We all know how legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese wreaked havoc in the Hollywood industry and all around the world when he said that Marvel movies were not real cinema back in 2019. The ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ director even compared the MCU projects to theme parks. To this day, many strongly believe what he said at that time. However, there are others who do not agree with his ‘controversial’ comments.
Scorsese has come again into the limelight this time, thanks to his recent interview with GQ. In the interview, he raised concerns about how the overabundance of movies based on comic book culture is adversely affecting viewers who are not very familiar with other genres.
“The danger there is what it’s doing to our culture,” he said. “Because there are going to be generations now that think movies are only those — that’s what movies are.”
Scorsese concurred when the interviewer said that viewers might already think that.
“They already think that,” he replied. “Which means that we have to then fight back stronger. And it’s got to come from the grassroots level. It’s gotta come from the filmmakers themselves. And you’ll have, you know, the Safdie brothers, and you’ll have Chris Nolan, you know what I mean? And hit ’em from all sides. Hit ’em from all sides, and don’t give up. Let’s see what you got. Go out there and do it. Go reinvent. Don’t complain about it. But it’s true, because we’ve got to save cinema.”
There is no denying that the meaning of cinema changed drastically in the minds of viewers after the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic. The soul of the cinema chain, movie theatres, took the worst fall among all the chain’s crucial elements during those troubling times. For instance, a total of 3,000 theatres have been closed in the United States since 2019, curbing the number of movie theatres in the country to less than 40,000. This scenario not only locked thousands of theatres permanently but also supported the rise of streaming services.
As a result, the theatres’ space contracted and movie investors started concentrating on other key things, like improving sound quality, sitting arrangement, food and beverage quality, events, and more. They eventually learned that bestowing quality movie-watching experiences to people is more important, irrespective of what people have paid for their tickets. And this approach has been working nicely so far. Not only ticket sales, a significant improvement has also been observed in foot traffic.
But we also cannot ignore that superhero movies or features belonging to prominent franchises have played a crucial role in this scenario. These projects have always been the leader in ticket sales in cinema. However, we also cannot deny that they have contributed substantially to the downfall of cinema’s other genres. It does not matter if a drama feature or an independent project makes critics ecstatic. Their significance is justified by the number of seats they are filling in theatres. In addition, the lack of funding from investors makes this matter worse. Without funding, we are left with big-budget projects with rushed storylines, poor stories, or undeveloped characters.
There is one way through which Hollywood studios can save other genres of cinema: signing prominent figures for their projects. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is the epitome of this scenario. The director’s name, fame, and flawless helming abilities, along with a star-studded and highly talented cast, aided Oppenheimer in earning over $900 million globally. The latest biopic on the ‘Father of the Atomic Bomb’ could not have thrived under the direction of other helmers as much as it did under Nolan’s.
However, there is also the issue of budgeting. Securing big names often forces film studios to spend a small fortune, leaving the filmmakers with limited filming resources. Ultimately, it all comes down to the audience. They watch movies for their stories. If movies have good stories, then people will watch them regardless of their genre. The future of cinema now depends upon the quality of stories.
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