Fanboys Anonymous

Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.


Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

AMC Wants YOU to Pay for Their Coronavirus Cleaning

You know how it's going to be harder than ever to convince people to go to the movies because it's unsafe during COVID? Well, AMC's decided to up its prices to compensate for the cleaning process that may or may not even be a disaster and not something that can stop you from getting sick in the first place.

So if you thought it was too expensive to see movies in theaters before and you want to make that even bigger of a gap AND you want to risk getting sick, go to AMC once they re-open!

Stupid decision. They should be cutting back prices to try to get people in theaters, in theory.

How many companies have to fall into the same trap of thinking that they can save themselves from bankruptcy by upping their prices when they know full well the main reason people avoid their business is high prices? Isn't 100 people paying you $5 much better than charging $20 and hoping 25 stick with you while 75 stop going? It's one thing if you up something a few pennies and you can make a lot of money from something that is negligible, but we're talking a price difference every couple years that gets harder and harder for people to justify spending their money on.

I remember when I used to go to the movies for $5.50. Now, to get the same movie ticket, it's $20. That's ridiculous. We're not talking the 1960s, either. We're talking 2005. In 15 years, it shouldn't go up 300% in cost while your concessions are also going up, too!!!!

This bubble isn't going to take forever to burst. Movie theaters are going to die if they try to charge people MORE to take MORE risks during a PANDEMIC to go do something that they can ultimately get cheaper at home and be lazy about it.

Shia LaBeouf as Iceman?

Rumor going around is that Shia is who may be cast as Iceman in the MCU. That's wild and I don't quite get the idea of casting him for the role. He doesn't strike me as Iceman. I would think he'd be better for something like Multiple Man or Toad or maybe a villain.

Big Shake-Ups at Warner Bros and DC

Look. We all knew DC Universe needed to be folded into HBO Max. It should have happened from the very beginning. The whole point of people not wanting to pay for cable is because they don't want to pay for things they don't need and they would like to consolidate and pick the methods for them to have the most stuff available for the cheapest cost. People won't pay for HBO Max if they just want the DC stuff and they won't pay for DC Universe if some of those things are taken over to HBO Max. Instead, what they have to do is make it so DC Universe is just for the comic books and is a less pricy subscription service plan that can cater to that market, while the film and television shows go over to HBO Max and boosts that subscriber number. At least, from my perspective. I'm not a business major or anything, so what the hell do I know as a consumer what I would want, right?

DC Collectibles? Gone. No idea what that really means for DC's merchandise. I can't imagine they're making such little money that they'll want to stop making toys and stuff for Batman and other incredibly important characters. Some things are made just to sell toys, even, like entire TV shows and films.

Why is someone from esports coming in to fix the comics? What?

In theory, weekly comics will be digital and physical copies will only be graphic novels. As much as that kills comic book stores and a big side of this whole media with people loving collecting individual comics and such, it just seems like this is the natural way of things. If people don't buy comics, you can't keep making comics. If companies don't give you a reason to keep buying pieces of paper to read something that you can more easily read through a digital platform, it's just natural selection. You can buy a digital copy at any moment of the day, immediately, while doing anything. You might not want to go out of your way to spend your gas and drive over to the store to see if they have that comic book, buy it, and hold it in your hands. It's just a harder thing to do, definitively, even if it has its own merits. You still have plenty of people who will rather read a book than use a tablet, but just think of it as any other thing out there. Is it easier for you to sign in to Netflix to watch a movie or to go to the store, buy the Blu-Ray, make sure your BR player is working, get up off the couch, grab the disc, put it in and play just that? Laziness and ease always wins.

Plus, I'd assume it's cheaper to create the digital comics than physical ones. After all, you're creating them digitally and then printing them. You're skipping not only the printing costs but also the shipping. And apparently, graphic novels sold in bookstores performed better than anything sold in comic book stores, including single issues.

Curious why this is all happening before FanDome...

TRON: ARES

Is that the name of Tron 3, according to a Jared Leto post? It seems like that's the case. If so...meh...

Also, I'm still curious why it's Leto at the lead instead of Hedlund and Wilde from #2.

GoldenEye 25 Dead, Kind Of

Well shit. The remake of GoldenEye for N64 that has been in the works and looks absolutely phenomenal has been hit with a cease and desist. Now, they're going to have to repackage the game as a non-007 thing with new elements, original characters and so on.

Basically...there goes my interest. The game itself could be great, but I was into it for the James Bond stuff and seeing the game that I loved updated, not some brand new thing with a similar feel. If that was the case, I would have gotten into Perfect Dark back in the day, but I didn't.

CBS All Access Becoming Paramount+

If CBS All Access appeals to an older market and they think renaming it Paramount+ is going to get younger people, they're wrong. People aren't going to just flock to a service because the name changed to fit Disney+ and the other things like that. They'll go there based on the content.

There's nothing wrong with the All Access name. It's just a matter that there are tons of streaming services now and you need the right content to hook people.