What's going on everybody it's been a minute since I've made a discussion Article I tend to make these when there's a topic that I actually want to talk about not just to make the article I really have things I want to say about some things I've noticed this year 2020 has been such a strange year for god's sakes I think a lot of us just kind of want to sleep is it just me or does everybody want to take a nap when it comes to movies anyway this year started like any other year there were films released every weekend January happened who would have thought that January was actually a prime real estate for movie releases this year but it ended up being we started seeing more movies come to streaming universal released a lot of their films like the hunt and trolls world tour and all these films that came streaming pretty quickly and that felt pretty monumental at the moment.
But today warner brothers said that their entire 2021 slate of releases will go straight to HBO max as well as theaters that are open on the same day Netflix Hulu Disney plus you guys need to get yourself some movie releases and you got to get him quick because damn ah men in black the good old days this choice by warner brothers really started me thinking about this year and how I've processed the films that i've seen and the difference between seeing them in theaters and at home beyond the obvious is kind of gargantuan for me i started this year thinking movie theaters is the only way i want to watch new movies and i ended this year thinking i'm okay with options it was weird because i've always been a big supporter of the theater and i still am i miss it very much since bloodshot in march the only movies i've seen in a real theater were tenet and the new mutants i believe if i'm forgetting something i'm forgetting it but i also have gone to the drive-in this year because there's a drive-in near me which is really nice so if you got a drive-in near you you've probably had a nice summer filled with movies but most people don't have drive-in theaters near them and so it's been a weird year for us film lovers but i also started thinking about the average moviegoer most people don't go to the theater that much let's face it we're weird man like we we go to the theater for movies we don't even really have an interest in just because we want to watch them and talk about them with our friends because we're crazy like and i'm one of those people the average person though is like why did you go to a theater to see smurfs the lost village and i'm like well because i did what do you what are you trying to say man you want to start some seriously though.
This decision is interesting because one of the reasons theaters have a hard time making money is because studios require a percentage of the film that's being shown of the tickets they sell to be sent back to the studio if a studio like warner brothers does not require that percentage and is making money also on hbo max then the theater can actually make more money from the people who buy a ticket to go see the film now granted less people will go to the theater more than likely those people who don't normally go to a theater will watch the film on hbo max and i'm no financial analyst but that could also be really good for theaters granted small theaters like for instance the nightlight theater in akron ohio which i love and tends to play india releases only are going to suffer because of this which is sad and trust me as i've said i love going to the movies and it's very important to me but i also recognize that supporting the movie business is also a big part of it you can't get movies if there aren't people who make them and you have to watch them and find a way to support them no matter what otherwise you're not going to get as many films that's just the way it is the main drawback of going to a theater nowadays is the potentiality of sitting next to someone very annoying who doesn't care about the experience or you get somebody who's shining their flashlight or their cell phone through the whole movie talking really loudly to their friends even vaping or sometimes heaven forbid smoking in the theater this happens this has happened in front of me it's happened to people who go to theater all the time that's the main reason that most people loathe going to the theater who appreciate movies is because there's always this this little part of you that's like i'm really excited for this movie.
But there's the chance that somebody horrible is going to sit next to me and ruin this thing that i've been excited for for months or maybe even years you don't have to worry about that if you can watch the movie at home first but here's the other thing if you really still want to go to a theater to watch say dune which i will probably want to the people who would normally go to a theater who don't care about the movie experience who will be on their phone the whole time who will vape during the movie or talk really loudly or whatever probably won't go because they can just watch it at home on their couch and do that anyway because that's how they feel when they're in a theater they feel like they're sitting on their couch at home and they don't have any empathy for the people around them so they're going to be less likely to go to the theater if they know they can just watch it at home which means that you someone who really appreciates the movie theater experience can go to the theater and have a less likely chance of running into somebody who doesn't give a about the theater experience so do i think that this choice will result in the death of the movie theater.
I think that that is something that people always want to talk about even just having universal release a few streaming movies earlier this year that were a couple weeks old that got people talking about the death of the of the movie theater disney plus with their mulan thing they did and all of that i think that it's really easy to talk about that it's really easy to get wrapped up in that i think that all this means is change there is some really good change that i've already talked about the fact that theaters will be able to hopefully make more money because studios won't request as much of a premium on their tickets hopefully they follow through with that and that actually happens i think that change is always scary i think that as people we appreciate a routine of some kind we like when things are predictable in a way we like being excited but i think in general people want to know what's going to happen and one of the reasons why this feels so strangely is because the world we live in nowadays is so quick and this is the main topic i really want to discuss the fact that news happens every day something that seems really gargantuan one day next day you're probably not going to give a back in the day they used to call that yesterday's news but nowadays it's like last hours news it's so quick now that we tend to not really retain things as much and this happens with movies now as well on streaming at least in my case despite the world being insane in 2020 at the start of it there was one thing that was very consistent there was always a new movie every single weekend in theaters at least one whether it was a wide release or multiple indie releases and then there was also some vod stuff that was consistency you could count on it was always the same and it was comforting it was a routine now is different like what november.
We didn't know what the was going on with wonder woman and now it's coming out on christmas on hbo max and it's just like boom there it's happening now you know what i mean wondering what's going on with mulan all year or no time to die or black widow or all these films that seemingly are up in the air it's strange to feel like there's no routine and movies were one of the few things that did still feel consistent and very normal once a week always new movie to talk about now it doesn't feel that way anymore and that scares people i think it scares movie lovers it scares people who love going to theater and filmmakers of course it because it's change at some point there will be a new normal whether that's theaters accepting the fact that they can have a film but it's also going to be streaming and studios looking at what that could do to a theater and saying you know what we're going to remove our premiums on your tickets and we're not going to take a percentage anymore as much as we used to and we're going to understand that this is a strain on you and like that's on studios to support theaters in that way too so people can go to a theater if they want to see it and know that they're supporting their chain or their local independent theater and know that they're not also supporting studios that are also making a ton of money at home from people who don't go to the theater because this year.
