Still think this movie looks awful, but I have to give credit where credit is due. This is a pretty clever movie poster:
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Wow, the Apple hype machine is really working overtime to plant articles in the trades like this one claiming „F1“ is a box office hit with a 55 million opening. Judging from the immense budget and the even bigger marketing blitz, it is maybe time to remind one of „Indiana Jones and the dial of destiny“ having a 60 million opening two years ago and immediately being declared as a huge and embarassing flop.
Will „F1“ have legs? Maybe. But this kind of film attracts its main male audience fast before dropping off quickly. Also, people know it’s going to be on Apple tv soon.
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Not trying to sound obsessed with this but… the budget alone was reportedly 250 million dollars. Add at least the same amount for marketing to it and you have a breakeven at 500 million - and that‘s just a low estimate since costs often are much higher than reported.
In today’s streamer market, of course, the hope of a film perceived as a hit can drive more clicks and subscribers to a platform.
But will this Apple vehicle ever generate a profit?
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Surprised no one posted this, the trailer for Project Hail Mary. I read the book (it’s awesome BTW), and if the film is half as good, it’ll be great!
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The profits from this will be made elsewhere. It’s a marketing tool by itself.
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I have my tickets for Superman on opening night. I’ve seen it described as a live action version of the animated series, which is the type of experience I’m wanting this time around. Fingers crossed the movie delivers and gets people excited about the character again.
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I like Gosling but this trailer seemed to be a mishmash of everything which has been done before countless times (and Sandra Hüller even gets another karaoke scene…).
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A f…ing comedy, exactly like the book 
YES!
Gritty AND funny. Exactly the right decision.
And that’s why I would have LOVED Wright doing Bond.
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The book is wonderful. Really looking forward to this.
Brosnan on a bit of roll at the moment.
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For a few seconds I thought it was Sam Elliott.
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Even more reason to continue staying away from the cinema.
Seriously, movie theaters. You’ve already sold me a ridiculously priced ticket and then an even more insanely priced drink. If I’m not mistaken, if popcorn was involved, it required some form of collateral. Maybe even a credit check.
Long story short, you’ve already gotten just about all of my money just getting me in the door. Stop trying to sell me even more stuff once I’m in there.
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I was somewhat interested in Jurassic World Rebirth, but after reading a bunch of reviews and audience reaction I can’t muster the enthusiasm. Just more of the same laziness on autopilot, with half the movie already shown via trailers and TV spots. This is why I’m okay with Bond 26 taking its time now a director is attached. We’ve waited a long time already - let’s just get it right.
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I was as well, given the cast and the, now clearly misguided, hope that it might be something a bit different from what the last trilogy was doing.
Perhaps I can get something worthwhile out of it watching Rupert Friend battling it out against dinosaurs. If I squint, maybe I can pretend it’s a Bond movie. Probably would be better than the last couple of those, anyway. 
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Well, it´s a Jurassic Park sequel.
The sixth sequel.
What else can it be about but people being attacked by dinosaurs? And they chose to do it on a small tropical island again.
It´s pretty much McDonalds cinema.*
But the problem is inherent in the concept - like all the other monster films it has to be and always will be about “Monster killing people before people kill the monster”.
And even if you put the dinosaur/alien/predator/mythical serial killer/KingKong/Godzilla/Terminator/whatever into other surroundings - it just stays the same. Like a burger with a slightly different sauce.
Isn’t it funny that we are compaining about the umpteenth sequel not being original enough?
Why do we still keep watching these?
*Yes, Bond films are also always about the secret agent fighting a villain around the world. But at least they know they are just remakes of themselves and do have distinguishing features (actor, director, timeframe in which they are reflecting current developments in politics and social interaction).
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Indeed, the whole thing with movies was always that you paid to see them, whereas with broadcast TV you “paid” by sitting through commercials. Now you have to pay twice at the cinema. As expensive as tickets are today, part of the invoice should reflect a “commercial avoidance fee.”
The streaming services are getting just as bad: pay up front, then watch ads anyway. This is all part of the enshittification of everything. At some point, so many people will give up on the movies that no amount of surcharges levied against the few remaining customers will be enough to keep cinemas afloat.
Anyway I’m looking forward to Superman’s release so I can start the countdown to actually viewing it at some point in my living room. I’m not sure anything could get me back into a theater.
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That’s where I’m at as well. There’s a small, one-screen theater not too far from me that does a nice job with playing a good mix of old and new releases and I’ll go to see a film there every once in a while. I’ll see Bond 26 there if they end up showing it during its theatrical run, but otherwise, I’ll be waiting for its streaming release.
It’ll be interesting to watch the cinema industry flail around trying to stay afloat as it fades into complete irrelevance. Instead of putting more commercials in front of the films, it would be nice if they could realize that the reason they’re sinking is that they’ve made the experience of going to the cinema so bad that maybe, just maybe, if they took measures to actually improve the experience, they might see some improvement in business.
Pre-Covid, one of the few positive steps some cinemas took was to invest in new seating, sometimes opting for plush, leather recliners. But even then it struck me as a sort of white flag, and an admission that on balance, most audiences had come to prefer the home viewing experience. After years of marketing sound systems and huge screens to build “home theaters,” now we had cinemas trying to imitate the comforts of home, proving the whole model had flipped upside down.
Now after a period where we had no choice but to stay home, many of us have realized there was nothing keeping us going to the cinema but tradition. And traditions, once broken, are easy to abandon.
And honestly, now that they’ve shortened the window between theatrical and home releases to mere weeks, the cinema is entirely the purview of film purists and, more often, people who want to experience opening weekend as an “event,” like a ball game or a live concert. For the rest of us, it’s just as easy to wait a week or two and pay a fraction of the price to see the same flick.
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