Cinema Issues: Paramount Wins

In today’s edition of cinema issues we talk about the fact that at the moment of writing it seems as though Paramount is going to win in it’s bid for WBD.

Ultimately there was always a chance of this as the current American administration favours them, and could have made things very difficult for Netflix at the regulatory stage.

There are some people who are saying that this is a win for cinemas, as Netflix would have led to them closing down, however, this is not the win they think it is. Two major studios merging means there will be mass layoffs, which will further contract the industry and also likely lead to less things coming out in cinemas overall.

So far Paramount has confirmed they intended to keep a large theatrical output going forward, much higher than what they are currently doing however , the numbers that have been floated likely aren’t realistic.

Moreover, this move seems threatening to other studios, you have to think now that players like Sony and Universal will be thinking about expansion and to buy up independent studios and production companies in order to compete. Really a lot of this started during Disney’s era of expansion, in that sense the Paramount WBD merger appears similar to Disney buying 21st Century Fox.

There is also the Netflix question of it all, and what their next move may be, they had other studios on their list, will they move on to one of those or reflect over the strategy. Could Netflix make a bid for Universal or the film parts of Sony.

One thing is for sure we are in the era of monopolies.

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Cinema Issues: The Death Of Film Criticism

Once upon a time film criticism was respectable, you had your Eberts and later Kermodes. However, then came the internet wherein the access critic really began to flourish.

These people are often flown out to movie premieres given goodie bags and nice meals in exchange for saying a film is the best thing ever. They shill for films and studios on their social media channels, sometimes even taking sponsorships from them. Needless to say this shows the perverting of film criticism you cannot be objective and be in the pocket of a studio’s marketing department.

Then again you see that’s the gig, these “reviewers” need early access in order to stand out, as their actual analysis is weak. As such they are indebted to the studios. They want to rub elbows with celebrities and feel like a somebody when that was never supposed to be the role of the reviewer. The reviewer was either an art appreciator giving their opinion on the art they saw, or a man of the people telling you whether a film was worth the price or not. The issue was these people wanted to try and turn themselves into celebrities, they wanted to chase fame through film criticism usually after other failed careers, see Grace Randolph, or John Campea for that. This made them lose sight of what they were doing.

Much like independent coverage and citizen journalism is bringing balance back to news coverage we need that here. We need film opinions that don’t chase fame, we need honest conversations that don’t worry about upsetting left wing or right wing, we need to look at the films we see through the prism of was that an enjoyable film or not. If we don’t then more and more critics will just become irrelevant, increasingly they already are.

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Cinema Issues: The Failure of the Scream 7 Boycott

In this Cinema Issues article we are talking about the backlash to Scream 7.

At first we were not going to cover this as it gives bad faith actors too much attention however as the weekend drew on and they escalated and escalated we decided to jump in.

If you don’t know Melissa Barrera was fired from the Scream franchise, or chose to leave if you believe her, as she said some abhorrent things about Israel. The idiotic Pro Palestine crowd got very upset about this and had big feelings, and decided they were going to boycott Scream 7 to teach Paramount a lesson.

Then came the second wave, just before the film released a number of “critics” gave the film terrible reviews most having not watched it, or judging the film not based on its own merits but with the politics around it. People like John Campea got so upset that he said the film needed to “Rot In Hell”, yes this is the same John Campea who has casually said the N word despite being very white before now. As you could see they decided to put any sense of professionalism to one side to try and attack the film and punish the people that did the thing they didn’t like politically.

Then came the final wave, the “fans” who all came out of the woodwork to say how this was the worst Scream ever, they didn’t understand fundamental parts of the film such as why the new killers use AI to try and remind Sidney of her past killer status. Or they harp on about how it mentions New York a few times, a reference to Neve Campbell’s absence from the last film, not to the Carpenter Sisters but hey. These “fans” would have lapped it up if Melissa had still been the main character.

The best thing about all of this is that not only did these people destroy their credibility and reveal themselves for being bad faith actors, but also that they failed. The film had a bigger box office opening weekend than any of the films in the series even when you adjust all the others for inflation. Scream 8 is already in pre-production, and the franchise has never looked healthier. Much like with how they tried to boycott Hogwarts Legacy and then that failed this goes to show you just how little power these activists have and how irrelevant they are.

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Cinema Issues: The BAFTA Incident

In this edition of cinema issues we are talking about the incident at the BAFTAs wherein a man with Tourettes shouted a racial slur.

Firstly, Tourettes makes you say things you would not want to say, it is intrusive, it has been widely stigmatised, and is continuing to be so. Someone saying something does not mean they hold those opinions or beliefs really quite the opposite.

Secondly, the level of ignorance and ableism that has come out of parts of the film community about this incident shows that it is still widely misunderstood. For the people saying the man should apologise, the question becomes what apologise for a disability, apologise for having a condition that forces you to say things you do not want to say, no that’s wrong as it implies intent. There is no proof that the man is a racist.

