The summer blockbuster is dying? Thank goodness
Thursday, August 1, 2013 at 9:09PM Hi, it's Tim. It’s not typically the Done Thing for us members of Team Experience to respond to each other, but Michael C’s Burning Question yesterday got me thinking especially hard, and coupled with Nathaniel’s mention of my own “why did this summer suck so hard?” jeremiad in his link round-up, it seemed impossible not to address what has suddenly become a hot topic: the death of the great American blockbuster, although with Iron Man 3 striding past $400 million, reports of the death of tentpole filmmaking are perhaps exaggerated.
That said, there’s clearly a problem, and as somebody who still hasn’t grown out of the desire to see robots punching explosions into bigger explosions, or what have you, I count myself among the aggrieved that big-budget Hollywood movies have been steadily turning into such paint-by-numbers, flavorless affairs, too finely-tuned for international consumption to have any real personality. But that’s not what I want to talk about – there’s been enough talk about that. I want to talk about the happy flip side of things, which is that for all that the impressive flops and under-performers, it’s hardly been a dolorous wasteland at the multiplex. In fact, I take the story of this summer to be a hopeful one: the future seems to be taking shape right in front of us, and it’s exactly the opposite of the panicked “Cinema is dying!” rants delivered by such men as the Stevens, Soderbergh & Spielberg, recently.
If I were to pick the single most impressive box-office story of the summer, it wouldn’t be Iron Man 3 hitting a figure that is, however large, not that big a deal for a movie with its kind of budget, especially one serving as de facto sequel to a film that destroyed very nearly every record that exists. I’d go with either The Great Gatsby or The Conjuring. [MORE...]
Gatsby was a movie from a famously divisive auteur that met with largely disapproving reviews, which should have been deadly for something as relatively arty as this, and then with a pile of money that absolutely nobody would ever have predicted. The Conjuring is a huge breakout hit in a genre that can usually be predicted with mathematic precision to end up around $60 million, which is already long since surpassed. Neither one of them is perfect (I’m solidly in the camp that found Gatsby a gorgeous failure), but they’re both, after a fashion, the exact sort of film that serious film fans always claim to want: stories about grown-up characters that don’t rest on the lazy crutches of nerd culture and CGI. At the very least, their success (along with The Heat, and Magic Mike last year) clearly indicates that audiences made up of people other than teenage boys are big enough and hungry enough to support movies all by themselves. That’s something studios notice.
Even that isn’t the really exciting part. Say whatever one wants to about the mediocre popcorn movies, but 2013 has been pretty terrific for limited release films: Frances Ha and Before Midnight were greeted with rapturous, “best of the year” reviews, and the equally great Fruitvale Station is newly in its cross-country crawl. And it’s been my experience, at least, that these movies aren’t at all hard to find: the multiplex I’m frequenting right now is a suburban place that tends to load up on the usual suspects – Iron Man 3 on six screens, Star Trek Into Darkness on five, that kind of thing. And yet, this year it’s hosted Spring Breakers, Before Midnight, and Fruitvale Station, all for multi-week engagements: unprecedented bookings all.
So that void that has been causing such strife and agony to the Spielbergs of the world exists; but it’s a void that’s getting filled, by exactly the kind of films that we all clamor for when something like The Lone Ranger comes along to crap things up. The same exact serious dramas for adults that Soderbergh bemoaned as being so impossible to finance just a few months ago are exactly the films that are lining up to take the screens of the disastrous R.I.P.D., and even if we’re never going to return to the days when a film such as The Godfather could become the highest-grossing film of the year, we’re also hardly in the depressing place where The Godfather couldn’t be financed or released theatrically.
Undoubtedly, there’s reason to be concerned that so much big budget filmmaking is bland and unmemorable at best, actively insulting at worst. But that reason isn’t that it’s taking over cinema: the exact opposite, in fact. This summer has been about audiences rejecting junk food and turning towards things that are better, smarter, and more original; it’s a little step towards a day when mature filmmaking takes over again, but it is a step. In the next month, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, Short Term 12, and The Grandmaster will all be making themselves available to viewers who know where to look. That doesn’t sound like the death of cinema to me at all. In fact, it sounds like a good reason to be excited.
Why, just look how excited Rooney and Ben are to be a part of it!
