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Posted on 12/17/2025 8:20:07 PM PST by Red Badger
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Haven’t watched them in years - as kids we’d fill out the page in the newspaper and predict the winners. It was a huge event we looked forward to.
But then I haven’t been in a movie theater since 2019. Hasn’t been a single thing I’ve been interested in seeing in a theater - that couldn’t wait for it to stream a couple of weeks later...
Streaming is rapidly destroying any possibity of a movie, even a great one, to have much cultural impact. Movies in theaters are in the public arena. Most of us live within range of theaters, and probably several multiplexes within range — although as theaters continue to get thinned out and urban congestion gets worse, the schlep factor increases.
All of which suits the streamers just fine. They are in the subscription and data harvesting businesses, not the movie business. They want proprietary content that forces the serious viewers — the ones who really want to watch a given movie for whatever reasons — to their platforms. They silo the content and hide it from the majority of potential viewers.
If they were trying to sell tickets and put butts in seats, their marketing approach would be the reverse.
Most of the streamers would be happy to see the theaters disappear. And they are actively sabotaging theatrical exhibition. They bought up the legacy studios not to make more great movies, but to get control of their catalogues of golden oldies.
In addition, streaming destroys any sense of immediacy and urgency. The highly committed active viewers will watch the movie immediately — these are the people that will hustle to see it in the theater if a streamer deigns to give it a perfunctory limited release — but most people will yawn, shrug, and maybe get around to it someday. It’s like picking up a book at Barnes and Noble will good intentions, and then tossing it onto the piles growing in the corners when you get home.
When I die, I could be cremated on a pyre of books I sincerely meant to read when I bought them, but never got around to it. That’s what the streamers are doing to the film industry. And since they have bought most of the legacy studios, they are now destroying their own product.
Which they will be happy to replace with AI generated slop meant to be played as background noise.
Streaming is rapidly destroying any possibity of a movie, even a great one, to have much cultural impact.
That happened to music a long time ago. Taylor Swift may very well be the last music superstar.
In music, there continues to be a healthy interest in live performances by the singers and groups that continue to bubble up at the grassroots. That’s where the music scene remains authentic and relatively healthy.
I don’t follow that scene, but I gather that some of these groups develop substantial followings. The problem is how to scale up and break out without being swallowed by the Borg. The same is true in cinema. The indies are still out there. They make films on often tiny budgets. A fraction of these might appeal to me, often more because they’re original, thoughtful and interesting even if they’re lacking the glitz and polish of big budget studio movies, which are often bland and soulless despite $50, 80, or 100 million budgets. I’m willing to give credit for concept, originality, and prioitizing a story with integrity and good acting as opposed to dazzling special effects.
And some of the indies are good enough to break out. But they need screens, film festivals and theatrical exhibition to find an audience. The streamers are rarely interested. And even if they do occasionally greenlight something from an indie producer with a good pitch, the contract will come with the 300 page corporate responsibility rulebook and 16 Executive Producers from corporate to interfere.
I’ve got my eye on a couple of early 2026 releases, which I picked up from festival selection lists. One is an indie that every major studio passed on, for reasons that (I think and hope) reflect well on the movie and badly on the biggies. The other was microbudgeted and shot in complete secrecy; it only surfaced as a Sundance selection a couple of weeks ago. No one had any idea that it existed until then. I’ll report to the movie ping list if they’re any good. And I’ll urge people to move quickly to see them in the theater, because that’s the only way to cut out the Borg.
I think the future is tribute bands, much like Symphony orchestras still play the classics like Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, etc.
Instead it will be The Beatles, Stones, etc. who can create the most realistic reconstruction of what their live gigs sounded like.
Even more obscure bands have tribute bands that do pretty well, an example being “The Musical Box”, which is a Genesis tribute band that’s been around for a long time, or the “Australian Pink Floyd”
I’m partial to the Civil War reenactor guys, both solo acts and small groups. Somehow, for reasons I cannot understand, none of these ever seem to break out and make the charts.
But live performances incorporating the jawbone of an ass beat anything contemporary artists do with electric guitars and fancy studio trickery.
They also have a female singer who can "do" Karen Carpenter exceedingly well ...
You tube is free
The music companies did it to themselves long before streaming got big.
Acts used to issue an album a year, and then tour to support it. We had many bands to choose from and autotune was not a thing.
Now, they release an album every 3-4 years and it kills off any buzz new acts have to establish themselves. By the time the next album is released, they are forgotten.
Also, there are no more bands being pushed anymore. The big studios don’t sign them as it is easier to deal with just one person with streaming.
All music seems to be female centric now also, so music for males is almost non-existent. Basically, most music now is utter trash which is why 70’s groups are able to sell their catalogue of music for hundreds of millions.
Have you ever watched Postmodern Jukebox on youtube? They take hits and do a different take on them. I got to see them live last year. Good fun.
I wouldn’t have noticed had I not read this headline.
It won’t happen until 2029, though, so you still have 3 years to not watch!.................
True what you say, re: linear TV.
Some films are still worth watching on the big screen in a theater though!
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