They Don't Make Movies Liked They Used To.
At the end of the week, I sit down at my dining room table and start typing. Usually, these articles which I post are the result of something that has happened in this business, an email or a call from an industry professional. This week it is a bit of both.
Like many of you, I watched the Oscars broadcast. I did so this year reluctantly. I felt guilty that I had a diminished interest in it this year. I thought the movies were lacking and with the exception of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (which I really liked) they all felt diminished from past years. I turned off the broadcast after ninety minutes. I went and did something else. My curiosity got the better of me and I turned it back on only to see a Korean language movie win Best Director and Best Picture. While I was touched by the joy showed by the Korean cast and crew who accepted the awards, it really got me thinking. I witnessed the exuberance of the winners on stage and how they realized the significance of what had just happened.. Frankly, I was a bit stunned and really began to think about how we got here.
It was a bad awards season as Netflix gambled, and gambled big on financing “The Irishman”. Martin Scorsese's picture was nominated for ten Oscars, “Marriage Story” was nominated for six. Only one Oscar won by Laura Dern for Best Supporting Actress for“Marriage Story” and they one another Oscar for a documentary produced by Barack Obama. Netflix was nominated twenty-four times and totally dominated the nominations. They won two. This was a total repudiation of Netflix's attempt to give itself motion picture relevance. Their inherent pathological need to hold that golden statue and hear themselves thanked was palpable. They were St. George and the movie industry was the dragon. The dragon won. An $11 million dollar Korean language movie held the day. The members of Academy of Motion Picture Art and Sciences declared their independence and in an act that crowed defiance, actually voted for the best picture. That hasn't happened in a very long while. It was a gust of wind that arrives during a very hot and still day. Something had changed and I suspect for the good.
The next day I received a couple of emails from two theater owners, sharing their thoughts with me on what was wrong with the movies. I love getting these kinds of emails because I readily admit I write primarily from my perspective and I enjoy deeply being able to see issues from the perspective of others. The first theater told me that with Disney now asking for sixty-five percent and demanding hold periods, he was no longer able to make any money. He told me that he had no choice but to look at turning his theater into a community movie theater and run it under the auspices of a 5013(c) not for profit. He wrote that he had no choice if he wanted to maintain the tradition of movie-going in his town. He said that Disney had made this decision for him and he had two choices, close or evolve into a community-run operation. I am starting to get quite a few of these emails telling a similar story.
The next email was of a different sort. This was from an owner whom I have known for a while and I respected. I had written him some time back and asked him a simple question “What do you think at the core is wrong with the business of movie exhibition”. He must have thought about it for quite a while. His reply was concise, thoughtful and very truthful. While he did mention the economic pressures and the terms being forced on him, he came down to a very simple statement. He stated the following, “I think I could deal with the rising rentals, the hold periods but what I can't deal with is the simple fact the movies are just not very good these days.”
That hit me and hit me hard. At the core of this business lies storytelling, and this wise theater owner was telling me that the storytelling was no longer compelling and as a result, the audience was not coming to the movies. I think he may be right.
At first, the media conglomerates (remember there really are no more studios left) set their eyes on China. In order to appeal to China, they changed the story structure, got rid of the Americanisms, started including a Chinese tradition of story structure and even started casting Chinese stars in leads. For a couple of years, the Chinese embraced these movies. The Chinese government used these movies to prime their own pump. The gold coming out of China was not to be. In the meantime, the American audience began to wonder what happened to their movies. They felt that Hollywood had abandoned American and now they decided to return the favor.
No matter what they tell you, here is a simple truth. The top ten movie champs at the box office adjusted for inflation, look like this.
- 'Gone with the Wind' (1939)
- 'Titanic' (1997)
- 'Avatar' (2009)
- 'Star Wars' (1977)
- 'Avengers: Endgame' (2019)
- 'The Sound of Music' (1965)
- “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial' (1982)
- 'The Ten Commandments' (1956)
- 'Doctor Zhivago' (1965)
- 'Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens' (2015)
Here is the skinny, the audience has not gone away, they are there and but are purposefully staying away in droves until they get what they want. While we do have some mega-blockbusters, the attempts by the studios to consistently hit them out of the park have eroded and almost destroyed the storytelling ecosystem. The movies that they make for the most part are not engaging the audience, and the audience has said time and time again that the storytelling is repetitive. Audiences are voting with their lack of attendance. In order to have a truly vital market, you need a variety of dynamic diverse products. The audience needs to know that the people who make the movies are listening to what they want. Hollywood is not and the audience is returning the favor.