Whilst the word is incredibly charged, a conversation is needed to be had around intent. If he had no condition that makes you say things you don’t want to say, then it would be racist and rightfully called out, but he does and that means that he isn’t in control of himself and shouldn’t be made to apologise for having a disability. One believes that this is a cooler heads moment and that after some reflection people will see the difference between the two things but maybe not. The internet is just a place of hatred after all.

One thing I will say is that this awards season has been one of the most toxic, and vitriolic on record. The tribalism and the race baiting and the us Vs them narratives are really quite sickening. You saw it when parts of the film community began attacking every single film that wasn’t Sinners online and calling anyone who didn’t think Sinners was the best film and should win every award racist. They then called the awards shows racist, and now a lot of the same people are being openly discriminatory towards a man who cannot control what he said and likely feels an incredible amount of shame and humiliation over what happened.

If this is what awards shows are coming to then maybe they should just go away

We would ask you to look up Tourettes syndrome before you go posting on social media.

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Cinema Issues: Anti Elitism

In this edition of cinema issues we are talking about the idea that critics are out of touch elites and that they don’t understand the common man.

So this discourse is of course out at the moment as the people who loved the necrophilia porn that is Wuthering Heights say that anyone who doesn’t like the film is a snob/elitist. They apply this to anyone who has read the book and don’t like how this is an adaption in name only, but they scream it about the critics who gave it a bad score, asking why are they being critical of art why can’t they just enjoy things.

Therein is the central stumbling block of their argument, critics judge art to see if it is good or bad and give you an assessment, whereas you are asking for mindless consumption, mindless consumption is not what critics do. As at the end of the day you cannot recommend or tell people to avoid a film if you have watched it mindlessly.

There are a lot of reasons to dislike critics, the bought and paid for nature of them a lot of the time, the left wing group think, the virtue signalling. However calling them elites is just a bit ridiculous.

It speaks to your own inferiority, and you need to defend yourself liking something other people don’t, you go well I am a true fan, or oh they are just pretentious or a snob and they cannot have fun. In that not only do you show that you’re so fragile you can’t just accept another opinion but need to go on the attack but also show you don’t understand what critics do. They aren’t there to just have mindless fun they are there to assess the film. It isn’t the same thing.

If there is a choice between being a snob and being a mindless consumer I think the majority of people would rather be the intellectual snob than the mindless consumer. As one has connotations of intelligence the other has one of being low class and a bit gormless.

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Cinema Issues: The Power Of Voting With Your Wallet

The news that Snow White (2025) starring Rachel Zegler cost Disney 100+ million dollars.

As the news emerged yesterday I was met with a notion that despite what many media types tell us about how we are a minority or we are haters, and that we don’t matter we do have the power to change things.

Rachel Zegler was horrifically anti Semitic, she wished ill on those who politically disagreed with her and she disrespected the original Snow White film and for it seems that those combination of factors managed to unify those of us who can see what’s going on together. We stood up to the cultural vandalism and look they lost, they lost large amounts of money.

When I reviewed the film I told people not to watch as it was just modern day slop and it heartens me to see that many people beyond my readership could see this as well. People are rejecting this sort of filmmaking in large numbers.

Remember this when they call you a minority or a hater, or they wrongly call you vile names you can make a difference when you vote with your wallet and you can effect real change. Let’s make Snow White the first large scale example of the pushback.

Cinema Issues: Bob Iger The Man Who Killed Disney

In this edition of cinema issues we are talking about Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney.

So for many Bob was THE Disney CEO he brought in Marvel and Star Wars and led Disney to many successes under his regime. A lot of the misses such as Disney + we blamed on Bob Chapek during his short tenure before Bob returned.

However as the man looks set to leave at the end of the year let’s look over how he leaves Disney as a company, it’s not good.

Lucasfilm has collapsed. Lucasfilm has not released a Star Wars film in 7 years, the last Indiana Jones film flopped. Star Wars this thing that Disney spent billions on has become a TV brand and even in the realm of streaming it is struggling to bring in big numbers. The Mandalorian and Grogu is on the horizon but the likelihood of that making past 700 million is unlikely as the Star Wars fandom is just too divided, due to executives who operated under Bob.

Marvel is trying to right the ship to not end up like Lucasfilm. However, in the last year all 3 films Marvel released at the cinema flopped and the Disney + offerings are not doing big numbers. Since Endgame back in 2019 Marvel has been in decline and has been haemorrhaging viewers and engagement. Whilst some of the terrible glut of phase 4 and phase 5 can be blamed on Chapek demanding content at all costs, Iger could have cancelled and scrapped projects when he came back but he didn’t. He allowed the brand harm.

