dead

Dressed To Kill with Angie Dickinson, Michael Caine, Keith Gordon and Nancy Allen. Written and directed by Brian De Palma. A transgender movie character not allowed today cuz it doesn't fit the narrative, but it is possible and true. A story ripped from the headlines as they say.

another reason for the theaters failing is competing with streaming. cuz you can stream anytime, anywhere at your own pace. share with friends and family AT HOME!

Early Hollywood was Jews making Christian-themed movies to cater to that demographic because that was an advantageous business decision. We think that doing something for profit makes it corrupt but that's not necessarily true. Making a business decision that's ideologically stubborn is far more corrosive to the medium.

There’s literally nothing good lately besides Garfield and other random movies.

You guys are all wrong. People still go to the movies. I literally see them there. I had a great time at Mario, Barbie, Dune and Oppenheimer in the last year. The biggest issue that no one talks about is that shopping has been replaced and the recession. Once the recession goes away there’ll be more money to see movies. People don’t want to stay at home. Streaming is cheaper but becoming more expensive to the point that people might start cancelling and then streaming implodes. And also people use Amazon and other sites to shop instead of going to the mall. So, instead of a night out shopping, eating and going to the movie there’s a lot of people who stay home because they can get the experience at home. Once streaming dies down and people have money, they’ll be more money to be made from movies.

does it matter? art forms flourish and then subside - ask live theatre, or opera.

As I see it there are two main reasons for this: kids and 'woke''...for lack of a better word. The latter should be obvious to anyone. There seems to be this absolutist dogma about making sure that every artform, regardless of what or why, needs to always be towing the line on social justice issues. It's almost like they think it has to be the foundational framework for everything in the world, and it's just killing quality art. Not only does no one like to be constantly lectured to, no one needs to be. But since they see this as their duty to do so, and think they are being just and righteous in doing so, it's going to be incredibly hard to convince them otherwise. It would be akin to telling religions that they can't try and convert people anymore. The former is a little more subtle. I think the 'kids' who are making these movies and art are simply not experienced enough in the world and life to be making good art. They are way too immature, and it shows. Normally this wouldn't be much of an issue as the market would probably make it hard for them to have a decent audience. But the demographics are in their favor: Boomers are on the way out, Gen X is too small, which leaves almost the whole market share in the hands of Millennials and Gen Z. Corporations are very aware of this, and in response have basically written off Boomers and Gen X in favor of those two groups. Because that's where the money is and will be for the next few decades. It's a numbers game. That's why they keep backing these projects, everything is geared towards themselves. Narcissistic as all get out, but it is what it is.