How is this thread so old?
...if you mean "so long without an update", I think there's a bit of a trough in film production (not the current strike, which may yet hit releases otherwise yet to come, but the Covid/post-Covid throttle-back leading into other things). My impression only, no hard stats at hand.
I've also not seen a film at the cinema, now, for... ages. Saw No Time To Die on TV (legitimate, free-to-air, broadcast TV), which must have been >12 months after its eventual (delayed) cinema release, and there's definitely some MCU/DC things I may have seen normally that are probably in 5he DVE shelves of the supermarket that just never coincided with the last time I was passing a multiplex with idle time in hand and intent, nor mask-related caution. And I really should support some 'monoplex"/(two-ish screen) independent outlets within relatively easy reach of me. I'm comparatively unconcerned about my lack of subscription to anything in the "streaming" domain, though. But that's just me, apparently missing the brief releases of anything 'interesting'. Not sure if that scales up to myself (and any large cohort of similarly apathetic non-patrons). But I was also hardly single-handedly supporting the respective sub-sectors of the entertainment industry beforehand, either.
So, anyway, there's been a lot about how the combined 'Barbieheimer' was
the latest re-emergence of Event Cinema (just 8n time for the Actor's Strike to not entirely foil their Big Star Premier launch events). Which means that serious journalistic people who keep an eye on these things probably also think there's been a bit of a dearthbover the last few months/year.
I've got to say that, while not at all allergic to pink, I don't think I was ever going to make the effort to catch Barbie. I don't have kids(/grandkids/(grand-)niblings) with a need to be accompanied by (Grand-)Poppa/Unkie Starver. And I have as little personal interest in the product-line as I did in Playmobile[1]. I may catch it on TV, if I notice it at some convenient juncture. But something tells me it's no Monstrous Regiment, and the above review doesn't really help dissuade me of that idea.
Oppenheimer... tempting. Not necessarily for "boys toys" reasons. More interesting to see how Nolan has done mostly 'in camera' (and analogue film, apparently very little digital pre-/post-production in any form, saving the final transferal to digital projection systems for various screens it will be shown on. Also for curiosity about "Now I Am Become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds. By Oider of the Poiky Bloinders!"[2]. Though I am perhaps also quite drawn by the physics aspect (but also a little scared of the possible treatment, like with The Imitation Game vis-a-vis actual computing elements).
Oh dear, a long message, most of which isn't film review (or particularly useful speculative antici... ...pation). But perhaps reveals how I've been mulling over various subjects recently (like whether I'll be flashing the cash, any time soon, at a cinema box office near me). Out in the open, I suppose. Do laugh/cry/despair at all of this at your own leisure.
[1] I tell a lie... I
did at one point have Playmobile figures, but they were far inferior (even to the middle-type in the third image down in
this article, but especially to the 'buildable' non-mini figure to the left) to all things Lego™©®, IMO...
[2] Ok, cut me some slack. Someone with my accent trying to re-render in 'internationally understood English orthography' my internally hallucinated voice of the supposedly early 20
thC edge-of-Black Country/Brummie/roots-in-Ireland accent. Without trying to invoke a very lazy 'Cockney' (or pure Belfast, or even Noo Joisey!), but on reading it back it
could be interpretted that way... Yeah... No. It's not clearly working how I want. Don't even have any good '-ng's to try to emphasise, in that quote, and it'd be wrong to go all Yam-Yam or "Do Bist Death?" in self-response.