Pixar is still capable of making money with films like Inside Out 2 but scattered around that are films like Lightyear and Elio. Films that flopped terribly and that show that Pixar is not the titan it used to be. Whilst Chapek did harm the brand by letting a lot of Pixar’s films go straight to streaming teaching audiences to stay home, Iger did not do enough to manage quality since his return.

Disney animation has not been able to get out Frozen 3 despite it being a guaranteed billion dollar film, with Frozen 2 coming out 7 years ago.

The live action remark strategy has been mixed with some hits and some misses and that is probably Iger’s shining light of his second tenure.

Crucially Iger has been the message CEO he has been the one to see Disney lean into DEI, Bob Chapek again gets a lot of criticism for this but it all started under Bob. He has since said things such as they are going to focus on storytelling over message yet this is not reflected in filmmaking output. What has been required is a much stronger hand at the executive level over production. As you can see from this article Iger hasn’t been that strong hand he has been a CEO representing managed decline of a brand.

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Cinema Issues: The Public Death Of The Movie Star.

In this edition of Cinema Issues we will be talking about the death of movie stars.

Now I don’t mean literally, I mean in terms of career suicide. The basic premise going into this is the following as a movie star you need as many people as possible to turn up to your films, splitting the audience down political lines is stupid.

Celebrities don’t seem to realise that by making nearly everything political they alienate themselves from the audience. For example why did Florence Pugh the British Actress need to have a little rant about I.C.E, she didn’t she’s not even American and yet she did it to virtue signal. That’s all it’s ever been, it’s showing allegiance to whatever cause their agent tells them to.

Increasingly, studios need to crack down on this, actors need to be told to shut up whilst promoting a film and that if they run their mouth about hot button issues it will cost them work. There is a reason stars of old generally kept their mouths shut about this kind of thing, they aren’t politicians, they aren’t unionists, they aren’t even political agents, they are actors their job is to entertain the public and that is it.

Seeing Natalie Portman or Jenna Ortega run her mouth about politics just means more and more people aren’t going to show up for their next project. In an era where people don’t go to the cinema much anymore this is not helping matters.

Cinema Issues: The Death Of The Wicked Franchise

In this edition of cinema issues we are talking about the Wicked Franchise.

So after the crash out of many Wicked fans over the fact that the Oscars don’t hand out awards to the happiest film, or for fun and don’t exist to soothe them during “difficult times” in their privileged lives, we are talking about how this franchise fell from grace.

The first film did well at the box office , not billion dollar well but well and that set an unhealthy precedent. A lot of these musical theatre types thought that it was their moment and rallied behind the film thinking that due to it doing well at the box office it would win awards, then it didn’t.

They consoled themselves by saying well okay they are just holding off for the second film and then it’ll get all the awards. Things changed when the second film came out, the hype was smaller people had moved away, it made far less than the first film, and it was simply a worse film overall. As such it didn’t get nominated. The Academy doesn’t care about box office gross particularly, they care about good films.

You see when the second film came out there were conversations coming out from Universal about Wicked as a universe and new stories within it. I would argue these were premature as the box office for the second film highlighted diminishing returns. I don’t think a third Wicked film or a Wicked spin off would have anywhere near the audience of the first or even second film. I think that the musical theatre folks need to take the L on this one and move on.

Id argue that the Wicked Franchise is probably done and there shouldn’t be anymore films as if they stop here they can still go out calling it a success if they keep going that will get harder and harder to do.

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Cinema Issues: Oscar Nominations, Pandering And The Death Of Fun

In this edition of cinema issues we are talking about the Oscar Nominations.

So in response to the Oscar nominations I saw a post from a Wicked fan having a fit that Wicked For Good wasn’t nominated saying that the Academy hates fun. This is the whole thing, awards aren’t about what you like or about fun they are about achievements in filmmaking. As this isn’t baby’s hour at the local daycare they aren’t going to have an award for most fun.

It seems both with the Golden Globes and now the Oscars a lot of the people commenting on what was picked don’t understand what it is or why certain films get nominated.

Our take on the nominations is two fold. Firstly One Battle After Another being widely nominated despite being not good, in our opinion, and not achieving much of anything worth nomination for, shows that Hollywood wants to reward message films over actual cinematic achievement. They want to have as best picture the film that best represents them and their specific progressive values, they are voting for what they agree with and to avoid being cancelled rather than to reward excellence in filmmaking.

Talking of a fear of being cancelled the fact that the From Dusk Till Dawn reboot/rip off is the most nominated film in Oscar history, goes to show that the Oscars were deeply bothered by the Oscars so white hashtag. They are so worried about being cancelled that they have to nominate it for everything just so no one accuses them of racism again. The fact is they still will be accused as you can’t please these people, unless it wins every single award at the show they will accuse the Academy of racism, and it likely won’t win everything.

Ultimately the discourse around awards season this year has been led by racial tribalism and people who don’t understand how the Oscars work and haven’t seen most of the films. It’s a damning indictment of the state of online film discussion.

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