Honestly? I don't want to go back to the theaters. I'm perfectly happy watching at home. I can pause it while I go use the bathroom, grab a sandwich from the kitchen. That's my response to the butts-in-seats comment in the article. I do agree that Netflix is kind of a slop factory. I kind of think Black Rabbit was a little of slop. I only made it through because I have great respect for Jude Law. And I ended up disappointed. I subscribe to Netflix, HBO Max, Apple TV, and Hulu. Spending too much money each month on streaming. A lot of the QUALITY content on Netflix came there from somewhere else. Just finished watching Traffic. Dark Winds is from AMC. Nurse Jackie came from Showtime. I LOVED Shameless. I think that came from Showtime, too. Yeah, I see the consolidation. I don't like it.
"Reconciliation without punishment is ultimately impossible" should be the answer to all the calls to "can't we just get along, talk to each other, work together... It can be applied to the politics of our times, starting with Biden & Merrick Garland's refusal to hold Trump et. al for accountable for the damage and lies of his first go at our democracy. It is the threw line to today, as we face a body of avaricious individuals given leeway to ignore the law, all the while laughing at the quaintness of our belief that we speak of the constitution and moral imperatives.
This is as far as it can be from a free market where relative equals compete. It is now all about market power and consolidation. So not more art, just gathering art into one warehouse - that owned by Netflix. Oh well.
Are we watching the same Netflix? I subscribe to Netflix, Apple TV, Disney+, and HBO Max. 9 times out of 10, when I'm looking for something to watch, I land on Netflix. The quality of the shows are outstanding. The Diplomat, Dark Winds, Icelandic crime dramas...I could go on. I would love to add the Warner's catalogue to Netflix. Sorry, just not interested in going to the movie theatre anymore. I love being able to pause something and get another drink.
Really? Ya think Netflix is threatened by successful movie theaters? I don't think they'd see a lot of cancelled subscriptions for even the greatest blockbuster.
Movie theaters were killed by big movie theater operators overcharging their customers for the experience, particularly ripping them off with overpriced food that made what used to be a cheap night out into an experience you can only justify as an occasional treat when a stupidly big movie comes out, particularly when you have kids. Let’s not ignore that. It’s not just streamers that killed them. They killed themselves. Like the big bookstores when they pushed out the little guys then got whipped by Amazon. Find a new business model.
But isn’t it the least bad option of the three? True, we’d get to see what Bari Weiss would do with CNN, but that seems like a temporary diversion at best. Comcast/Universal clearly has more innate redundancies which might lead to greater lay-offs. Weird as it sounds, Netflix might be the best way for WB to survive the Zazpocalypse relatively unscathed. Relatively.
Sonny, I'm going to disagree with you on one thing.
While all of the options for who was to take WB were bad, I think Netflix being the winner is the least bad. Netflix sucks, certainly. And this is going to change the business model for WB in a way that I'm going to hate, yes. But either Paramount/Skydance or Comcast winning would have basically meant the elimination of one of our major movie studios (dropping the number from five to four). The potential Comcast purchase, given that it was partially backed by Saudi and Qatari wealth fund dollars, seemed especially gross.
I don't like any of this shit, but I feel like this was the least bad option. Now watch the FTC reject the deal because they have some back room deal with the Ellisons.
Having put all of this into play, I have little doubt that the Ellisons will do whatever they can to scuttle this deal by appealing to their buddy, Donald Trump. And, they may well succeed. They would be a disastrous choice to grab the gold ring.
Frankly, I'm not happy with any of the tree main contenders. What the entertainment industry doesn't need is more consolidation. It needs the opposite. It needs more creative options, and less Wall Street. But that's not what the shareholders will value. What they will value is the most money for their stock.
Most of my career was spent at Warner Brothers, and I had a firsthand seat at several of the takeovers, starting with the mess that was AOL, then AT&T, and most recently Discovery. All of those companies came in like conquering hordes, proclaiming that they would remake the studio in their image and by doing so, improve it. All of them were out of their depth. None of them brought any creative genius with them. All of them fired blanks.
At least, AT&T admitted that they didn't understand the business.
Poor, poor Warner Brothers, tossed from one boudoir to another, and never getting an orgasm out of it.
I can't imagine Trump's FCC allowing this transaction, over the other one the Ellison father/son duo at Paramount were trying to get done. They must be in his good graces, after buying CBS and bending it into something more Trump friendly. And paying for his good graces to boot, in the CBS lawsuit that greased the skids for the Ellisons there. My guess is this new deal will run into ten tons of supposed anti-trust issues. Unless Netflix suddenly finds Trump's Stable Coin a great place to drop a few billion. As the acquisition gets sucked into the FCC's giant decision making maw.
As Sonny correctly notes, this should not be what we want in honest market functioning; markets need to work as we need them to. However, as Sonny also notes, it's terrible to think of NetSlop doing even more to destroy theaters and- worse still- mauling HBOMax into a weak, unexciting imitation of its former self.
