If the nation’s theater owners seem more excited than usual this week, it’s not just because they’re set to make a nice big pile of cash from Avengers: Endgame. It’s also because we’re in the middle of CinemaCon, an annual event where big movie stars and big movie studios show off their upcoming blockbusters to the people who run movie theaters while showering them with compliments about how supremely important movie theaters are even though you can literally download any movie to your phone at any time. One of the big stars at CinemaCon this year is Helen Mirren, who put on a masterclass in pandering to the audience when she took the stage and declared: “I love Netflix, but fuck Netflix.”
The Hollywood Reporter says this got a “big applause” from the theater owners in attendance, with Mirren adding that “there’s nothing like sitting in the cinema and the lights go down.” She also thanked the theater owners “for making that environment possible,” which is a note that inspired even THR to point out that “it’s commonplace for talent to praise cinema owners onstage at CinemaCon.” THR also explains that Netflix has been a “huge topic of discussion” at the event this year, much like how, say, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is probably a huge topic of discussion at CPAC.
Anyway, Mirren was there to promote her new movie The Good Liar, which was directed by Bill Condon and also features Ian McKellen. It probably won’t be on Netflix any time soon. Also, remember that awful Judd Apatow movie Funny People? It had a thing like this.