A weekly examination of pop culture

You can be highbrow. You can be lowbrow. But can you ever just be brow? Welcome to Middlebrow, a weekly examination of pop culture. Sign up to receive it in your inbox weekly.

Not To Be Melodramatic, But Movies As We Know Them Are Dead

By Matthew Jacobs

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to mourn the death of Movies As We Know Them.

Movies As We Know Them enjoyed more than a century of prosperity, beginning with a whimper and ending with a CGI-laden bang that can barely recoup 9-figure budgets. The expiration of Movies As We Know Them led to great strife for many innocent bystanders: the smell of fresh popcorn, the animated roller-coaster rides that told you to silence your phone, and the landfills where all those plastic 3D glasses were discarded.

We regret America’s loss. As a temporary antidote, we recommend bouts of nostalgia. It’s hard to imagine, but there once was a time when “Independence Day” was an exciting cultural touchstone. Consider the quaint memory of a tragic period piece like “The English Patient” grossing $232 million worldwide andwinning Best Picture without spawning a single sequel. Note that the first movie based on a Marvel comic — 1987’s “Howard the Duck” — bombed to the infamous tune of $38 million.

You hear this funeral dirge because mild panic is sweeping Hollywood. The Force may have awakened, but it’s already going rogue.

As franchises became the film business’ linchpin throughout the 2000s, mid-budget adult movies (costing roughly $10 million to $60 million) steadily grew extinct. We can date that shift back to the 1980s, when the landmark auteur decade that preceded it slowly folded into the more business-minded Reagan era. Marketing became key, but at least summer blockbusters still told original stories like “E.T.,” “Back to the Future” and “An Officer and a Gentleman.”

Fast-forward two decades, and the major studios responsible for green-lighting and distributing big-budget spectacles are now hellbent on exploiting our nostalgia-obsessed culture.

“It’s true at every studio,” Dan Jinks, who produced “American Beauty” and “Big Fish,” told GQ in 2010. “Everyone has cut back on not just ‘Oscar-worthy’ movies, but on dramas, period. Caution has made them pull away. It’s infected the entire business.”

Disney, for example, paid $4 billion to acquire Marvel Studios in 2009 and began plotting its ass-kicking superhero offerings several years in advance. Today, it’s not uncommon for a top-tier film factory like Universal to issue press releases toutingan “Untitled Universal Event Film” slated for 2020. This is the new normal. Whatever it is, it’s guaranteed to be big (in theory). Capitalism!

Yet, despite the intended bankability of never-ending sequels and spinoffs, this summer’s box-office profits have dipped by 15 percent. Look at these numbers:

“Neighbors” took in $49 million on its opening weekend in 2014. “Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising” took in $22 million on its opening weekend last month.
“Alice in Wonderland” took in $116 million on its opening weekend in 2010. “Alice Through the Looking Glass” took in $27 million on its opening weekend last month.
The previous “X-Men” movie, “Days of Future Past,” took in $91 millionon its opening weekend in 2014. “X-Men: Apocalypse” took in $66 million on its opening weekend last month.
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” took in $66 million on its opening weekend in 2014. “TMNT: Out of the Shadows” took in $35 million on its opening weekend earlier this month.

Those stats aren’t just anecdotal. Before summer began, sequels were already floundering. “Ride Along 2,” “Zoolander 2,” “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2,” “The Divergent Series: Allegiant,” “10 Cloverfield Lane,” “God’s Not Dead 2” and “The Hunstman: Winter’s War” all earned less than their predecessors.

The well-publicized but critically reviled “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” debuted to heftier returns than 2013’s “Man of Steel,” but the dark knight suffered a near-historic revenue drop in its second weekend in theaters. By the time its theatrical run ended, trades like The Hollywood Reporter were analyzing whether a mammoth $863 million in global grosses meant it was a success. Oh boy. Where’s Martha to unite us now?

The eulogy doesn’t end there. Much ado has been made about the proverbial Death of the Movie Star over the past decade. Fewer and fewer A-listers not named Melissa McCarthy can draw crowds on name alone, à la Julia Roberts and Bruce Willis in the ‘90s. In April, McCarthy’s “The Boss” opened to $24 million — a modest number that’s considered a certifiable hit because it isn’t associated with a known brand.

As for all the other supposed star vehicles? Big ol’ stinkers: George Clooney and Channing Tatum didn’t coax holy numbers out of “Hail, Caesar!,” the beloved Tina Fey wasn’t much of a selling point for “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot,” Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Grimsby” didn’t recoup its $35 million budget, “Keanu” struggled despite being the inaugural big-screen collaboration of Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, “Mother’s Day” became Garry Marshall’s first ensemble holiday bomb, onetime box-office mainstays Julia Roberts and George Clooney didn’t do much for “Money Monster,” it’s been a rocky road for “The Nice Guys” despite Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe, and the Lonely-Island-fronted satire “Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping” debuted in a measly eighth place.

What gives, America? It’s hard to say precisely. There are the obvious platitudes about the "Golden Age of TV" and how no one wants to pay for overpriced movie tickets anymore. But 2015 was a banner (if erratic) year at the box office, and (semi-)original offerings like “Mad Max: Fury Road,” “Inside Out,” “The Martian,” “The Revenant” and “Straight Outta Compton” outperformed expectations. People are still going to the movies, yet studio execs were still reportedly unhappy with 2015’s ticket sales because a select few tentpoles (Read: dinosaurs) dominated the summer.

You were nice while you lasted, Movies As We Know Them. In the studio-system days of Old Hollywood, people often showed up at the theater and caught whichever film was playing next. Once the medium matured, they were lured by certain stars, or because something like “Star Wars” or “Ghostbusters” or “Beverly Hills Cop” seemed attractive on its own merits. Now they go, for the most part, to see the continuation of their favorite franchises. If those things are no longer baiting viewers, how does the industry thrive?

Celebrity gossip

Thursday, June 9, 2016

Not to be melodramatic, but movies as we know them are dead

Not To Be Melodramatic, But Movies As We Know Them Are Dead

No comments:

Post a Comment