Film Courage: What do you think about The Gray Man having a limited one-week theatrical run?
Erick Weber, Editor-in-Chief of Awards Ace/YouTuber: No I don't like it I mean
I think Netflix's theatrical plans are just in disarray they don't have
a theatrical component to their films Netflix needs a theatrical component because
at the end of the day we all know this it's just it's a fact when a film is in theaters you its
visibility is higher it's got more cachet it just that's how because that's that's how I was as a
kid I mean we all went to movies there was no such thing as day and date at home right like
Netflix or Disney plus or any of these things that the Hulu any name of name the streaming service
it was all about theatrical and anything that wasn't theatrical was a tv movie so it wasn't
viewed with the same lens it was like this is a lesser film because it's not on the big screen
and that's netflix's challenge is getting people to accept them as a studio such as Warner Brothers
Disney 20th century obviously part of Disney sony Universal these studios paramount that have
the legacy that Netflix does not have but the way you build legacy is you have to have a theatrical
component so when I look at The Gray Man a film that's I believe a 200 million dollar budget with
the russo brothers 200 million dollar film and you don't have it in theaters beyond one week
and by the way not even the major change not AMC not regal it is cinemark or even smaller and and
you have this 200 million film you have to have at least a 30 to 45 day window theatrical window
right these be 90. so let's give it 30 that's a month a month before it's on Netflix it's at AMC
regal the major chains figure out some kind of sharing I don't know how the profits work with
with all that stuff the ins and outs the numbers but I know this they need to get that because it
will add cache to their film so instantly when you ask them about The Gray Man I say ah it's
lesser because it's not a theatrical film it's not a Universal release or a Warner Brothers release
it is going to be on Netflix a week after and again we can't even in l.a it's going to be
very hard to find theatrically so Netflix has to figure out how to get their theatrical game going
I can't believe they don't have it done by now I mean it is I'm hearing finally you're hearing
these stories and the trades that they're thinking about I'm like thinking about it how did you not
do this like a year or two ago I've been saying this for forever it's such a vital part of the
visibility of a film is the theatrical component okay do you think some of their reasoning behind
this is like pressure buy like hey this sort of like this is only on sale for this weekend folks
so because of rising costs and things like that give people one week now there's pressure
we want to see this on the big screen no I think I think that's that's the op the flip of that
so because it's only one week now you're telling audiences you only have to wait a week to see it
look at paramount and what they just did with top gun maverick
they gave it a 120 day theatrical window that is four months that's longer than the the old 90.
so what you do when you announce that it's a four-month theatrical exclusive you are forcing
people to go to the movie theater to see your film and and I think the listen I think we're in a
different place now than we were in 2020 certainly when co would first hit I think if you look around
look at the audiences I'm seeing it films now it's back to the 2019 pre-print pre-pandemic levels so
why not give audiences the opportunity to go see it at a theater where it's going to
be that communal experience where it's going to be something that they're going to remember far
more than watching it at home I mean every single time theatrical beats home viewing 99.99 of the
time so unless someone's on their cell phone okay or talking or kicking your chair those are those
are separate issues but the actual experience of watching on a big screen with a crowd in
your recliner if you paid the up charge these are all better and I think that another thing
that's that's really great about films and I think about going back to watching top gun maverick just
last week seeing young kids and older folk right next to me this wide swath of all ages going to
this film this might have been their first film back into a theater right because they've been
had coveted they've done the whole thing and maybe they were a little leery about going back
then they go to see topka maverick and they take the precautions they need to take but they say
to themselves hey that wasn't so bad and now I think I'm over my fear and now I'm going to get
out and not just go see movies I'm going to go live life more than I have in the past two years
so movies are the vehicle for so many other things I mean just think about that breaking
that plane of being frightened of going outside your house and all of a sudden you go to see top
gun maverick and you come out first of all I love the movie second of all I'm alive a few days later
hey let's go try this and this and this and then you regain where we were before which is
so important right living life fearlessly because if you if you're living a life of fear obviously
you're not living so I think again just think about taking something small like that and then
