In a new essay for Harper’s magazine, Martin Scorsese argues the art of cinema is being systematically devalued and demeaned by streaming services and their algorithms, “and reduced to its lowest common denominator, ‘content.'” “Content” became a business term for all moving images: a David Lean movie, a cat video, a Super Bowl commercial, a superhero sequel, a series episode. It…
Tag: cinema
The Cinemas Now Hiring Out Their Screens To Gamers
Some movie theaters around the world are renting out their screens to gamers to bring in a new revenue stream amid the coronavirus pandemic. The BBC reports: With many cinemas across the country closed due to coronavirus restrictions meaning that they can only open with 50% capacity, and far fewer movies being released to tempt cinemagoers, CGV [South Korea’s largest cinema…
Robinhood Stops Limiting GameStop Shares
Robinhood has lifted all the buying curbs imposed at the height of the battle between amateur investors and Wall Street hedge funds. The change comes one week after the online broker limited clients to only buying a single share of GameStop and expanded its list of restricted stocks from 13 to 50. Reuters reports: The videogame retailer, the initial trigger for…
AMC Raises $917 Million To Weather ‘Dark Coronavirus-Impacted Winter’
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Variety: AMC Theatres, the world’s largest cinema chain, has raised $917 million in new equity and debt capital, the company said on Monday. “This increased liquidity should allow the company to make it through this dark coronavirus-impacted winter,” the company said, adding that its “financial runway has been extended deep into 2021.” AMC has…
Darth Vader Actor From Original ‘Star Wars’ Trilogy Dies at Age 85
Reuters reports: David Prowse, the English actor who played Darth Vader in the original Star Wars films, has died aged 85, his management company said on Sunday… The champion weightlifter-turned-actor starred as the body, but not the voice, of one of cinema’s best-known villains. Director George Lucas opted to dub another voice onto Prowse’s portrayal of the towering, masked antagonist Darth…
Nintendo 3DS Discontinued After Almost a Decade
Nintendo has discontinued its 3DS handheld after about 76 million sales over a nine-and-a-half year period. The BBC reports: A notice on the Japanese firm’s site says “manufacturing of the Nintendo 3DS family of systems has ended.” The device had the ability to trick the human eye into seeing 3D images like those in some cinema screenings — but without special…
Remembering Laika: ‘Space Dogs’ Documentary Explores Moscow Through a Stray’s Eyes
Space.com reports:
Laika, a stray dog scooped off the streets of Moscow, launched on the Soviet Union’s Sputnik 2 mission in November 1957, just a month after Sputnik 1’s liftoff opened the space age. The 11-lb. (5 kilograms) mixed-breed quickly died of overheating and circled Earth as a corpse until April 1958, when Sputnik 2 fell back into the atmosphere and burned…
Netflix Breaks Record With 160 Emmy Nominations
Netflix led the Emmy Awards race with a record-breaking 160 primetime nominations, beating the likes of linear television giant HBO and digital newcomers Disney+ and Apple TV+. Deutsche Welle reports: HBO came in second with 107 Emmy nominations, with its hit series “Watchmen” sweeping up 26 nominations, including a nod for the best limited series category. Earlier this year, Netflix hit…
CNET Remembers 1995, the Year Hollywood Finally Noticed The Internet
CNET is celebrating its 25th anniversary with articles remembering the 1990s — including that moment “when Hollywood finally noticed the web,” calling it “a flawed but fun snapshot of the moment the internet took over the world…” “Twenty-five years ago, cinema met cyberspace in a riot of funky fashion, cool music and surveillance paranoia. It began in May 1995 with the…
Unsubscribe: The $0-Budget Movie That ‘Topped the US Box Office’
An anonymous reader shares a report: In normal times, blockbuster movies usually dominate the box office charts. The big-budget productions, directed by the likes of James Cameron, Steven Spielberg and Ridley Scott, regularly draw the biggest crowds at cinemas across the US and beyond. But on 10 June, one box office-topping movie was watched by just two people, in one cinema….