The screen is One weekly column devote to everything that happens in WIRED cultural world, from movies to memes, TV to Twitter.
Almost every movie released in 2021 comes with a whispered plea from fans: “I hope it doesn’t get destroyed.” In a sense, this is just a desperate wish for the film to fail. But there is also the hope of something more: That is, between a Covid-19 Pandemic scene, successful movie, make money, find an audience. Now, the audience is savvy enough to know that if any particular franchise/director/star doesn’t do well, the chances of more movies from that franchise/director/star go down. decrease. Success offers a greater chance of being successful.
But in this year, the year of coronavirus 2022, what even To be success? Traditionally, it has been measured by box office receipts (for movies) and viewership (for television). But in the age of streaming, and especially in an age caused by a pandemic combined with movie theater streaming, there’s no single yardstick to determine if a movie is doing well. no, making everyone – especially Hollywood executives – a little nervous about the future. Or, at least, that was the case before Spider-Man found his way home.
On the holiday weekend, Spider-Man: There’s no way home Confronted with long-awaited expectations Matrix Recovery and completely crush it. Or so it seems. Revival earned about $12 million domestically in its opening weekend, while Spiderman make more than 81 million dollars, even though it was in its second week of release. That seems pretty bleak for Neo and co, until you remember that the movie was also released on HBO Max on the same day it hit theaters, while Spidey is a full theatrical film. However, online viewership is also not very impressive. Only 2.8 million households watch Lana Wachowski’s smart TV Matrix sequel / restart something, according to streaming company Samba TV. But wait a minute! Contrary to those low numbers, TorrentFreak reported on that monday Revival is the most pirated movie in the first week of the new year.
What do all of this mean? Kind of a lot and kind of nothing. If anything, it says that the metrics for success and popularity in filmmaking are changing. Continuous. There is no other place — the cinema, the streaming service, the VOD platform — to consume any movie. Determining how much your audience appreciates any of them feels like doing third-year algebra. Streaming numbers, box office gross, torrents, hell, Rotten Tomatoes scores, and Twitter trends — they all tell us something, but in short, it’s hard to tell what. is a real success. It will be very easy to apply chalk Revival‘diminished theatrical performance for the rapidly spreading Omicron variant of Covid, if not for the fact that There is no way home did very well. It would also be easy to call it a failure, if it weren’t for the fact that so many people are discharging it. Both films received good critical reception, but like the eternal proved, even Rotten tomatoes maybe do well at the box office in a pandemic.
