Written by Luke Barnes

This piece will be my first annual state of cinema address, a feature that if popular and I remember I will try and do every year going forward. In it I’ll be talking about the festering state of franchise films, the struggles of the global box office to recover in a post pandemic sense, the possible hopeful return of the mid budget film and of course the idea of the message and how film studios are finally starting to realise that not everyone is an activist.  Buckle up as cinema is in a turbulent time.

With The Marvels, Antman, Mission Impossible, Indiana Jones and the slate of DCEU films all performing badly and being poorly received one has to ask is superhero fatigue real? Is franchise fatigue real? Though these are questions that have been asked to death I think we need to cover it here, yes is the answer by the by. I think that audiences are wising up and being more choosey, for the reason we will get into later, and as such are only turning out for films they think look good whereas in times gone by they may be more likely to take a risk on something. This is partially because of streaming culture though I think far more likely it is because audiences are finally starting to reject the slop that studios serve up time after time. I think that the day of the CGI fest blockbuster with no soul is coming to an end and that the reason a film like Guardians three did well whereas the other two Marvel films didn’t is because it had a heart and a care that audiences connected with, it is not a hollow CGI fest. Studio’s need to put more time into crafting stories and worlds and not just taking audience for granted because I think if this year in cinema has shown anything it is that the audiences aren’t coming anymore.

Now why is that? Where did the audience go? I believe as I have said before in other pieces that the reason why the box office can’t recover in the post covid sphere in the way some expected it would is because of a trio of factors: streaming, a lack of interest, and also money and I think it is the final factor that is key. Whilst there have been a few run away successes this year it is nothing compared to the number of success stories pre pandemic and yes you can point to how audiences are no more willing to wait until a film hits streaming but in my mind the real reason why it hasn’t recovered is because cinema’s have put up prices to try and make more money post covid and that move is mortal self-harm for them. Why has a film like Wish flopped, besides being trash, well that is because if you and your partner had two kids and the four of you wanted to go and watch the film as a family it would cost you with food well over fifty pounds, I don’t know the dollars translation, and for many these days that is just too much. Add on top of that that a family can instead just buy Disney plus for a fraction of that and wait for the film to come out in about 5 months, if not less, and bang it simply isn’t worth it any more.

One thing that is good that has come out of all this is that I think that the way studios will respond to this year will be to scale back budgets on both their franchise and non-franchise films. This is a good thing for two reasons, firstly it will bring back the mid budget movie to a degree for far too long it has either been these massive multi million dollar franchises or indie fare, the mid budget movie is in need of a comeback, also with smaller budgets studios will be more willing to take risks which again is always a good thing.

However, I think the most important issue facing contemporary cinema and something that will and is bringing a reckoning all its own is this idea of preaching. Hollywood for the most part is a very liberal and left wing place, and that has always been the case, however, at some point within the last decade celebrities and creatives started getting far more preachy and putting it into their films, again maybe it’s because of generation activist, but increasingly going to the cinema now is just being preached to by millionaires on how the world should be. What makes this worse is that these same creatives have taken to creating divides in their own franchises and fan bases telling fans that these films or this series isn’t for them anymore. Look at what happened with The Rings Of Power and how badly Amazon abused the Lotr community, and who showed up for that show? By Amazon’s own metrics not many people at all. Again studios are starting to get the message now saying they will put telling good stories ahead of the message again, which is how it should have always been and are seeing that audiences are voting against being preached to with their wallets. Look at Wish a film that might as well have been a PSA on social justice talking points who came out for it?……. No one. Audiences won’t be told how to live by millionaire liberals who are so out of touch with average moviegoers they might as well be living on another planet.

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