Hollywood is about to face its greatest enemy ever: itself

Last year we saw Mickey Mouse going public domain and now every year more and more talkie movies are going public domain too. The talkies began in 1928, and I would say they got very close to what we have today in about 1934 or 35.

That means that every year people will have hundreds of "new" releases on public domain, making paying for watching new movies unnecessary. One thing is preferring the new movies when you have to pay both for new and old movies. Another thing is paying for new films when you have hundreds of old movies as good as the new ones (or better) for free.

I don't know about you, but I could spend the rest of my life watching public domain classics, no problem. For instance, I read a dozen books last year, only two of them were less than a 100 years old.

I would say Hollywood is in a pinch right now, something that will make them miss the days when their biggest enemy was piracy.

34 comments

Well, I read around 20 books last year and neither was older than 50 years old. I've also seen a few movies and neither was older than 34 years old.
If I was watching a movie made in 1934, I'd be bored as hell. My point kinda is: don't assume people have the same preferences you do.
- exactly this. I have no desire to watch a "talkie" in 2025. movies from my childhood don't even really hold up anymore. society and culture changes so fast. I think it would be a real niche group of ppl that go back and watch these old movies
  
  Probably true, but nonsensical. Free your mind and learn from the past. You’ll notice it wasn’t that different and people had incredible skills.
- 30’s movies feel weirdly modern until the Hayes code. Check out Gold Diggers of 1933 for some premium shit talking.
- There's no need for most people to agree with me. Even if 10% of Netflix subscribers decided to cancel it and move to classic movies, that would already be a crisis for them.
  And don't forget that humans have flock mentality. If this gets a little popular, it will be easy for it to explode. Just look at Nintendo now trying to contain the retro gaming boom and emulation.
  Next ten years we will see classics led by John Wayne, James Stewart and Kirk Douglas going public, and that would be enough for millions to drop the new so-so movie stars.
  
  Where will people watch the movies? Someone still has to provide a service where you can get them. Most people don't want to download and store them somewhere, Netflix is just easier. And Netflix can easily add them to their collection as well.
- I don't understand that at all. What about being old makes something boring by default?
  
  Well, you don't really have to understand, that was my whole point - different people like different things.
  For me it's mostly the pacing and the horrible acting in old movies.
  
  Acting techniques improved massively during the XXth century, so stuff that relies on that (basically anything but slapstick Comedy and mindless Action) will feel less believable, which impacts mostly things from the 60s and earlier.
  Then there are the Production values: the scenarios in early XXth century films were basically Theatre stages whilst more recent stuff can be incredibly realistic (pay attention to the details in things like clothing and the objects and furniture in indoor scenes in period movies) and Sci-Fi benefited massive from the early XXIst century techniques for physically correct 3D rendering and Mocap techniques so there is a disjunction in perceived realism between even the early Star Wars Movies and something like The Mandalorian.
  
  Tell me what's better: a 21st century hammer or a stone-aged one? Do you prefer a cell phone or an old phone? It's not about being "old", it's about usefulness or how useful you actually find it. We've been riding horses for hundreds of years, and they're still useful, even though cars have taken over the planet, and we've ditched black/white TVs for better ones with colors.
- I dont necessarily agree, for example M is from the early 30s and a great movie.

Public domain has nothing to do with consumption. You can go to your library right now and watch new movies for free.
- Sorry! Library is closed at the request of Hollywood
- My town doesn't have a library. But it does have internet connection and access to thousands of free movies on YouTube.

Good for you but I'm of the opinion that public domain nowadays is a bad joke of the cursed capitalist world we live in, if I wait to see something modern "for free" I'll be 150 years old and I won't even be able to see that Oppenheimer movie because of that stupid 95 year period of time... seriously, if the waiting period were 15/20 years I would make a genuine effort not to pirate but as I said above the public domain law is a joke and will continue to be...

