by Joseph Rossi
Variety recently ran an article that had many in the film industry, as well as fans, in a state of shock, happiness, fury, etc. Two of Hollywood’s golden sons, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, gave a lecture at USC and predicted that the decades old exhibition format of movies will be a thing of the past. Video on demand, Internet web-isodes and cable television will be the future. As someone who studied film all his life I cannot bear to listen to this. Not true. BS. Malarkey. As a realist who has noticed the current trend creeping up in the entertainment world, I have to say it’s right on the money.
Studios are making movies in the 200 to 300 million-dollar range. According to Lucas and Spielberg, sooner or later, that’s all they’ll know how to do. Costs are too high and studios will implode. To break even on one of these tent pole pictures, a studio must clear it’s budget plus marketing costs. Man of Steel cost 225 million. That’s not including the 100 plus million to market the film. The studio will have to clear 400 to break even. Fine and dandy since the film is a hit but what if it’s their sole hit of the year? That film will have to compensate for their other failures. What if it was a flop? God forbid.
Spielberg mentions that he had to fight to make Lincoln. Spielberg fight? We are at a point where modestly budgeted films are dying. Cinema owners have already increased their fares and added 3D and Imax surcharges to factor in high budgeted productions and the now obligatory conversion to digital projection. I recently wanted to see Will Smith’s After Earth but the only screen it was playing on was an IMAX. 16 bucks for a matinee screening of a film that is a horrible mess to begin with and I have to pay double the price? I walked out, went home and watched Game of Thrones on HBO.
Film, actual film, was the premier art form of the 20th century. In a few years, celluloid won’t be a choice. It’ll be for niche filmmakers and twice the cost. I, for one, will miss it. It took time for DOP’s to light a scene properly so that it was just that little extra bit special. Just imagine Raging Bull in digital (don’t want to). With modern technology, it’s like the cookie aisle at the grocery store; so much selection but half of them are actually good. Companies are cranking out movie after movie after movie. There are filmmakers who have embraced the new cinema; James Cameron, Martin Scorsese, and Ang Lee have made their modern masterpieces using 3D, Imax, etc. They will further the medium and I would gladly pay a higher fee to see their work. I know I’ll be getting quality and originality. But to say that the modestly budgeted guys, The Lincoln’s, The Million Dollar Baby’s, The Hurt Locker’s, are in jeopardy, makes me worried. Movies like these once fueled Hollywood; story before spectacle.
I guess we go with the times. There was a time where people dressed up to go to the movies. Mind you, it was before my time, but it looked like such fun to dress nicely, walk into an old fashioned hall and immersed oneself. Now we wear sandals, tank tops and cargo pants while we walk into the next amusement park themed multiplex, eating an overpriced hotdog and watch the latest Adam Sandler movie. Lucas says that cinema’s will become like Broadway theatres; high costs, reserved seating. We’re halfway there if you think about it. Who will afford this? Not that kid in the Midwest. Not those in small towns who haven’t even seen digital projection yet. I’ll admit that streaming over TV and the web is convenient but is that the legacy of the medium? Just a little over one hundred years old and that’s it? Makes me sad.
Below is the link
Link: http://variety.com/2013/digital/news/lucas-spielberg-on-future-of-entertainment-1200496241/