What is fascinating though is that I think the creative community who makes the movies are equally being stymied as the theater owners. They want to tell story that can reach and impact an audience but are consistently being thwarted by their corporate handlers. The media conglomerate is trying to rule with actuarial tables but is failing miserably. Something is brewing, a rebellion against the process, a rebellion against the corporate bodies that are coming between the American people and their stories. I think the Academy Awards signaled a deep dissatisfaction with the status quo. It is going to change. It has happened before and the movies were rescued by the rise of groundbreaking movies starting with Easy Rider in 1969 and finishing with Star Wars.
It is going to get very interesting and we are going to be in for a bumpy ride.
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4 年I am going to rant just a bit with regards to movies. As someone who has spent some 50 plus years watching and a good 10 years as a motion picture projectionist, I hope I have something to offer. During the 60's and 70's movie production was good. . .These were the end of the halcyon days for westerns, and the beginning of the exploitation movies. Comedies such as Mel Brooks Blazing Saddles could still be made and we laughed uproariously for them. Rogue biker gangs, criminals and Mondo movies were staples for studios such as American Independent Pictures (AIP). They were campy, cheaply made, but all so much fun. Heaven knows, they sustained the drive-ins for many years. The occasional road show still made the rounds and were always worth the price of admission. In the 80's things started to change, but there were still some excellent efforts. Back to the Future series Indiana Jones, and Star Wars really stand out. It seemed to be a new generation of fantasy movies with great stories and great production values. Back to the Future was the first time I took my parents to the movies. But there were many other great movies, serious, fantasy and comedies during these years. On the other hand, theatre chains started to conglomerate. Many of the smaller regional chains were absorbed, and underperforming theatres closed. In my area, Commonwealth theatres was absorbed by United Artists, who immediately closed all twin theatres in the chain. Within a year, the 4 screens were closed and in short order, even the 2 six screen theatres were shuttered. On another front, Video theatres, which once had 350 regional screens and many drive-in screens were absorbed by Martin theatres, who promptly closed most all of the former Video theatres and drive-ins. Of particular note is the fact that most of Video's theatres were drive-ins located in smaller towns. As theatre chains were conglomerated, a palpable decline in movie production and distribution began. Fewer movie makers translated into fewer titles. As the number of distributors declined, a downward spiral began that continues to this day. Fewer of the smaller outfits, translated into far fewer independent and specialty movies. The large conglomerates became focused only on titles that seemed sure hits. Over time, this translated to a much narrower range of titles that were released. Consider the recent focus on Comic book related titles and their endless squeals. Even "Chick flicks" and slasher movies are now history. The trend of the last 20 years has continued to choke off the industry. Societal trends such as political correctness have only made the problem worse. Today it is to the point that movies such as Airplane! or Blazing Saddles could not be made. We have become afraid to laugh at ourselves. . . The industry has taken money from the Chinese, which has caused the censorship of anything the Chinese government did not like. The totality of the industry has become so homogenized as to have become a shell of what it was even 40 years ago. the former patrons have certainly noticed and as you alluded, abandoned movie going in droves. It is apparent that perhaps someone should have put their foot down years ago to stop the massive conglomeration of chains and distributors. Of course it is too late now to close the proverbial barn door. The small independent theatres and local chains are all but gone. As we are finding in March of 2020, people still want to get out of the house. This despite huge LCD big screens, and 5.1 home sound. The problem now is there is nothing worth seeing. Hopefully, new studios and theatres will arise out of the ashes to fill the void. If it happens it will be a breath of fresh air. I suspect however, that such wishes will remain just fantasies.
Technical Sales Support Manager at Moving Image Technologies
5 年There are so many good stories out there, that it is nice when something fresh pops up on the screens.? Really tired of the retreads!
Quantum Digital
5 年Audiences are rejecting the Far Left political ideology being pushed by Hollywood today. We haven't seen anything this dangerous since the communist infiltration of Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s. Bad times are these.