Cultural meeting
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From March 11 to 20, 2022, at the Center Pompidou in Paris, the “Cinéma du réel” festival, the biggest event in France devoted to documentaries, is making a comeback with 42 films, and devoting a whole section of its programming to Africa.
Last week, AMC Theatres elicited a lot of offended gasps from movie fans following CEO Adam Aron announced that the company would be jacking up ticket prices for The Batmansomething he explained was perfectly normal in “European theaters” (ooh la la) and is already commonplace in America for sporting events, concerts, and live theater anyway (because buying sports tickets, concert tickets, and theater tickets is always painless, right?). “How might he do this?” we shouted, our sensitive little hearts appalled by the level of greed on display. “Doesn’t he realize that’s an extremely short-sighted way to make money, and that it indicates that he has very little regard, if any, for his customers?”
Well, the joke’s on all of us, apparently, because The Batman made a whole lot of money this weekendand an atypically big chunk of that came from AMC. As the company boasted today (via The Hollywood Reporter), its theaters accounted for 29 percent of The Batman’s market share, which is more than normal (though we don’t know how much more), and eight of the top 10 highest-grossing theaters in the country this past weekend were AMC-owned.
Basically, AMC’s little experiment to see if people would notice or care that they were paying as much $1.50 extra for no reason worked out exactly the way the company wanted. But wait, because there’s an even more insidious angle to this scheme: THR also says that Cinemark and Regal Cinemas, the other two biggest chains, also jacked up their The Batman ticket prices. They just did it without telling anyone! Oh, and they also did it for Spider-Man: No Way Homeand nobody noticed or cared!
Congratulations to everybody who was excited to get back to movie theaters following the pandemic: You’re a chump! You thought Nicole Kidman cared regarding the “magic” of theaters? She just wanted your money! She’s swimming in a big pool of it like Scrooge McDuck right now!
But movie theaters raising prices is not new, and it’s not the most offensive thing here. That would be the fact that it’s AMC running this game—and Aron’s utter glee over its success. In a statement, he claimed that this past weekend was the “third biggest weekend for AMC in more than two full years,” as if we’re not talking regarding the same AMC that had to admit in December of 2020 that it wouldn’t survive for another month. The same AMC that only still exists today because it was able to get some last-minute cash on the assumption that people would someday want to go back to the theaters. And how is it thanking the people who are going back? By charging them more money.
Then once more, at least AMC is doing it to your face. What Cinemark and Regal did is probably worse, but we haven’t been following every move their CEOs made for the last two years out of an abundance of concern and affection for the existence of movie theaters. That’s on us, though. We should’ve assumed that a CEO would do what CEOs do: Increase profits as much as possible, even if it means taking advantage of people and making the experience for customers worse and worse.
Samuel L. Jackson had a little rant once morest the Academy of Oscars, while supporting Spider-Man : No Way Home.
There is no doubt that Samuel L. Jackson is one of the most popular and appreciated American actors of his generation, as the latter will have marked pop culture with a hot iron with his outrageous performances in various genres and for various filmmakers. Whether obviously in Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Django Unchained), but also at M. Night Shyamalan (Unbreakable, Glass), or at Spike Lee (Do The Right Thing), when he does not play the iconic Nick Fury at Marvel and its Avengers.
But as he’s set to receive a statuette of honor at the upcoming Academy Awards to be held at the Dolby Theater on March 27, 2022, Uncle Sam wanted to let it be known that he was not happy at all, and when Samuel L. Jackson has something to say, he makes it clear. Indeed, in an interview with the magazine TimesSamuel L. Jackson has returned to his one and only Oscar nomination, Best Supporting Actor for his crazy performance in the cult Pulp Fiction by Tarantino, which was eventually handed over to Martin Landau for Ed Wood.
Uncle Sam has a message for the Academy…
The actor also cited his role as a drug addict alongside Wesley Snipes in Jungle Fever, for which he was not even named, for the benefit in particular of Harvey Keitel and Ben Kingsley in Bugsy by Barry Levinson. And Samuel L. Jackson continues to assert that he should have had his statuette:
“I should have won. […] My wife and I went to see Bugsy. Slim ! They were named for that and not me? I guess black people usually win for doing some despicable stuff on screen. Like Denzel [Washington] as a horrible cop in Training Day. All the great things he’s done in uplifting roles like Malcolm X? No. We’ll give it to him when he plays that motherfucker. So maybe I should have won one. But the Oscars don’t move the decimal on your check. It’s the number of butts you manage to move in the halls that makes your cachet and I did a good job on that. »
He’s also amazing in John McTiernan’s Basic
And by the way, the actor also wanted to defend the Marvel team to which he is still so loyal, more particularly Spider-Man : No Way Homewhich should, according to him, be rewarded with an Oscar, namely “the one of the most popular film” :
“He did what films know how to do: bring people together in a big dark room… All films are valid. Some go to the movies to get emotional dearly. Some like superheroes. There are people who have had successful careers but no one can recite a single line from just one of their roles. Me, I’m the guy who says ‘shit’ and we put on t-shirts! »
In short, a rant from Samuel L. Jackson as we like it, and which reflects his philosophy rather well. Most Spider-Man : No Way Home does he deserve an Oscar? We tell you that in our review.
On February 26, the director James Mangold and the producer Frank Marshall announced on Twitter the end of the filming ofIndiana Jones 5’. “Thus begins the first day following the storm…”amused the director, raises BFMTV. The filming was very eventful since Harrison ‘Indy’ Ford79, injured his shoulder while rehearsing a fight scene. “Production will continue while the appropriate treatment is applied, and the filming schedule rearranged if necessary in the weeks to come”said the spokesperson for Disneywithout giving further details.
> To read also: ‘Indiana Jones 5’: Harrison Ford injured on set
The story of the film is still a great mystery but according to the first indiscretions, Indiana Jones should travel through time. The film’s cast also welcomes the unsettling Mads Mikkelsen from the series ‘Hannibal’, the comedian Antonio Banderas and the English actress/director/screenwriter Phoebe Waller-Bridge (‘Fleabag’).
‘Indiana Jones 5’ will normally be released on June 28, 2023 in French cinemas. This feature film is a sequel to the very mixed ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ (2008), ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’ (1986), ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom’ (1984), and ‘The Raiders of the Lost Ark’ (nineteen eighty one). All of these films were made by Steven Spielberg who thus leaves the reins to James Mangold (‘Logan’, ‘Le Mans 66’, etc.).
> Allinternational news on LINFO.re
That’s a wrap !!! #indianajones pic.twitter.com/pQRTw0oOXx
— Frank Marshall (@LeDoctor) February 27, 2022
