Originally Posted by Leo656
Dude, they literally force smaller theaters out of business by forcing them to run their movies way past the "expiration date"; as in, say your small town of a couple thousand people has one small theater, and after two weeks, everyone's already seen "Aladdin" three times, they're sick of it. But their "agreement" with Disney explicitly states that they HAVE to run that movie on X number of screens, three times a day for 6 to 8 weeks, or else they don't get to show the movie at all. For one thing, if the theater only has a few screens to begin with, 50-80% of them are all showing the same ONE movie. And after two weeks, the whole town's burnt out on that movie, and they CAN'T just show something else or Disney will sue them into oblivion. So NOW they're playing that movie to empty seats for over a month, making ZERO profit for themselves, while Disney keeps 80 cents on every dollar for every ticket sold. At the same time, the theaters don't even have the option to show other movies from Day One, because Disney commonly holds their films "hostage" with some variant of, "Well, if you show that ________ movie from Sony/WB/etc., you don't get Star Wars." They do it ALL the f*cking time.
So the theater owners have to deal with the very real issue of, if they don't get the Big Disney Movies that everyone wants to see - while playing entirely by Disney's "rules" the whole time - they'll lose tons of money. That screws the theater owners. Then they can't even offer their paying customers a decent variety of films, because of a limited number of screens and Disney's "You're not allowed to show 'Movie X' or no Avengers for you!" bullsh*t, which means any money they DO make is going to be very short-term, BUT they have to run these films forever or not at all, so they get screwed on the back end, too. And all of this ultimately screws over the paying customers in these more rural areas, because if their little Mom N' Pop theater doesn't get "The Lion King", they're now forced to drive to the nearest mall or chain theater, sometimes 30-60 minutes away, which they'll ultimately end up doing but they don't WANT to.
That's just off the top. And as mentioned, their percentage demand for every dollar earned and ticket sold is WAY higher than any other movie studio; I'd have to verify it, but I've read that in some cases it's as much as 80%. EIGHTY PERCENT. Eight pennies out of every goddamn dime, just because they know they can get away with it. By the way, movie theaters don't make jack sh*t on movie tickets, since most of that goes back to the studios, anyway, but MOST studios are a lot more reasonable when it comes to splitting the difference. Even the bigger theater chains have been quietly calling "Bullsh*t" on Disney for their exploitation of this practice for years, but it's absolutely death for the smaller, local joints. But long story short, the more money a studio demands per ticket sold, the more the theater has to charge for "extras" just to stay in business. So the next time you go to the movies and start bitching about $8 sodas, blame The Mouse. It's 100% their fault; they set an exorbitant "per ticket" rate, and every other studio has to raise theirs just to stay competitive, and then the theater has to nickel-and-dime the piss out of their customers just to keep the lights on. Nothing happens in a vacuum.
I won't even get into my opinions about their products, because all of that is subjective. What's NOT open to debate or opinion is that Disney is a f*cking predator shark that wants to ensure that nobody in the entire entertainment industry makes a single dollar except THEM. I don't care how big a piece of anyone's childhood they are or how masterful they are at banking on peoples' nostalgia; they're a ruthless conglomerate that owns almost 3/4 of every single thing people are able to watch, read, or listen to, and globally they're guilty of everything from price-fixing to literal slave labor. These aren't opinions, they're facts, and "Everyone else does it too, just less so" doesn't wash with me.
And don't even get me started on how their theme park employees can't even get paid enough to feed themselves; that's been ALL over the news, recently. There's "The Magic Of Disney", right there: Snow White, sleeping in her goddamn car after a 14-hour shift in 105-degree heat, wearing company-issue underpants that are crawling with goddamn lice. Fun.
Liking/defending their products is one thing. As a company, they're completely indefensible.
It has nothing to do with being "anti-Disney" or looking for "hit pieces". Facts are facts, and they don't care about nostalgia or 'Member Berries. I feel sorry for anyone who'd defend a billion-dollar corporation that engages in such anti-human business practices on a global scale, just because they make some pretty cartoons sometimes.
It does some good to read once in a while.
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