Pls can you explain why most cinema films are so bad & good ones are not on anywhere?

[LetYouEntertainMe]

There are two films I really wanted to see The Return (Ralph Fiennes) and Hallow Road (Rosamund Pike).

Neither of these are on anywhere near me. There is one Hallow Road but really really late - 10pm sort of showing - in the week? who wants to do that?

So having been frustrated I thought I'd have a look to see what was on as I'd got a bit of time to see something and it is all rubbish that I don't want to see mostly aimed at kids and teenagers.

I've had this experience a few times recently. I wanted to see Conclave in a cinema but had no luck in a finding somewhere mainstream - it was out of the way arts house at weird times of day.

Then the cinema industry complains no one is going to the cinema. I'm happy to go to see good stuff yet nothing is good and when it is good, you can't find a place to see it.

I had similar problems when trying to see Conclave in the evening. This was back at the start of the year before Pope Francis was hospitalised. Eventually I ended up driving 40+ miles there and back to see it in a tiny ‘art house’ type cinema.

Mainstream cinemas seem only to cater for teenagers who want to watch silly superhero movies or families who want to see kids’ films. Then they wonder why people over 40 never set foot in the places. 🙄

@SpottedDonkey I ended up paying to watch it on Prime.
It's really annoying.

The other annoying thing is that many of these smaller films that sound good or interesting then are not available anywhere on any streaming platform to pay for at all for a long time. Maybe less so now perhaps but previously. I spent a long time looking for one film regularly and eventually it turned up about 4 years later on prime.

Hallow Road was a very limited release for some reason. Wasn't on at all at my local cinema.

I travelled to the nearest cinema to see it. Even then it was only on for a week at obscure times.

@BeachLife2 was it good? recommend it? or wait for streaming?

I was interested in seeing it in the cinema as the concept from what I've read (focus on the two in the car) sounded like it might give a more intense and 'scarey' viewer experience in a cinema.

What do you think?

@LetYouEntertainMe

I really liked it. I think it's worth seeing it in a cinema if you can, but most of the story takes place via audio so it should be ok on a smaller screen too.

thanks @BeachLife2

I don't know if this is much help to anybody, but my local Everyman (Broadgate) is showing Hallow Road on Tuesday and Wednesday this week so other locations may well be too - I missed the miniscule window it was on at my actual local cinema too so I'm hoping to catch it now.

The strand (which also includes The Marching Band, another one I'm keen to see) is called Beyond

You're exactly right. Unfortunately, it often all depends on how big your city is. Theaters want to make money and they opt to the lowest common denominator. Some cities are lucky to have theaters specializing in good films, but most people aren't that lucky - although you could of course try to get people to write to complain to the movie chain.
Do you happen to have a museum in your city? Sometimes museums have film series. Or a college? Or a newspaper with a movie critic? Maybe you can start a movement.

You need to check the cinema listings more frequently. Both films you mention were released over a month ago - The Return was out at Easter and we're past midsummer now. Really you're pretty late looking for either of them.

Small budget films don't run for long, especially in the provinces where there aren't many cinema screens - cinemas want full houses. Conclave actually came out last November so the pp looking to watch it the next year was always going to struggle. Often when a film is up for an Oscar it will have a further showing run but it will be more limited because a lot of people who want to watch it will have seen it already when it was originally released.

For streaming, look into OK. It's a Russian site/app that is kind of like a dorky Russian equivalent of Facebook that lets people share video content. Because Russia doesn't care about US/UK copyright laws they turned a blind eye when people started uploading films to stream, and now it's absolutely full of them. You just watch them like you would on, say YouTube, you don't need to download files or torrent or whatever, and you can use Chromecast to send what you're watching to your TV. There's all sorts on there, not just films but also TV series like eg Slow Horses etc.

Ursulla
You need to check the cinema listings more frequently. Both films you mention were released over a month ago - The Return was out at Easter and we're past midsummer now. Really you're pretty late looking for either of them.

Duh. Thanks for that.

I know this. It was a general observation about good films. It's happen to me a few times where I have been looking repeatedly since release and they are not on anywhere mainstream but if they are they are at obscure cinemas at odd times.

It amazes me on here how people are so quick to jump to the conclusion that everyone else but them is thick as pig shit. How likely is it do you think that someone who is interested in seeing particular films is totally unaware of when they were released? Or has no understanding of release dates?

I have no intention of using copyright infringement sites because its unlawful. I am prepared to pay to watch art that I am interested in.

Hallow Road now is not on anywhere at all apart from a showing here or there in Dorset or London. It was released on 16 May 2025 and I've been looking since then. My post which was actually prompted by Hallow Road was on 23 May which was 13 days after release and I'd been looking since it was released.

I'd be prepared to watch to stream it but it isn't on streaming either. I'm here. A willing paying customer but I can't actually watch it because the commercial means to do it aren't there.

The point is that good films are not released main stream or ease to find and junk kiddies films fill cinemas.

I worked in an independant cinema for a long time so have some insight in to this. The 'big' films - James Bond, Marvel, Wicked etc - often have very strict rules attached to their licensing. For example in order to show Wicked we had to agree to show it in the largest screen (we only have 3 screens!) 4 times a day for at least three weeks. This has huge knock-on effects when it comes to scheduling other smaller, lower profile films and sometimes means it's really not even worth licensing them at all. It's often much, much cheaper to license a smaller film a month or two after it's inital release but then it's harder to get people through the doors, particular if a film has already been released for streaming. The film distributors are making it really hard for smaller, independant films to get any cinema time at all.

Totally agree OP, there’s so little I want to see these days and the timings never fit with my availability anyway

Steaming and formulaic Marvel type shite is killing cinema unfortunately

@SaffyWall that's very interesting about the big films licencing.

I can only agree - my other problem is that the Picturehouse Epsom has a crap website that doesn't encourage you to scroll down either. I'd like the chance to catch some movies on 'second bounce' in the way London's Prince Charles tends to do. I do wonder if they actually want people to head back to the cinema sometimes.