extrapolating it out and saying wow look at what it just did for for somebody I think about that
too so shortening the window of opportunity for theatrical actually has the opposite effect
100 yeah yeah shortening the theatrical window absolutely makes your film it puts it in peril box
office wise because people are now going to say I can wait 17 days certainly I can wait a week but
even look at HBO Max was doing that all throughout the pandemic pandemic day and date right it was
on HBO Max and it was in theaters and look what happened every one of them suffered because if
you give people the opportunity to watch a movie at home they're going to take it nine times out
of ten right eight times down to seven most people are going to go I'm going to stay home
I'll say it's cheaper I don't have to drive to the theater whatever it is so I think
if you give them the opportunity to watch at home you're going to lose a huge segment of your
movie going public right right there and then also people will just say I'll just wait it out if you
tell them it's going to be on in 17 days if I was running the studio I don't think I'd even announce
I would just say hey it's in theaters we'll let when it's going to be on our streaming service
because once you announce it you instantly give someone a deadline that they know I can only I
only have to wait five weeks I can do that but if you make it just tba then then they will go I
want to see this movie because right now the world works certainly on twitter film twitter and social
media is people want to talk about movies now what are people talking about now you don't want to be
talking about a film three weeks from now it was like oh my goodness that's old we already did that
we already did that discussion I mean people go to see movies like two days after the open house so
sorry I'm late to have seen this film it opened two days ago but that's the world we live in
now it's white hot at the moment so I think that's what theatrical that's how it thrives is by making
people go see the movie at the theater if they want to discuss it and people want to discuss it
so they're going to go to the theater how much money do you think The Gray Man will make in
theaters for this one week theatrical not much in fact remember this Netflix does not report
its box office we'll never know so they didn't roma had a small theatrical power the dog had it
I mean a number of their films had that one week window like especially the warts films they never
announced the box office they keep that down army of the dead I believe had that for a week
I think the reports got out didn't do that well but again it's not going to do well because
a week is nothing for people to wait they'll be like whatever and plus remember it's not at every
theater like if I want to see The Gray Man I have to probably go find it at a smaller theater here
in la I can't just go down to AMC because they don't have a deal with AMC so it we'll never know
but I'll bet you it's not very big because it's not going to be available everywhere now if it
was one week at AMC regal with the larger chains I would say better but again the week is not good
you really want to make it a month minimum because otherwise your fortitude just wait I'll wait
let's talk about Red Notice how much money would that have made apparently it was one of netflix's
most popular films streaming all time I mean you have three major stars in that the rock gal
ryan reynolds you got these three major stars I mean if that's a Universal film
I can remember when that came out it was like it was still during the pandemic so we had that would
have been shifted but let's just say Red Notice comes out today and it's a Universal film okay
that opens with at least 40 plus million maybe higher even though it's not a great film but
again average person seems to enjoy it enough look at the lost city lost city is a paramount movie
obviously with Sandra Bullock and Brad and Channing and it did very well for them I think red
notices very much of that and I think it made over 100 million lost cities so I think red notices
easy over a hundred domestic alone probably throughout the world certainly more because it
is the rock will travel ryan reynolds travels gal would travel all those would go do well overseas
but it's hard to know because because it's Netflix if it was Universal I still think it
would probably be about a 45 50 50 million dollar opening and then at least 100 million box office
so Netflix leaves that out right so Netflix doesn't have that all of a sudden do they gain
more subscribers I'm not privy to that information but I just don't understand how you don't make
money while you can in theaters for at least a month or two and pocket that 100 million or so
or more and and now you don't have that it's just it's just like leaving money on the table I don't
understand the philosophy other than to drive people to subscribe to Netflix but I still feel
like they're going to subscribe anyhow they might want to watch it for a second time at home so I
just think that who Netflix needs to absolutely revamp their model certainly for their big films
not for every film but for their big films you're spending all this money on your budget 200 million
for the grey man and you're not going to put it in theaters why it doesn't it just doesn't
