Wednesday, August 07, 2013

4 Reasons 2015 Could Be the Movie Industry's Worst Year Ever

From Cracked.com

During our ongoing coverage of the implosion of Hollywood, you might ask yourself, "What do I care if a bunch of movies lose money and studios go bankrupt? So what if studio execs have to switch to a lower quality of cocaine?" The problem is that the movies most of you tend to like are very expensive to make, and currently they aren't making their money back. Hollywood is about to start making less of what you like, and/or making it shittier.

Which brings us to 2015. See, studios say that there were too many expensive CGI-filled blockbusters this year, and audiences just went numb by the time July got here. And there will be far, far more of that in 2015 -- we're talking Star Wars VII, The Avengers 2, and Batman vs. Superman serving as the tip of the iceberg of a giant list of huge-budget remakes and sequels all landing at the same time.

As we're about to prove with numbers, Hollywood is about to ramp this car right off the goddamned cliff ...

More here.

Okay, I quibble with the "movies most of you tend to like" statement, because, well, when blockbuster craptacular is all that's on the menu for the most part, that's what you're going to eat, and that's how you're going to be defining your taste.  I mean, okay, I like big blockbuster movies, too, but only when they're good.  You know, with good characters having some depth and complexity, interesting themes, and a well told story.  Like Jaws or Raiders of the Lost Ark.  But there just aren't many of those these days.  The vast majority of directors aren't Spielberg.  Indeed, most of these blockbusters are all style without substance.  A total waste of time.

Do I feel this way because I'm middle aged?  Maybe.  Maybe I'm just jaded and cynical.  But it cannot be denied that, over the last thirty years, there have been enormous changes in how Hollywood does business, and those changes have affected the products it sells, much for the worse.  The short story is that what was once a medium sized business was bought up by big business starting in the 80s, and this essentially moved the money much further away from the creativity and talent.  Multimillion dollar blandness resulted.  But you can read up on the long version here.

At any rate, if this Cracked piece is correct, it's looking like the craptacular approach may very well be running its course.  I sure hope so.  I hope Hollywood goes bankrupt and has to start all over, but without deep corporate pockets.  The way I see it, there's no place to go but up.  I mean, things certainly can't get worse. 

Can they?

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