View Full Version : VIDEOGAMES KILLING FILM?
Howdy gamers, came across this in the NY Times:
With the last of the summer blockbusters fading from the multiplex, Hollywood's box office slump has hardened into a reality that is setting the movie industry on edge. The drop in ticket sales from last summer to this summer, the most important moviegoing season, is projected to be 9 percent by Labor Day, and the drop in attendance is expected to be even deeper, 11.5 percent, according to Exhibitor Relations, which tracks the box office.
In previous years, he said, "you could still count on enough people to come whether you failed at entertaining them or not, out of habit, or boredom, or a desire to get out of the house. You had a little bit of backstop."
With competition from video games, hundreds of television channels and DVD's, that's no longer the case, he said. The problem, these studio leaders and other industry experts seemed to say, was not only that a steady diet of formulaic plots, too-familiar special-effects vehicles and remakes of television shows has, over time, left the average moviegoer hungry for better entertainment.
Do you all feel that games are hurting ticket sales? It's certainly ironic considering there's such an emphasis on making games filmic.
Here's a link to the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/24/movies/24slum.html?th&emc=th
THE ONE, THE ONLY- RCM
hezeuschrist
08-24-2005, 01:40 PM
Lets hope to god that's the case. What a pompous son of a bitch to even say "We'll get their dollar even if our movie sucks!"
Maybe hollywood should take a lesson from game developers and you know, actually TRY to put out a worthwhile product? There's been nothing but a huge shitfest when it comes to the "summer blockbusters" for a decade now.
Fuck hollywood. I hope it burns bright and red.
Lets hope to god that's the case. What a pompous son of a bitch to even say "We'll get their dollar even if our movie sucks!"
Maybe hollywood should take a lesson from game developers and you know, actually TRY to put out a worthwhile product? There's been nothing but a huge shitfest when it comes to the "summer blockbusters" for a decade now.
Fuck hollywood. I hope it burns bright and red.
I work in TV for a living and have been doing film for a couple years now. I think everyone involved in the actual creative process wants to put out something great. It's the men in suits upstairs that really fuck things up.
So to imply that developers are the only ones who try and often fail to put out something great is false as far as my experience goes.
Hopefully this increased competition from other media like games will burn Hollywoods often crappy practices away in favor of better films.
THE ONE, THE ONLY- RCM
hezeuschrist
08-24-2005, 02:04 PM
you could still count on enough people to come whether you failed at entertaining them or not
Unacceptable
In any medium, in any form. I understand it's the suits that decide what gets to the big screen and what doesnt, but the suits are Hollywood. I also understand that there's a good chance that this kind of mentality is prevalent somewhere in the upper atmosphere of EA and Square-Enix, especially when it comes to the movie licensed crap that's everywhere now.
But, per capita Hollywood has a far poorer signal to noise ratio than the game industry does. Even when EA churns out the same game every year, it's still not an inheirently bad game (most of the time). Honestly, when was the last time any movie came out and the greater population agreed that it was a fantastic film? I understand that movies are far more subjective than games are, but it's pretty undeniable that Resident Evil 4 is a fantastic game on any level, but Hollywood just can't seem to find that level of quality in any area. The last film I can even remotely relate to this is The Matrix. On the whole, people of all film tastes enjoyed it. It deserved to make the money it did, and the sequels are a completely different issue.
I've been working in a video store for over 4 years now, and it's excellent to see the entire industry burn. I mean seriously, who approved Racing Stripes and Catwoman? Did we really need a sequel to xXx?
I'm certainly no expert in the industry, far from it, but I've got good enough vision to see that Hollywood in general churns out schlock more often than not, and it's only the smaller studios that usually have anything worth watching. Either the smaller studios, or other countries that don't have such a contrived system as Hollywood.
chrisbid
08-24-2005, 02:08 PM
poor babies... i hope they dont have to find real jobs :(
cyberfluxor
08-24-2005, 02:26 PM
I would have to say that video games do help out a bit with keeping movie goers in the house. A few years ago while in high school ticket prices where alright, but now you pay 9$ or more to see something for 2hrs and on top gas prices make it just not worth wild. Personally, if I'm going to burn up gas I'm not going to the movies, I'm heading to the beach or hunting around pawn shops for cheep classic video games. The 99% of garbage comming out of Hollywood is just not worth seeing at those costs when you can get a game that lasts dozens of hours for half or less that price!