Anybody else thinks that the collapse of the blockbuster model is a cause for celebration? Or am I being too optimistic?
Reader Comments (11)
This is well-timed with the announcement that 'Before Midnight' is about to expand even further. It's going to triple its screen count to 226 theaters. That's definitely an encouraging sign.
http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/with-before-midnight-expanding-once-more-can-it-stay-on-the-awards-radar
Now You See Me should also be mentioned as an impressive box office story of the summer. Yes, it's a heist film but the magic angle made it fresh and clearly provided the perfect counter-programming early this summer.
I do wish Before Midnight made MORE money than it has. Glad it's getting an expansion!
Another fairly impressive box office performer (if not from the summer) was The Call: nearly $52 M domestic off a $13 M budget. I haven't seen the film, so I can't attest to its quality, but the studio made all the right decisions. Intriguing plot, solid marketing and one recognizable star who's willing to work cheap after starring in a bunch of big-budget bombs.
Now You See Me followed a similar route, despite it's larger ($75 M) budget. Gather a bunch of modestly priced stars around an interesting premise and market the shit out of it. That one not only over-performed domestically, but it's done pretty well overseas, as well, on the backs of those recognizable B-list names.
Woody Allen and Clint Eastwood, meanwhile, are good examples of directors who know how to work the system. Their longevity has less to do with their artistic merits than their business sense. They direct lean productions with generally marketable plots using lower-wattage stars. If a film of theirs bombs (Hereafter, any number of Allen's recent films), its losses are barely noticeable. If it succeeds (Gran Torino, Midnight in Paris), they look very, very good.
Tim, as much as I'd like to believe your conclusion about low-budget quality "filling the void" left by big-budget bloat, the facts don't really support this.
When adjusted for inflation, Before Midnight is actually trailing its predecessors despite enjoying a much wider release (900 theaters vs. 500 and 250). Ditto Spring Breakers versus Korine's 1995 indie hit Kids.
I don't have the time or inclination to do a full analysis, but I doubt 2013 is anything close to an outlier. There will always be indie breakthroughs and massive flops. It's always a conversation worth having, but the facts don't support any conclusion other than "that's the way the cookie crumbles."
Rooney and Casey!!!!
This is almost exactly what I wanted to say on the "Death of the Blockbuster" thread but couldn't find the words for, so thank you! Frankly, if the summer blockbuster is dying (and if you ask me, that's a pretty big if), then Hollywood has only itself to blame for playing it far too safe/bland, although I'm sure they would argue that the wannabe-tentpoles that flopped were the riskiest ones to begin with. Hollywood always seems to learn the wrong lesson too late, doesn't it?
But anyway, I find it interesting that the one film that everyone I know keeps talking about, and not all of them are the type of people who would normally go see movies like this, is The Way Way Back, a perfectly judged, modest film with a solid cast which was marketed to, if not grown-ups exactly, then people who are out of their teens. With the success of that and Fruitvale Station, are we looking at the return of the Sundance films?
Here here! I haven't had any trouble finding an extremely diverse range of films to see this summer. Granted, I live near NYC so it's a lot easier for me than it is for someone living in the middle of nowhere, but even in that case, VOD is bringing more and more films to the boonies and presenting increasingly viable entertainment alternatives. This weekend may not offer a whole lot at the multiplex, but if you're looking on ITunes you can get Only God Forgives or new movies from Brian De Palma and Paul Schrader right this very second. And with Sony Classics, IFC and A24 becoming newly aggressive in pursuing suburban multiplex bookings (my jaw dropped when I saw Frances Ha playing at a mall multiplex last month), this is a good time to be looking outside of the blockbuster paradigm for thought provoking entertainment.
I saw Great Gatsby twice... LOVED. It was pure escapism.
Even if the studios just learn that less of the superhero/disaster stuff is better, then I'll be happy. When it seems to be EVERY movie that comes out, well then once you've seen one for the summer, you've seen them all.
Yeah, I was about to say that this was the first time Ben really resembled his brother in a shot. But actually Casey looks kind of like Ben here, too.
I really enjoyed The Conjuring, and while I wasn't a huge fan of Gatsby, I'd be lying if I said I didn't find it hugely entertaining. I saw it twice. :P