I've noticed that streaming movies has been less memorable for me it doesn't feel as much like an experience and i certainly am not retaining as much about the film or the experience as i do when i see it in the theater i don't know if everyone else is having that experience as well but partly it's because similar to the way we digest news nowadays like so quick movies are becoming that way every other week some random giant movie drops on hulu or netflix or something and it just there it is and it you watch it in your bed or on your couch or whatever and it's gone it just came and went and it didn't feel like there was any anticipation or build up it's sort of the same way that i feel about binging a show on netflix versus how i'm watching the mandalorian right now i'm really enjoying the mandalorian because i forgot how great it is to get one episode of something a week and have an entire week to digest it and think about it and talk about it with your friends and watch it a second or third time and just feel like you experienced that episode and then get excited for the next one whereas when you binge a show it kind of just goes in one ear and out the other was this really entertaining experience you had but then unless you're immediately binging it a second time you don't really retain it or at least i don't i can't speak for everybody i don't retain it as well as when i watch like an episode a week so movies now feel like the news i look back on movies that i saw in theaters movies that i didn't like and that weren't particularly memorable and i realized that for me this is very true i thought about slenderman damn that was a bad movie but i remember exactly where i was sitting in the theater in the back to the left in a reclining seat and i remember specific scenes that my friends and i laughed at i remember filming the review after it i remember standing in the parking lot after seeing slenderman talking about it with my friends because it felt like an experience or let's say the kind of terrible robin hood movie.
I remember exactly where i was sitting in the theater kind of in the center slightly to the right there was a family in front of me that all came out to see it i remember that and i didn't like the movie at all but i remember many scenes from it i remember going home and telling my wife how much i didn't like the movie and i remember all that and even though i didn't like the film and the movie itself wasn't memorable at all the experience of driving to a theater getting popcorn choosing a seat enjoying the previews the lights going down all of that feels very special and i can retain that but there are so many movies i watched this year that i liked on streaming that kind of just came and went and they didn't really have an impact on me it's not because the film is bad it's just because the experience is very different now this isn't on the filmmaker it's not on the studio it's really not on anybody it's nobody's fault that we're dealing with this crazy year it's just that we have to change the way we digest cinema i think at least i do again i can't speak for everybody and i don't intend to but i have to think differently about film now because the routine has changed it's no longer one a week or two or three a week knowing that's going to happen it's they just kind of appear and then you're like oh you're just scrolling and wait a second happiest season is on hulu now okay let's watch this thing and you get excited because it's like oh i can watch this right now but then i don't know there's something missing about the experience like for instance i saw the movie last christmas which was also a christmas rom-com with my wife and even though i didn't really like the movie that much i liked happiest season a lot more i remember the experience of seeing that in the theater with my wife and going on a date with her then grabbing some food much more than sitting in my house and watching happiest season even though i like that movie more so sometimes it isn't just about the film it's not just about the quality of the entertainment it's about the quality of the experience and whether or not streaming will ever be able to equal that and it probably won't unless you have this massive home theater setup that most people don't have i'm actually very optimistic about this choice the idea of being able to see it in a theater if you want to but also at home if you want to there's plenty of people who just can't make it to the theater people who are sick people who don't have the same conveniences as everyone else and this is going to be really really awesome for them that's something that i haven't heard too many people talking about and that's cool that's cool that more people can watch movies but it's also great because having the option is going to allow for so much more freedom to choose how you want to see a film.
Granted the theater experience is always going to be like for me the the top of the chain but that doesn't mean that every movie that is released has to be viewed in the theater i said this earlier this year i was happy to be able to watch trolls world tour at home i don't have to go to a theater to see trolls world tour i'm perfectly fine watching that at home however it would have been nice to see a film like anish triganti's run in theaters this year that would have been great but i still really enjoyed watching the movie at home it would have been nice to go on a date with my wife and see happiest season at a theater but it was still nice to watch it at home so i guess the whole reason i made this video was just to talk about the fact that even though streaming films sometimes you don't feel like you retain an experience as much it doesn't feel as memorable the film is still the film and you're still supporting filmmakers in the end which to me is the ultimate goal of going to see a film i love being entertained but i love the notion of supporting people who are making movies artists who are writing acting and directing and i still love going on shutter and being like what's new is there any new movies what are people in the horror community talking about same with prime netflix hulu all that it's it's fun to be surprised by the content that's out there because i'll be honest before the pandemic i didn't watch too much streaming only content i would tend to stick to whatever was being in theaters and every once in a while like a major movie would drop on vod and i would check it out but i've discovered a lot of stuff this year that i wouldn't have watched otherwise and i also recognize that in the future if i'm able to make films the way i'd like to more than likely a lot of them will end up streaming in some capacity if i'm able to make deals that i'm trying to make right now so the idea of supporting streaming is is compelling to me as well because i have a feeling that if i'm able to to make films full time streaming will have a major part of that for me and so i'm always going to support theaters and the the experience is never going to be equaled and i i feel especially for independent theater chains right now but i also support streaming and i think that it's got a lot of potential and if like i said studios can understand what this could do to theaters and remove a lot of those premiums that they charge on tickets for people who want to go to a theater while they're also making money on streaming i think that could also benefit a theater as well hopefully it does i'm curious to know what you guys think of all of this crazy news that's constantly happening how do you guys feel about the way we we retain entertainment you know what is memorable or what's easily forgettable nowadays that maybe would be slightly more memorable in a theater i'm curious to know what you guys think thank you so much as always for reading.
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