04/02/2025
Standards are what you make of them. If you own a studio the only rules that define your distribution are if you want your film eligible for awards season. Closing the streaming gap during Covid made sense but continuing quick release to on demand is just lazy and you are doing it only to pad your streaming numbers. You cannot then whine that your theaters are suffering. This is a product of your own demise.
Everyone is freaking out because the theater system we now know of is broken. But what most people doNOT realize is we are in the peeling off the bandage stage. It’s gonna hurt! The bandage being the answers that evolved directly from Paramount antitrust. Where studios were no longer allowed to own a direct distribution route of the films they produced. Because they were not allowed to to show their own films their theaters had to be pieced out and run by various middle men. This was the end of large grand palace movie theaters of over 1,000 seats and why everyone goes to the mall megaplex.
But a few months before the COVID lockdown the USA government abolished Paramount Antitrust. The middle men were no longer needed. Shadowed by the Streaming Wars of 2020 a bigger agenda is at hand. Squeeze the middle men out of the business.
So, the Dark Screen Foundation wants to know. “What do you think will save live theatrical cinema experiences across the globe?”
https://deadline.com/2025/03/sony-tom-rothman-cinemacon-2025-1236355098/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1JhiryxVMpNb5DAu9hnG5dFx5IYqYRW7hbDLy3CpuY1IeVPpiKsZMiMfM_aem_ByKGIl1Pbi1BFf9LmDnTgw
Leave it to Tom Rothman to tee up CinemaCon, ever the philosopher, with the ultimate sermon that waves the flag for moviegoing.
