Every year, Hollywood offers what is called For Your Consideration (FYC) screenings. This year, no one is attending them:
Multiple sources tell THR that attendance for some in-person events has plummeted far below prepandemic averages. “It’s bad,” said an awards veteran of the trend, which is impacting official screenings for the Academy to various guilds.
Just how bad? Multiple sources confirmed that some showings at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater — with a capacity of 1,000 — had hosted fewer than 50 guests for some screenings.
These screenings are free and not just open to awards voters but members of all the various guilds. That is thousands and thousands of people. The studios send invites, post the schedules…
Naturally, the excuses for these empty theaters are legion, including the China Flu, along with “online screening options, production commitments, an overwhelming number of screening invites, and a general shift in social calendars.”
Yeah, I’m sure that’s it. Except this same article proves most of those excuses a lie with this piece of information:
Bucking the downward spike has been screenings with A-list talent and Q&As for such films as Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans, Rian Johnson’s The Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery and Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever as well as healthy turnouts for a series of SAG events featuring Q&As with talent including Florence Pugh and Keke Palmer.
Oh, so people are excited to see certain things in a theater. If the attraction is sexy enough, suddenly the China Flu, “online screening options, production commitments, an overwhelming number of screening invites, and a general shift in social calendars” are no longer a problem.
Funny how that works.
People will come out in droves if they want to see something.
People will not come out if they don’t.
Well, what does it say about the quality of movies when the people who work in movies don’t bother to go and see them? What’s more, what does it say when those who are supposed to vote for these movies in all these award ceremonies stay home?
If Hollywood people aren’t interested in seeing these movies in a theater for free, how does Hollywood expect the rest of us to pay to go and see them?
These fake entertainment outlets will invent any excuse to avoid telling the truth: Hollywood’s content sucks.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
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