Another thing is paying for new films when you have hundreds of old movies as good as the new ones (or better) for free.
Yeah, no. Movies made in the past, say, 20 years, are WILDLY different from the ones made 90+ years ago. I'm not talking about technology, image quality or special effects, I'm talking about cinematography (shot composition and camera angles), acting and the kinds of stories that they're trying to tell. Some stories are classics and timeless, but not all of them are, many are a direct byproduct of the historical context in which they were created, thus serving as interesting glances into the past.
If all you end up watching are these movies, you will get alienated from the world you actually live in. For instance, I bet there isn't one of those public domain movies that portrays native americans as anything other than uncivilized, tent-living indians; or any movie that attempts to portray, even somewhat respectfully, the struggles they had to endure against european descended settlers. Movies that don't shy away from showing some grim, dark realities? Not gonna be in public domain for another couple decades.
- Maybe I was a little radical in the OP. The fact is most people don't need to agree 100% with what I said for Hollywood to be in trouble. If 50% of movie fans decide that 20% of the movies they'll watch will be free old movies, the demand for paid movies will already fall 10%. If these numbers keep increasing little by little over the years, it's easy to imagine a scenario where half of the movies consumed are public domain. I don't know how much of the total number of books read every year are public domain books, but I would guess it would be at least 25%. I will try to find some research about this.
  Other thing is people don't look for historical accuracy and political lessons on movies. The vast majority of them just want entertainment. For each movie made about the holocaust, you will find a dozen generic thriller movies that are very similar to what people have been producing for the last 90 years. So you can find escapism in 1930's Hitchcock classics easily. And you can watch your new stuff later, but your screen time with paid movies would already have been reduced, and Hollywood won't like it.

There are plenty old movies I have seen or would love to see, but very few of those were made before 1940, and 1940 won't reach public domain for another 15 years.

Method Acting (which is a pretty powerful Acting technique for getting actors to genuinely feel the emotions of the character) dates back to the 60s in Movies (it dates back even longer to Stanislavski in 19th century Russia, but its popularity really took off mid 20th century) so before that actors were just faking it whilst after that it will be more and more them reacting genuinely to imaginary circumstances (in terms of the audience it means we will actually empathise with what's hapenning to the character because the emotions on display are genuine).
So the quality of the acting in the kind of Films that are now coming into the Public Domain will be lower than what we are use to (though in stuff like Comedy and certain kinds of Action it's seldom noticeable).
And this is before we even go into the quality of the Production (in audience terms, how believable are the scenarios).
I doubt Hollywood will be threatened by this for at leat a couple of decades.

OP that’s a killer list of books you’ve read. IMO you have a point. To all the people who say that you’d be alienated from watching old movies, that method acting is important and that special effects of the last 20 years are what makes it different, idk. It really depends on what you’re looking for.
Hitchcock movies or the stuff with Humphrey Bogart, Marlon Brando, even the super racist Italo Western movies, the very old Kubrick stuff, that’s all great cinema.
I’m as left wing as it gets but I also get very alienated by the “diversity” and “feminism“ modern Hollywood & Netflix cinema. It’s the same type of diversity and feminism that exists in corporate, where there is diversity in terms of ethnicity and sexuality, but only within class. It’s a fictional world to me the same way the old movies are, just done by a different bunch of people living in their own world.
There’s still some good cinema and good shows out there every now and then, but to think old movies can’t compete with modern TV & cinema just because they’re old is a very simplistic take.
- I also get very alienated by the “diversity” and “feminism“ modern Hollywood & Netflix cinema. It’s the same type of diversity and feminism that exists in corporate, where there is diversity in terms of ethnicity and sexuality, but only within class.
  Are you talking about Rainbow Capitalism?

That’s delusional man. We’re talking movies older than most people can even relate to. If this was maybe movies in the 80s we’d have a bigger problem but I’m sorry the content from 1920-1940 is just not relatable enough in most cases. If we have something like Batman and Superman Spider-Man, whatever right, things people care about, or like The Office or shows from yesterday hit the public domain, I think what you’re saying would have far more validity.
- Some people just prefer living in the past

What’d you read
- Project Gutenburg
  The Count of Monte Cristo is excellent. No movie has done it justice. No movie has come close to doing it justice.
  The Three Musketeers Saga is very, very long, and very, very inconsistent in quality.
  Moby Dick is really good. Also makes for a good movie, because there's a lot of stuff about whaling that nobody cares about anymore.
  Start with those, I expect a report when you return, along with an essay about what you did during the summer.
  
  Moby Dick is good in a way where I don't care about any of the characters or the story, but I could read Melville describe water or argue that dolphins are fish for the rest of my life, just because of how beautifully he does it.
  
  I expect a report when you return, along with an essay about what you did during the summer.
  theyrethesamepicture.jpg
  
  Thanks for the recommendations! Haven't read any of these books and after reading some reviews, I'm intrigued.
  If you liked the details in Moby Dick about whaling, you may also be interested in this great BBC series I've discovered a few weeks ago: Inside nature's giants where they dissect large animals and explain their anatomy and evolution. There are also two episodes of stranded whales being dissected ;)
- White Nights - Dostoevsky
  The Demons - Dostoevsky
  The Death of Ivan Ilyich - Tolstoy
  Polikushka - Tolstoy
  Short Stories Collection - Tolstoy
  The Metamorphosis - Kafka
  The Trial - Kafka
  In Search of Lost Time - Vol. 1 - Proust
- He said books buddy

34 comments