"Novocaine" is off to a good start at the box office with an estimated $8.5 million opening weekend, but the marketplace is in a terrible slump.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/26891333

“Novocaine” is off to a good start at the box office with an estimated $8.5 million opening weekend, but the marketplace is in a terrible slump.

  • MooseyMoose@lemmy.worldEnglish
    12·
    3 days ago

    Hight ticket prices, high snack prices, no pause button, sticky floors, other audience members. Hmmm. Wonder why things are bad for theaters?

    • oyo@lemm.eeEnglish
      6·
      2 days ago

      Additionally, the last movie I went to actually started a full 27 minutes after the listed time, due to all the ads and trailers.

      • MooseyMoose@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        2 days ago

        I’ve been trying to remember the last movie I went to see in a theater and all I can come up with is LOTR: Return of the King, lol!

    • benelbow@lemm.eeEnglish
      2·
      2 days ago

      No volume control. No sound channel EQ. No subtitle option compared to home DVD or some streaming.

      As a hearing aid wearer the turned-up-to-eleven sound level combined with unequal balance between voice and music/effects is borderline unbearable.

      Max bass, max reverb, max audio compression, plus muttering and whispering by so many actors being recorded at low levels, combine to make cinema visits something to be endured.

    • PrettyFlyForAFatGuy@feddit.ukEnglish
      1·
      2 days ago

      my local theatre has fucking horrible speaker buzz problems in most of their screens.

      One of the screens has a very visible blemish too

      Very little investment has gone into that place for years

  • straightjorkin@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    2 days ago

    8.5 million is 2m more than the budget for the best picture winner this year. Why are high budgets not being critiqued? Not every movie needs to break a billion, and frankly they shouldn’t all break a billion.

  • simple@lemm.eeEnglish
    3·
    3 days ago

    Between this and mickey 17 flopping, there really has to be a wake-up call for cinemas that people don’t want to go. No point in paying an expensive ticket and outrageously priced popcorn if your failed movie will end up on streaming 4 weeks later.

    • psyspoop@lemm.eeEnglish
      5·
      3 days ago

      Not sure if I’d call Novocaine a flop yet considering it had a relatively modest budget of $18m. It might make enough to break even or profit still. The bigger indictment is Black Bag with a budget of $50m and opening lower than Novocaine.

      I think instead we’re seeing more evidence that the mid budget movie doesn’t have a place in theaters anymore and the only movies worth putting in theaters are tentpole blockbusters or lower budget movies that don’t have to make a ton to break even.