Is Hollywood Going Extinct?

 

My thoughts on the crises surrounding movie theaters during the COVID-19 pandemic and the potential state of movies in the future.

This past week, I read an article from that said the company that owns all 273 of the Regal Cinemas in the US and UK are closing down, I felt quite disheartened and sad about possibly not being able to go to a movie theater again. Since the pandemic began, I haven't been to the theaters due to taking precautions as to not catch the coronavirus. The last time I actually sat down in a movie theater was to see Todd Philips' Joker with Joaquin Phoenix. 

I am starting to get tired of Hollywood rebooting the same film series and rehashing the same stories over and over again. How many times can you remake a movie? After the 1930s film, A Star is Born was remade three times. Or seeing the same actors getting recycled in every movie by the same directors with the same two or three plots. For example, Ratched is the prequel to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Black Narcissus is being turned into a miniseries for FX, now they're remaking Cleopatra ONCE AGAIN, with Gal Gadot from Wonder Woman, they're even going to release a remake of West Side Story. It's getting quite annoying with the constant remaking and retelling of the same stories. I would rather just watch movies on Netflix, which are more original and you don't have to pay for it, just the subscription. 

I've seen more original content on Netflix alone these past few months in quarantine than I've seen promoted in movie theaters these years past. Now they're trying to make up for the lack of moviegoers in theaters by charging people to watch movies at home. I was going to watch the film Antebellum and do a movie review on it, until I looked on Amazon Prime and it was priced at $20 dollars. $20 dollars! Why would I pay $20 dollars to watch a movie at home as well as paying my monthly subscription to Amazon for Prime services. Similar concerns came up when a friend of mine wanted to watch Mulan on Disney+ and it cost her $30 plus the subscription to even use the services. Then I thought to myself, that $20 would just be to pay once, it's not like that would be the cost of a movie ticket. I could pay the price once, invite a few friends over and we could get a box of popcorn and some sodas and enjoy the movie at home. Maybe due to COVID, drive-in theaters could see a resurgence in popularity again like in the past. 

Instead of hiring younger, more innovative creators, they'd rather remake the same films from years ago and cast the same crop of actors. I feel like it may not even be worth it anymore to go to a movie theater if this is what we have to choose from and I could watch a better movie that wasn't even released in theaters and stream it from the comfort of my home. Just to name a few movies that I watched at Netflix without having to pay extra were, Da 5 Bloods, Extraction, The Old Guard, Project Power, Uncorked, Marriage Story, Dumplin, Brain on Fire, Come Sunday, and countless other films that Netflix has released that are more interesting than what is being released in theaters. 

At this point, I feel Hollywood is extinct and will be no more. I seriously can't even remember the last time I stayed up and watched an awards show. It's been a couple of years since I've watched the Oscars, Emmys, Golden Globes, SAG, and the plethora of other award shows they have each and every year. Instead, I'll go to Google and just read who won what the next day.