But, per capita Hollywood has a far poorer signal to noise ratio than the game industry does. Even when EA churns out the same game every year, it's still not an inheirently bad game (most of the time).
I believe the same game churned out every year by EA or any other company is a bad sign. Same with film.
If "pro" reviewers started slamming companies like EA that shit out and sell an update as a full game maybe things would be better in the game industry. Maybe the legions of casual gamers would change their buying habits.
It's amazing. A sequel to a film will almost certainly get slammed if it's more of the same. A game gets praised for the same practice. Wake up gamers!
THE ONE, THE ONLY- RCM
hezeuschrist
08-24-2005, 02:47 PM
But, per capita Hollywood has a far poorer signal to noise ratio than the game industry does. Even when EA churns out the same game every year, it's still not an inheirently bad game (most of the time).
I believe the same game churned out every year by EA or any other company is a bad sign. Same with film.
If "pro" reviewers started slamming companies like EA that shit out and sell an update as a full game maybe things would be better in the game industry. Maybe the legions of casual gamers would change their buying habits.
It's amazing. A sequel to a film will almost certainly get slammed if it's more of the same. A game gets praised for the same practice. Wake up gamers!
THE ONE, THE ONLY- RCM
I agree that EA's ransom practices for updated rosters are near-felony, but it's honestly what people want. Most people are content with a new Madden as long as they've got a new couple of menus, updated rules, and updated rosters. And that's who they market the game to, and that's why they make an assload of money on them.
You can't go ahead and change the core gameplay of a football game, it's still a football game and the system they have now, while certainly flawed, works. But it's a requisite for the game to even exist, and there's really not too much that can be done about.
Now, when it comes to crapping out Need for Speed Undergound 87 across every fucking platform known to man, that's when it gets felonious. A racing game is a racing game without rules or restrictions (unless you're licensing NASCAR or some other professional sport racing). There's no reason for these games to hold the same core gameplay principles, other than to cater to the fans who want exactly more of the same.
Even still, EA is the largest developer in the world and they are responsible for a large portion of the people that are staying inside and ignoring the movie industry. It's just that these principles work for the game industry (because even if it's a serious rehash, it doesn't make it an unenjoyable experience), and don't work for the movie industry. There's (ugh, can't believe I'm going to say this) more reason for the movie industry to be new. It's so easy for them to do it, they don't have to worry about reusing character models, game engines, chunks of code and voice actors; they just have to shoot a new movie, regardless of what the content is. Rehashing content in the movie industry doesn't save them money like it saves developers in the game industry.
Haoie
08-24-2005, 06:00 PM
TV too. I think everyone can more or less agree that online activities will invariably cut into boob tube time. Of course the TV industry doesn't seem to be facing a problem thus far, seeing their profits aren't directly correlated to viewer numbers [harder to calculate anyway], but rather who's willing to pay for putting ads.
And let's face it, a lot of new shows aren't exactly, hmm, entertaining. The other night I flicked to something called "The Will", reality TV about getting some old bugger's inheritance.
And people are supposed to watch that? Hard to tell which is worse, movies or TV.
Mattiekrome
08-24-2005, 06:06 PM
Well, dont charge me 7$ per ticket to watch a 120 minute movie. Then make me take it in the ass at the snack bar when you charge 12 bucks for a bucket of popcorn and soda. Pretty much the reason going to the movies has become a "once in a blue moon" sorta thing.
If I were a still a kid, I would probably want to stay home and play video games instead of going to the movies anyways. I was/am a dork :) And on that note...
You can take your movies and shove em up your ass, I'm watching TIVO! :D
Push Upstairs
08-24-2005, 06:24 PM
I share my video game hobby with my music and movie hobby.
You know what kills the theater experience more than anything? People blabbing on thier goddamn phone, people talking, kids crying and so on. Those are the reasons why i don't bother going to a theater anymore.