compute with me the business doesn't make sense to me and again it cheapens your film because
it's not theatrical what if Netflix puts The Gray Man exclusively in theaters for one month and it
fails at the box office how much would a massive failure cost Netflix I know we don't know too much
about their box office numbers right well first we'd have to know what the numbers are right so
we'd have to know they'd have to report the actual number we'd know but I don't think given its july
it's a four quad film right largely it's probably three and a half I mean young kids are probably
not going to see the great man but let's call it pretty wide you've got major stars in that film
obviously so you're looking at a very large chunk of the movie going pie it does it damage the film
if it bombs I mean are people going to unsubscribe from Netflix no so I don't think it does anything
I don't think it affects Netflix as long people aren't going to unsubscribe
and you made at least something from the film so I'm trying to ascertain what is the downside of of
putting a film theatrically it doesn't other than the sharing the revenue right because the feeder
the chains get their money in and the studio gets money but still isn't any money better
than no money plus the subscribers again it just doesn't work I can't get my wrap my mind around it
are movie theaters upset that Netflix has hurt their business they probably they definitely were
during the pandemic I mean during the pandemic everything was streaming right look at Netflix the
stock was through the roof now it's tanking people were stuck at home so of course they're watching
Netflix or Hulu or Amazon any of these things but but I think theaters were at that time I don't
think anymore I feel like that's gone I think Netflix the problem Netflix always wanted this
really short window they're like we'll give it to you for seven days or ten
why don't just make it thirty okay figure out a way forty-five there's gotta be something I
would love to sit down with Scott Stuber who I saw last night the head of Netflix
and ask him what's your reasoning I would love to hear someone because I guess they're finally
talking about it but I'd love to know what was your reasoning for not doing it he didn't want
to put up with the hassle what's the answer but but I think that no there's no doubt if it doesn't
do well not only doesn't anything you still have money you made something from the film plus you're
going to get people that subscribe to watch it even if it's bad people still watch bad movies
sometimes they watch them more than the good ones yeah I have watched fire starter five times
in theaters first of all I have a list from AMC which is the best thing ever okay sorry if this is
advertising but the AMC list is literally 24. for 12 movies a month 12. three movies a week okay for
24 so once I got that I'm like hey I've got three movies this week let's go see fire starter again
so and it's because it's bad so I've sat through fire starter five times because it is bad it's
90 minutes and I have a list but there's nothing wrong with seeing through a bad movie sometimes
it's more entertaining so you can laugh at it do you think Netflix will ever buy movie theaters
they should have I thought they were going to with Arclight right I thought that they
were going to go down there I know they have the Egyptian but I thought that they were going to go
buy Arclight Hollywood which would have made so much sense it's sitting there it's still empty I
don't know what's going on with Arclight Hollywood but it would be perfect for Netflix they're down
the street they have two offices right one on sunset one on vine and they have two campuses
right there we can walk over to Arclight I don't know how that didn't happen but it would be the
perfect showcase for their films put that in the cinema dome center center center ramadan put it
in the Cineramadome and then you have your number one film in that giant screen and and
you don't even care about profits at that point you own the theater so if you if it's a giant
that's a huge room obviously and let's just say it's not full who cares you're giving that film
the stature that it needs to again that theatrical component that adds to the stature of your film so
buy Arclight Hollywood and then stick your films there and and then have other films maybe that's
their issue too they don't want to be I don't want to have a Universal film and a Paramount film and
a Disney film in with ours I don't know what the point is I mean I would not suggest they buy the
arc light and put all Netflix films that would not be the suggestion I would just say buy it and then
put in your films where you want in the strategic rooms you want and then let the other studios have
theirs because you can't just have because the world doesn't run only on one studio's films
we've seen that you really want that diversity of of different studios and distributors maybe that
and expose them to liability it could be that too I don't know it's weird I don't know the business
of it I just it just doesn't make sense I just think at the end of the day the bottom line is
this is the theatrical adds to your film the cache of your film and without it with that
missing theatrical component it is it degrades and devalues your film I 100 believe that.