It’s definitely a drop in quality. Just look at what is out in movie theaters these days. 90% of the movies are either sequels, marvel movies, or live action remakes of films that were already made. The amount of original storytelling or unique content has dropped rapidly in the past 5 years. As someone who grew up loving going to the movie theater, it makes me so sad, and I rarely go anymore.
Whether you like or hate Barbie or Oppenheimer, they were pretty much some of the only completely brand new high production value movies that came out in the last year, which I believe is part of why they were so popular. People are craving originality, even if a lot of them don’t realize it
A24 is a shining beacon in these dark times. They are pumping out some really weird movies and I love them for it.
A24 is truly a diamond in the rough, everything they make is so unique
Were they not acquired by some soul sucking entity this year?
I don’t see that, it looks like they started to expand due to the amount of success they’ve had.
While I don’t disagree on the main points of your post, I’d like to counter by saying I think we are back on the rise. We see eastern movies more frequently make it to our cinemas (at least where I live), and a decline in interest when it comes to superhero stuff. We had a Norwegian movie outsell Aquaman the past weekend and that’s wild. (I know, Aquaman isn’t at the top of people’s hype-list).
I myself also decided to make the choice to go and see more indepent films, attend screenings/festivals in my city and stop going to the marvel shows. It’s been a blast and I’m loving going to the movies more than ever as a result!
It is possible we’re back on the rise. Schafrillas Productions made a great video on youtube discussing how Disney+ is basically shooting themselves in the foot by overextending their brand and fewer people are seeing Disney movies in theaters because you can just wait to see it at home anyways.
But I do think high budget films will never go back to the times of well-intentioned competition where every movie is trying to earn audiences’ hearts. From now on, they will always make movies with less risk and higher profit margins regardless of whether it could be a huge hit or not, because guaranteed money will always win over creative filmmaking
Yeah, no I think you are spot on in that last sentence. We, as viewers, enthusiasts and consumers can only vote with our wallets. I have spent a lot more effort trying to bring people to independent showing and movies that aren’t the highest grossing/budget films.
But while that may be true, I definitely also went and saw Oppenheimer, Barbie and across the spider-verse.
But I think the whale, tar, Banshees of Inisherin, everything everywhere all at once, triangle of Sadness - all did fairly well at the movies, and despite being far from low budget indiemovies, I think that gives me a lot of confidence that cinema is alive and thriving!
Watch the south park special that perfectly summarised why movies are declining. Pandering means watered down no risk projects that frankly are just a bit ass for everyone.
Let me use marvel as the best example, regardless of the fact that there are many others. The marvel movies used to be something you needed to see. But of the shows and movies recently, there have been some true garbage offerings to the modern viewer: Black widow, Falcon and winter, Ms marvel, Secret invasion, Wakanda Forever, Eternals, (for some, not me) she hulk, Hawkeye… pretty much everything but Shang chi and Wandavision, have been absolute garbage. True dreck trash that had no business flying the marvel banner, and it wasn’t fatigue, regardless of what many like to say, instead they were just poorly made garbage. The writing and production on these things are barely mediocre at absolute best. Other examples are WW84, the flash, and pretty much all DC titles ever since The Dark knight (short of The Batman and Joker). All of these things are such garbage that it truly is an embarrassment to the entire genre, and makes me think more and more that the cancellation of Batgirl was actually a good thing. The only good DC in the recent times besides what I held is Aquaman (not an Original WW fan, so idk what to tell ya). None of these are fatigue, they are very clearly poorly produced products that are just pushed out for the money of it all, and not the actual art that could be made, or the adherence to the original story that could be maintained. If another phenomenal hero title comes out, then I’m there day one to see it. But if they keep offering failures at story telling, then what’s the point?
I’m sure that most of society feel like they’re feeling some fatigue of some kind, but it’s bad story fatigue whether they know it or not. The studios need to find better and more compelling stories to tell, or the public will truly convince itself that it is actual superhero fatigue and the stories will depart for decades until a nostalgia wave hits. Hopefully the studios realize this, and start putting out quality content, otherwise, those of us who are true fans, will be doomed to the same crap from the early 00’s that we had before. Yes some of it was good, but really think back to the heyday of the marvel flicks, right after the first avengers when the Thanos anticipation was truly palpable, and it seemed like marvel could do no wrong. Then think about stinkers like Dark World or Ultron, and consider how they were capable of recovering from that. Long story short, it’s the writing and production, not fatigue.
I mostly agree with your disdain for DC, because they truly have terrible movies, but the new suicide squad was good and the series Peacemaker was also very good.
100% quality drop, but it is due to the other reasons you listed.
VC has entered the industry, this is what media is now.
I just tried to watch “Barbie”; had to turn it off. Unwatchable. Yet, it was WB’s fastest film to cross $1 billion in just 17 days.