2nd big reason is that i really don't like hauling my ass to a theater, buying a ticket for $6+ onlt to have to watch *TV COMMERCIALS*. If i wanted to see that shit i'd stay at home!
That article is misleading considering i've heard that most of the $$ made from movies comes from DVD sales and not the theater.
HyrulianHedgehog
08-24-2005, 06:27 PM
Right off the top, I’ll tell you I don’t know what I’m talking about, and it’s just guesswork, but I bet Hollywood is doing okay, I still buy DVDs, or rent them occasionally. I don’t remember the last time I heard of a movie not at least breaking even on their filming cost.
On another note, there is a theater at the local mall, and they charge $2 to see some of the older films (right now they’re showing Starwars: Episode III), and they’re doing excellent business. I think if theaters lowered the prices of the new movies by 5 or 6 bucks they’d be doing much better for themselves. There is no way I’m paying $9 bucks on any movie.
I don’t remember the last time I heard of a movie not at least breaking even on their filming cost.
A lot of movies don't break even. Same with games and albums.
THE ONE, THE ONLY- RCM
vincewy
08-24-2005, 09:04 PM
I can sense, as some mentioned above, TV going down just like movie industries, same way goes for pop music, nowadays the only reason I watch TVs is mainly checking baseball updates, I don't care much about news anymore, heavily biased.
As for films, there're people who're into foreign movies for the same reason (HK action movies for example), in US, even the best, most popular series are going down the drains, such as James Bond, I've stopped watching James Bond after Pierce Brosnan started.
Joker T
08-25-2005, 03:35 PM
Why does everyone blame there own problems on video games?
Come on what idiot thinks that Stealth is gonna bring in the money that Episode 3 did?
Make some good movies and we will come @_@
Push Upstairs
08-25-2005, 04:16 PM
"Stealth" is the kind of movie that won't make shit in the theater but will sell decently on DVD.
Because every movie has a fan, and there are people who will buy crappy movies on DVD.
Theaters anymore are just places you can view a movie before its eventual DVD release.
Austin
08-25-2005, 04:18 PM
Video games only kill film when Uwe Boll is involved.
Push Upstairs
08-25-2005, 04:27 PM
FIXED
Film & video games are killed when Uwe Boll is involved.
Richter Belmount
08-25-2005, 04:48 PM
I work in TV for a living and have been doing film for a couple years now. I think everyone involved in the actual creative process wants to put out something great. It's the men in suits upstairs that really fuck things up.
THE ONE, THE ONLY- RCM
well someone should get in their faces then , i mean they should be told noone is gonna see all 6 romantic comedies of the month , a b list action movie or the 6th harry potter movie , make something epic and worth seeing , i cant believe people think will see some crappy same old shit over and over.
irata
08-25-2005, 05:03 PM
I wait till they get to the drive-in, take my Bronco to the theatre, pay $7 bucks for three (relatively current) movies, then watch comfortably lying down in the back of my truck. In addition to popcorn you can get pizza and hamburgers, or bring your own grill and beer. Makes going to the movies actually worth it.
Tonight's line-up:
Batman Begins
Dukes of Hazzard
Red Eye
Joker T
08-25-2005, 05:31 PM
I think that another problem is obviously the prices for a family to see the movie including the snacks which are ridiculously priced. To go to the movie it costs as much as buying the DVD. I still think some movies like Batman Begins and Episode 3 are worth it just for the big picture and the sound.
Make some good movies and we will come
I wish that was the case. Too many times there are great films nobody sees. Great games nobody plays. Great albums nobody hears. You get the point.
THE ONE, THE ONLY- RCM
boatofcar
08-25-2005, 09:38 PM
I wait till they get to the drive-in, take my Bronco to the theatre, pay $7 bucks for three (relatively current) movies, then watch comfortably lying down in the back of my truck. In addition to popcorn you can get pizza and hamburgers, or bring your own grill and beer. Makes going to the movies actually worth it.
Tonight's line-up:
Batman Begins
Dukes of Hazzard
Red Eye
That is awesome.
I think Netflix has a big hand in the box office blues too. $15 can get me two movies out at the same time, as many as I want, for one month. They also have TV series, which is what sealed the deal for me.