Shelfie - FCC won’t be The Decider in a case with such dollars at stake. This will rise to the attention of The Big Guy. Your thoughts about crypto are likely, bringing his sons and/or Jared into the picture. Or perhaps the final deal will involve a government stake in yet another corporation, say 20% ownership?
Yeah, that sounds about right, too. Maybe a 20% stake in the new media conglomerate. And maybe, like with the steel co deal, a "golden seat on the board." Donald would probably love to dictate what movies they'll be making, etc.
Perhaps Trump will find a minor Netflix documentary that provides mild criticism of him, so he can sue the company for defamation ($1bn) and afford them a nice way to channel the cash into his piggy little hands.
Yeah, I saw that movie twice: once in theaters in one sitting, and once at home with my wife spread out over two nights. The first way is infinitely preferably as a viewing experience.
I agree that the full immersion of the movie theater experience is preferable to watching at home, but it often depends on the behavior of one's fellow theatergoers to maintain full focus. One or two jerks can ruin the experience, yet a full theater reacting together to a film can be an uplifting community experience.
The challenge today for investors or others in evaluating the likelihood of a merger or acquisition being approved by the government is a real crapshoot, because analytics and the law may well take a backseat to how much the parties that are involved are willing to pay, or have already paid, the President and/or his Administration. If a losing suiter or other competitor wants to kill the merger, it may be able to do it by offering a larger payment, then recovering far more in the savings it can realize by undermining its competitors, or perhaps even better, by later consummating the transaction itself. Today there are no objective regulators, and no one, other than the President's inner circle, will ever know the facts of why one transaction failed and another succeeded. Ultimately, faith in our investment markets and financial systems will erode, and everyone but the insiders will suffer.
Honestly? I don't want to go back to the theaters. I'm perfectly happy watching at home. I can pause it while I go use the bathroom, grab a sandwich from the kitchen. That's my response to the butts-in-seats comment in the article. I do agree that Netflix is kind of a slop factory. I kind of think Black Rabbit was a little of slop. I only made it through because I have great respect for Jude Law. And I ended up disappointed. I subscribe to Netflix, HBO Max, Apple TV, and Hulu. Spending too much money each month on streaming. A lot of the QUALITY content on Netflix came there from somewhere else. Just finished watching Traffic. Dark Winds is from AMC. Nurse Jackie came from Showtime. I LOVED Shameless. I think that came from Showtime, too. Yeah, I see the consolidation. I don't like it.
"Reconciliation without punishment is ultimately impossible" should be the answer to all the calls to "can't we just get along, talk to each other, work together... It can be applied to the politics of our times, starting with Biden & Merrick Garland's refusal to hold Trump et. al for accountable for the damage and lies of his first go at our democracy. It is the threw line to today, as we face a body of avaricious individuals given leeway to ignore the law, all the while laughing at the quaintness of our belief that we speak of the constitution and moral imperatives.
This is as far as it can be from a free market where relative equals compete. It is now all about market power and consolidation. So not more art, just gathering art into one warehouse - that owned by Netflix. Oh well.
Is it a requirement for studio execs to get all their teeth capped? And do the crowns have to be so sharp?
Are we watching the same Netflix? I subscribe to Netflix, Apple TV, Disney+, and HBO Max. 9 times out of 10, when I'm looking for something to watch, I land on Netflix. The quality of the shows are outstanding. The Diplomat, Dark Winds, Icelandic crime dramas...I could go on. I would love to add the Warner's catalogue to Netflix. Sorry, just not interested in going to the movie theatre anymore. I love being able to pause something and get another drink.
I'm worried for TCM. No one seems to know for sure yet what's going to happen there.
Okay, I'm in. I'll watch "It Was Just and Accident"--and I rarely watch more than four or five movies' a year.
Really? Ya think Netflix is threatened by successful movie theaters? I don't think they'd see a lot of cancelled subscriptions for even the greatest blockbuster.
Movie theaters were killed by big movie theater operators overcharging their customers for the experience, particularly ripping them off with overpriced food that made what used to be a cheap night out into an experience you can only justify as an occasional treat when a stupidly big movie comes out, particularly when you have kids. Let’s not ignore that. It’s not just streamers that killed them. They killed themselves. Like the big bookstores when they pushed out the little guys then got whipped by Amazon. Find a new business model.
But isn’t it the least bad option of the three? True, we’d get to see what Bari Weiss would do with CNN, but that seems like a temporary diversion at best. Comcast/Universal clearly has more innate redundancies which might lead to greater lay-offs. Weird as it sounds, Netflix might be the best way for WB to survive the Zazpocalypse relatively unscathed. Relatively.
Sonny, I'm going to disagree with you on one thing.
While all of the options for who was to take WB were bad, I think Netflix being the winner is the least bad. Netflix sucks, certainly. And this is going to change the business model for WB in a way that I'm going to hate, yes. But either Paramount/Skydance or Comcast winning would have basically meant the elimination of one of our major movie studios (dropping the number from five to four). The potential Comcast purchase, given that it was partially backed by Saudi and Qatari wealth fund dollars, seemed especially gross.
