Movie studios pulling their movies too?

[Frank Angel]

I wonder how fast even the streamers can recover if the pipeline of new content empties. Note, independent studios not represented by the AMPTP (e.g. A24) are not involved in the strike so they can still make content.

No matter what the studios may claim, this is hurting them. It's not just the movies (which are inherently a delayed pain as there are completed features) but their TV and Cable entities have also stopped their content. One would think their ad revenue would suffer without such content. They'll be back to reality shows.

But there sill Is the possibility that the big name A list or even B list actors and writers working on independent productions, still members of SAG-AFTRA and WGA, may very well refuse to work in solidarity with their brothers and sisters. It might also be not in good form to be seen as not standing with all the other actors and writers and supporting them in their fight -- we know how PR and image-driven those folks can be.

[Steve Guttag]

I wonder how fast even the streamers can recover if the pipeline of new content empties. Note, independent studios not represented by the AMPTP (e.g. A24) are not involved in the strike so they can still make content.

No matter what the studios may claim, this is hurting them. It's not just the movies (which are inherently a delayed pain as there are completed features) but their TV and Cable entities have also stopped their content. One would think their ad revenue would suffer without such content. They'll be back to reality shows.

[Jon Dent]

Most are expecting Dune 2 to get punted to 2024 at the earliest since it's still in production and probably hasn't finished all it's re-shoots or ADR.

Aquaman just went through another round of reshoots and is expected to get bumped (again).

Ghostbusters is still in production and is shut down.

Guessing Wonka will have production shutdown as well unless they've already finished re-shoots and ADR (which this far out is unlikely)

It's looking really ugly if the strikes continue. We may even end up shutting down for a little while if it gets really bad.

[Mike Blakesley]

The old movies might do some business if the studios would put a little marketing muscle behind them. Considering that the Covid-draught movies were released with absolutely zero support, some of them did pretty well. Our best ones were "The Outlaw Josey Wales" and "Hocus Pocus." "Raiders of the Lost Ark" did pretty well too.

But yeah, this could be just as bad as the Covid thing. Maybe worse, since there's no telling how long it'll last.

[Frank Angel]

Like dirty union busting tactics like that have never been used before? I wouldn't call it the cynic in you but rather the musings of a wise man who has seen life!

[Leo Enticknap]

The cynic in me wonders if this is part of a "starve them into submission" strategy. As long as the movies go unreleased, the actors and writers don't get their cut of the gross, or any residuals.

[Frank Angel]

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts...office-strike/

Relevant portion of the article:


So.... what? We'll be back to having no new movies at all to play this fall like the situation we went through during the pandemic?

I tried playing "old movies" during that pandemic drought and discovered that almost nobody comes to see them.

It was hard enough to get people to come to old movies, even the great classics, pre-covid. Take it from some of us who ran retrospective/arthouse fare. The came covid combined with the explosion of streaming services and it taught movie-gowers that watching movies at home with a fairly decent system was a pretty good experience after all. Many people discovered that watching films without strangers in a dark theatre but instead with family and friends wasn't all that bad despite exhibitor's mantra that for a film to be "rewarding," somehow you need the "communal experience" -- you know...a bunch of strangers always a few of them rude and even more of them on their freakin cellphones. Even if past weekend's two releases -- Barbenheimer (who came up with this silly?) have SOME, not all, exhibitors running down the road with palettes of money on flat-bed trucks to the bank, it certainly isn't heralding in a new era of a wild uptick trend in theatre attendance. There is still the home theatre and still enough streaming services that your thumb can cramp up before you click thru them all. Regardless of all the money rolling in last weekend for these two titles, my gut says, a bright star in the east portending a long trend in box office blockbuster business, it aint. Those days are gone.

[Frank Cox]

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts...office-strike/

Relevant portion of the article:

If you didn’t get swept up in the funthis past weekend, though, here’s one more piece of sort-of-good news: you will have plenty of time to get in on it yet. Because the way things are looking, there won’t be another bona-fide blockbuster weekend at the movies for months. Maybe even not till 2024.

Just as movie theatre owners were showering themselves with celebratory buckets of melted butter this weekend, they had to also reconcile their box-office receipts with the news that MGM and Amazon Studios on Friday decided to pull the upcoming Zendaya-starring tennis romance Challengers from its September release and punt it to spring next year.

At the same time, rumours are running rampant that Warner Bros. is considering pushing its big fall and winter titles – including Dune: Part Two and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom – to dates unknown. It is anyone’s guess until rival outfits like Universal, Paramount and Disney consider pulling similar moves.

Suddenly, what was already a lightly scheduled fall movie season – there aren’t any films coming up in August, September or October that could hope to do the kind of blockbuster business of Barbenheimer – is looking as depressing as a bare shelf at Dollarama.

The studios would like moviegoers to blame all of this on the SAG-AFTRA strike, which along with the ongoing Writers Guild of America labour action, has shut Hollywood down.

Given that the SAG-AFTRA strike prohibits actors from not only showing up on set but also performing promotional duties for their films – including festival appearances, media junkets, red carpets and social media posts – studios think that if there are no famous faces out there marketing their wares, then audience awareness for new releases will be dire. Better to wait until the strike is settled and it’s business as usual.

So.... what? We'll be back to having no new movies at all to play this fall like the situation we went through during the pandemic?

I tried playing "old movies" during that pandemic drought and discovered that almost nobody comes to see them.