The Era of Big Cinema Is Over

TCS ^ | 26 Oct 2006 | Edward B. Driscoll Jr.

[avg_freeper]

"George Lucas, who produced six Star Wars movies, self-funding a large portion of their sequels' expensive budgets with his own money"

It also helps for your movies to not suck.

[GOPJ]

As a company town, Hollywood has always tilted to some extent or another to the left, but the studio heads who ran it from the 1930s through the 1950s understood that its product must resonate with the American public as a whole to make money, regardless of their filmmakers' personal politics. Or as Sam Goldwyn is frequently attributed as saying, "Pictures are for entertainment, messages should be delivered by Western Union".

Bingo

[dfwgator]

Or how bout, "If I want to get preached to, I'll go to church, not the theater."

[GOPJ]

Jump cut to this past summer, where that Superman movie that Warner Brothers was counting on to kick-start their perennial superhero franchise instead became infamous for having Perry White utter "truth, justice and all that other stuff", because the film's writers were ashamed of, well, the American way.

This wasn't all that new a development—even before 9/11, Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor was chided for its revisionist history and moral equivalence. But after 9/11, Hollywood's PC freefall merely accelerated, causing further alienation from the industry's domestic audience. The 2006 Academy Awards ceremony was something of a watershed. As blogger Charlie Richards noted this past February, "it's a big year for films nobody will see", to the point where March of the Penguins, which won for best documentary, made more money than any of the Best Picture Nominees. And as author and blogger John Scazi wrote at the time, "When Hollywood's best films can't compete with chilled, aquatic birds, there's something going on."

Just Another Niche Market

What was going on was that Hollywood had alienated a wide swatch of its audience-perhaps to the point where relations are irreparable.

This writer totally "gets it".

[Yossarian]

"George Lucas, who produced six Star Wars movies, self-funding a large portion of their sequels' expensive budgets with his own money"

It also helps for your movies to not suck.

Yeah, no doubt. If Ronald D. Moore would put out a 2 hour Battlestar Galactica episode in super-HD to the theaters every 2 weeks - like a serial - I'd show up for that regularly.

BSG: the best show on any screen size right now.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

No kiddin.

[t_skoz]

Good article. I used to see movies all the time, up until the late 1990s. Then I pretty much stopped. 90% of all movies were crap.

Last weekend I went to see Scorsese's new film "The Departed" and it was the best film of the past few years. I plan on seeing it at least 3 more times in the theater.

[JamesP81]

Jump cut to this past summer, where that Superman movie that Warner Brothers was counting on to kick-start their perennial superhero franchise instead became infamous for having Perry White utter "truth, justice and all that other stuff", because the film's writers were ashamed of, well, the American way.

Which is why they won't get any of my money for this one. It's not that they changed Superman that annoys me; it's the venal anti-Americanism behind it that grates on my nerves.

[JamesP81]

BSG: the best show on any screen size right now.

You got that right. It's one of the few things that has come out in the past few years that isn't full of trashy writing.

[Rummyfan]

Last weekend I went to see Scorsese's new film "The Departed" and it was the best film of the past few years. I plan on seeing it at least 3 more times in the theater.

I agree. Have seen it twice and will probably see it again. Also want to see FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS. But THE DEPARTED was the first flick I'd seen in a theater THIS YEAR! And I used to go to the movies a lot.

[ConservativeDude]

March of the Penguins, which won for best documentary, made more money than any of the Best Picture Nominees"

Wow, is that really true??? If so, that is an excellent talking point.

We are talking about the year the fagback mountain was a best picture nominee, correct? So, March made more than that gay porn flick? Is that accurate?

[50sDad]

Most movies today are made to impress the director's peers in Hollywood. If the hicks in Flyover Country like it, that's nice, too. Clearly, movies per se aren't going away. But the communal experience of a movie theater is.

Once, people joined in a big room to experience being together in a grand environment and seeing spectacle, human life, and feel-good truth as a organic whole. Smaller theaters, lefty movies, and gum under the seats have driven those people to discover that for a moderate investment, you can avoid high ticket prices, overpriced popcorn, cell-phone interruptions, and noisy morons who talk during the film, just by staying home. (You can watch in your pajamas, the popcorn is superior, and if you want to see the rest later, your projectionist is always on duty.)

Many of the same movies are still watched, but people are making a conscious decision to pay $5.00 for virtually unlimited viewing vs. $20 plus overprice snacks, plus gas, plus sitter, plus hassle. And now competing with the Liberal pap Hollywood has produced for decades is an unlimited supply of reheated video, both from today's TV and from classic reruns that didn't want to teach you a pompous lesson...they just wanted to make you laugh. Why the heck would I pay $50 to see Al Gore's nagging global warming movie when for the same price, I can get a season of classic original Dick Van Dyke reruns that my kids love and watch over and over...just because they are funny.

Hollywood will always be there...but a lot of movie theaters won't. You'll see Tinsel Town making Direct-to-DVD movies on a much smaller scale. But I guarantee you...they will never learn that the reason "pictures used to be big" is that Goldwyn and his fellows kept the stars where they belonged...under his thumb. Ah, for the days when if an actor was a Lefty poofdah with a bad leather fetish, the press agents hid it like last week's garbage!

"I'm ready for my close up, Mr. DeMille!"

[RoseofTexas]

"Which is why they won't get any of my money for this one. It's not that they changed Superman that annoys me; it's the venal anti-Americanism behind it that grates on my nerves."

Apart from them also being chills for the RATS to the tee!!! Thanks but NO movie, with the exception of A NIGHT WITH THE KING, will I go see any other flick! Why support the RATS when their biggest contributors are the SNAKES from HELLywood? A ticket bought is a contributions in the pockets of the ANTI-AMERICAN RATS!

[AngryJawa]

BSG: the best show on any screen size right now.

Frackin' A right it is. The scene you got that cap from is just the icing on the cake.

[Marie]

I *love* BSG! Got my kids, my husband and my cousin addicted! I think that this will be the first series that I buy on DVD.

[RoseofTexas]

oooPS...meant shills or is it schill or is it...ahhhh never mind! (:

[sarasota]

Is Departed as gruesome as I've heard it is?

[Buck W.]

They can save a lot of money on costumes with more nudity.

[fireforeffect]

Try Babylon 5 too.

And Firefly/Serenity while you are at it.