Big Named Stars, Direct To Video Movies

I've noticed there are a lot of big name movie stars appearing in movies that are being released to video and/or video on demand. Some of these movies may play in a couple of cinemas while most do not. Russell Crowe was recently in The Water Diviner, Charlize Theron was in Dark Places, True Story starring Jonah Hill and James Franco and Strangerland with Nicole Kidman and Hugo Weaving.

I haven't seen any of these movies so I don't know if they are worth watching but they can't be worse than some of the stuff that is now playing.

 

I saw The Water Diviner in the theater.

 

Can I get a Gort to delete this thread, please?

 

And delete my account, I won't be visiting this site again.

 

That escalated quickly.....

 

Wow. What happened here? Seems like a legit question.

 

Actually, I would say to seek out these kinds of movies. Very few straight dramatic films are lucky enough to get a theatrical release these days and the independent films are taking up the slack. But, they play in very few theaters, Video On Demand is NOT the same thing as the old direct-to-dvd schlock releases, there are a lot of good movies, made on small budgets that don't have the budget behind them to market a nationwide theatrical release. That does not mean they aren't worth watching, on the contrary, these independent films are some of the best being made today.

 

Too many films, not enough theatres. They gotta go somewhere or sit on the shelf.

 

Just watched INTO THE GRIZZLY MAZE last night, a Sony release straight to video with Thomas Jane, Billy Bob Thorton, and James Marsden. Perfectly well-made thriller
that perhaps didn't have enough oomph to put in theaters, but played well at home.

 

I don't think that's the case. There are plenty of theaters, but sadly they're all showing the same dozen or so films at the same time. Even at multiplex theaters, half of the theaters are showing the same two or three films at different times.

It's the fault of the studios, who have structured their deals with the theaters to put all the emphasis on the opening weekend, when the studio gets the lion's share of the profit. That works fine with blockbusters that are going to stay around long enough for the theater to make some money, but it causes small films to play one or two weeks and then disappear. Films are no longer allowed to develop an audience among people who don't go out to the movies every week.

 

Yeah that's pretty much what I said.

Basically all the theatres are tied to the same 10 mainstream movies each month. Unfortunately, there are probably 30+ movies released each month. They need more independent ones that are not tied to showing the same 10 remakes.

 

My point is why? Why are we seeing the same handful of movies in the hundreds of theater auditoriums in the average big city?

I know it is possible to see 30 different films in a month, as my wife manages to do so, especially during awards season. But it is not particularly easy. If it wasn't for the "art house" ones at the Cinemark in Evanston and the Gene Siskel Film Center it wouldn't be possible.

 

Was it the forum's Beatles love that did it?

But, anyway, yeah, a lot of really good/great movies these days don't see much of a theatrical release, unfortunately. A lot of bad ones get dumped to VOD too, of course. I'm actually eager to see Dark Places, since I just finished the book (by Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn).

 

True Story got promo-ed by Franco and Hill and released wide to theatres. It just tanked quickly and disappeared. I saw it at a multiplex. It wasn't awful but it wasn't great.

 

I always thought that most of the cinema chains are tied to a certain group of major studios so they got priority. The 10 $250 million dollar pieces of crap get preference over the 15 $20 million original screenplays with proper actors.

No such thing as choice anymore.

 

The theater owners want to make as big of a profit as possible. They make a pile more money putting Transformers on multiple screens than they do something like "Mr. Holmes". Which of those films are artistically better doesn't matter to them, they just want ticket buyers butts in the seats and the tentpole releases are their easiest bet for that.