If I had to torture someone, I'd make them sit in a theater with no exit and then throw on Killers of the Flower Moon
Here’s the thing about “Keep theaters alive!” and “Go watch this film in the movie theater!”
It’s a two-way agreement.
The audience agrees to pay to see films in a theater only if:
- The filmmakers are shooting scripts that have a thesis statement/intention/point.
- The actors and director are giving it their all, and not phoning it in.
- The edit has trimmed off all the fat.
- The film isn’t some didactic exercise, intent on jamming a “lesson” into us.
- The studio executives have paid close attention to the film from start to finish and have given the filmmakers useful notes to keep it all on-track.
- The film is entertaining.
- (And the theater managers are maintaining some order and decorum in the theaters themselves.)
Otherwise, the audiences will continue to stay home and wait for the films to come online, so they can maybe watch five minutes of it or scrub through, and then turn it off.
The film has to be excellent. Or at least try in that direction.
Much of what is released is just not good enough.