I don't like any of this shit, but I feel like this was the least bad option. Now watch the FTC reject the deal because they have some back room deal with the Ellisons.
Yeah my preferred buyer was Apple. It’s a perfect fit but they obviously just weren’t interested.
All cinema is a foreign land.
Having put all of this into play, I have little doubt that the Ellisons will do whatever they can to scuttle this deal by appealing to their buddy, Donald Trump. And, they may well succeed. They would be a disastrous choice to grab the gold ring.
Frankly, I'm not happy with any of the tree main contenders. What the entertainment industry doesn't need is more consolidation. It needs the opposite. It needs more creative options, and less Wall Street. But that's not what the shareholders will value. What they will value is the most money for their stock.
Most of my career was spent at Warner Brothers, and I had a firsthand seat at several of the takeovers, starting with the mess that was AOL, then AT&T, and most recently Discovery. All of those companies came in like conquering hordes, proclaiming that they would remake the studio in their image and by doing so, improve it. All of them were out of their depth. None of them brought any creative genius with them. All of them fired blanks.
At least, AT&T admitted that they didn't understand the business.
Poor, poor Warner Brothers, tossed from one boudoir to another, and never getting an orgasm out of it.
I can't imagine Trump's FCC allowing this transaction, over the other one the Ellison father/son duo at Paramount were trying to get done. They must be in his good graces, after buying CBS and bending it into something more Trump friendly. And paying for his good graces to boot, in the CBS lawsuit that greased the skids for the Ellisons there. My guess is this new deal will run into ten tons of supposed anti-trust issues. Unless Netflix suddenly finds Trump's Stable Coin a great place to drop a few billion. As the acquisition gets sucked into the FCC's giant decision making maw.
As Sonny correctly notes, this should not be what we want in honest market functioning; markets need to work as we need them to. However, as Sonny also notes, it's terrible to think of NetSlop doing even more to destroy theaters and- worse still- mauling HBOMax into a weak, unexciting imitation of its former self.
Shelfie - FCC won’t be The Decider in a case with such dollars at stake. This will rise to the attention of The Big Guy. Your thoughts about crypto are likely, bringing his sons and/or Jared into the picture. Or perhaps the final deal will involve a government stake in yet another corporation, say 20% ownership?
Yeah, that sounds about right, too. Maybe a 20% stake in the new media conglomerate. And maybe, like with the steel co deal, a "golden seat on the board." Donald would probably love to dictate what movies they'll be making, etc.
CATS! We love the Cats, don’t we? Not like the dogs… or SHARKS!
Perhaps Trump will find a minor Netflix documentary that provides mild criticism of him, so he can sue the company for defamation ($1bn) and afford them a nice way to channel the cash into his piggy little hands.
Exactly! But they'll have to fork over, I suspect, quite about bit more than what he extorted out of the Ellison's for their merger.
I am fortunate to live near alocal non-profit cinema that got Del Toro's Frankenstein for one week, and is ow showing thr new KnivesOut flick.
(We don't own a smart TV, so we don't stream).
Frankenstein looked fabulous on the big screen. That is really how many films are still meant to be seen.
I wish there were another way to save WB.
Adding that I also saw Scorsese 's Killers of the Flower Moon at this cinema, another film really intended for the big screen viewing experience .
Yeah, I saw that movie twice: once in theaters in one sitting, and once at home with my wife spread out over two nights. The first way is infinitely preferably as a viewing experience.
Definitely. I think of the closing scene of flowers and how powerful that scene is.
It's surely convenient to watch films at home but I have to really, really make myself
concentrate when doing so
I agree that the full immersion of the movie theater experience is preferable to watching at home, but it often depends on the behavior of one's fellow theatergoers to maintain full focus. One or two jerks can ruin the experience, yet a full theater reacting together to a film can be an uplifting community experience.
That's certainly true.
When we saw Kubrick's
The Shining in its original theater run teo pre-teens spent part of thr film running through the seats.
NOT an aesthetically pleasing
experience
The challenge today for investors or others in evaluating the likelihood of a merger or acquisition being approved by the government is a real crapshoot, because analytics and the law may well take a backseat to how much the parties that are involved are willing to pay, or have already paid, the President and/or his Administration. If a losing suiter or other competitor wants to kill the merger, it may be able to do it by offering a larger payment, then recovering far more in the savings it can realize by undermining its competitors, or perhaps even better, by later consummating the transaction itself. Today there are no objective regulators, and no one, other than the President's inner circle, will ever know the facts of why one transaction failed and another succeeded. Ultimately, faith in our investment markets and financial systems will erode, and everyone but the insiders will suffer.
Charles - all while my Republican neighbors chest thump about our beloved free market capitalism bringing us the best of everything
Am I the only one one tired of pastie white men with self satisfied grins and pats on each other backs ?