The movie industry is in trouble, and Hollywood is in a blind panic. You know that Hollywood is desperate when they bring out 3D as a special feature. An extra dimension has never made a lousy movie any less lousy. They had it in the '50s to compete with television, they had it in the '70s when the industry had imploded on itself and the movie brats took over, and they have it now because nobody goes to the movies anymore. In order for film to succeed the way Hollywood wants it to, then they're going to have to change everything.
I know this is simplifying a complex business. Of which, I am mostly going on speculation rather than my own research because my knowledge of how this mysterious “money” concept works is limited. But there are some serious problems with movies that could probably easily be fixed.
#1: Movie theaters need to be less expensive.
Back in the day, the big movie companies owned the theaters. If you wanted to see a movie created by Paramount Pictures, you'd have to go to a theater that would show Paramount Picture movies. In the early days of cinema, these production companies would often own their own theaters that play their own movies.
But the government soon decided that movie studios were holding a monopoly and were no longer allowed to own the theaters that show their movies. Instead, the movie industry was divided into production and distribution. A company produces the movie, another company distributes it to theaters that play whatever they want regardless of who made it.
Theaters, however, don't make money from ticket sales. The ticket goes straight to the people who made it. The only way for theaters to make money is to sell snacks. Sadly, theaters are expensive to maintain. This is why snacks are so ridiculously expensive. Because snacks are expensive, nobody goes to theaters to watch movies because they watch them at home and eat whatever they want without having to pay twenty dollars for a soda.
So why not forget the movie theaters altogether and go digital? Because movie theaters are where Hollywood can force people to sit through extended previews for sequels. Movies are events, if you can just queue the latest release then they aren't as exciting to the general audience. That's why premieres are such big deals and part of why theaters are important. The most money a movie will make is in the opening week, when all the hype and promotion comes to its climax.
In order to preserve this, movies can't be such an expensive luxury. “Rave Cinemas” has taken a step into this by filling theaters with specialty seats. But movie studios are going to need to find a way into funding theater chains again. If they paid theaters to show their movies, theaters would then don't have to worry about maintaining themselves because they're being funded by the studios who want audiences to see their movies in theaters. Going out to the movies would then be much cheaper and more people would actually do it. This way theaters can be about movies and not about snacks.
#2: Quit with the over-inflated budgets.
Imagine if I just started buying millions of pet rocks and told you that eventually they would be worth more than gold if I just kept buying them. If you didn't have me committed, you would be a horrible friend.
Hollywood is run by people who spent the last thirty years banging their heads against a brick wall and is stuck on the concept that if they spend enough money on a property they will eventually see a return in profits. And then “The Amazing Spider-Man” and the “Fantastic Four” were both less like movies and more like the atom bombs that ended WW2. Sony lost so much money that they had to compromise with Disney on Spider-Man rights.
Because nobody goes to theaters anymore, Hollywood tries to lure people with big CG movies and celebrities. Movies have never been more expensive - less than a hundred million dollars is considered “low-budget.” So when movies fail, they fail hard because Hollywood has sunk so much money into them.
Instead of making movies based on spectacle, maybe make movies based on talent. Names like Spielberg and Coppola used to be big money-making names. If you went to see a film by one of the movie brats, you knew that you were getting something of quality. And thus, movies that made major bank like "ET" and "The Godfather" still make money to this day through re-releases and special editions. Memorable movies make money. Instead of focusing on enormous budgets, focus on names. Promote movies that people are going to remember by filmmakers that make good movies. And then bank on the Oscars so you can get even more money.
#3: Diversify, diversify, diversify.
You'd think that movies, a medium that depends on reaching large audiences, would focus on gathering big audiences. Instead,eight out of the 10 topgrossing movies of all time star straight white people with little to no representation for anyone else. Hollywood movies are shown all over the globe, so why do we only star white folk? Especially when recent trends tend to show us that movies with diverse casts make quite a bit of cash.
Even back in the day when African-Americans weren't considered a valuable market, we had black filmmakers capitalizing on the untapped market that Hollywood still hardly attempts to recognize.
As cringe-inducingly awful as the “Twilight” series was, it was actually a really positive step for movies geared towards a female-centric audience. Hollywood learned that, shockingly, women can like movies for the same reasons men do. Women, just like men, can want to see movies heavily peppered with action and sex appeal. And they made billions off of this revelation!
Hollywood! Diversify! It's not nearly as hard as you think it is! Move past 1955!
#4: Stop marketing movies stupidly.
You know what was a fantastic movie? 1999's “Fight Club.” A movie with such big names and iconic scenes was box office gold! Except it wasn't because 20th Century Fox was run exclusively by lobotomy patients. When it was time to market it, director David Fincher approached the studio with his own ideas. He wanted to market the movie with the anti-establishment theme that was the overall point of the movie with taglines like “don't see this movie.” It was the late '90s, after all, grunge and counter-culture was big.
Warner Bros thought it was a bad idea and instead marketed the movie based on the fight scenes and Brad Pitt. They presented the movie as a generic action title and nobody saw it. It was only until word of mouth got around and DVD sales made it a success.
Similarly, “Scott Pilgrim Versus the World” was marketed as a quirky romantic comedy instead of the insane action comedy based on video game logic that it was. Yet again, it was a bomb until word of mouth got around and DVD sales saved it.
Movie trailers used to be amazing. Even the tagline from Ridley Scott's "Alien" from all the way back in 1979 is one of the most remembered parts of the franchise. Movie directors used to direct movie trailers. That was until marketing directors became a thing and now trailers are just long commercials. And it's nigh impossible to know whether or not a movie will be worth watching because instead of being representative of the movie, trailers are just formulaic montages with elaborate title sequences.
#5: Look for fanbases, not popular intellectual properties.
Nobody wants a “Trolls” movie. Nobody wants a “Minecraft” movie. Nobody has ever asked for a “Tetris” movie, let alone three of them. These are popular IPs, and people love them in the mediums they originally came from. “Battleship” was a board game, and nobody saw the “Battleship” movie because they recognized the brand.
Books have stories and characters. Those are things that translate to a visual medium, things that are interesting to interpret into film. When you don't have those, the only thing you have is a name. People who played “Battleship” liked “Battleship” because it was a game. They reacted to the “Battleship” movie in the same way that would have reacted to a movie based on toenail fungus. It wasn't anticipated and the movie failed big time.
Then we have fans of IPs that are begging for a film adaptation. Fans of "Deadpool" lobbied for years for a "Deadpool" movie and when it finally happened it was a hit. Despite the enormous demand for “Deadpool,” Hollywood didn't bother with it until Ryan Reynolds gathered enough support. "Deadpool" is a highly popular comic book character in a time when comic book movies are most profitable. There was no reason for them not to make this movie. And instead of doing that, we got a “Jem and the Holograms” movie nobody saw.
Instead of grabbing IPs simply because of their names, grab IPs that have fanbases that want a movie. Fans of the“Bioshock” franchise have been pining for a film adaptation for almost a decade now. After being dumped by Universal studios, every other studio decided that they didn't want in on this extremely lucrative franchise, even with big names like Gore Verbinski and John Logan behind it. It was almost a guaranteed success, but apparently nobody would fund it because of its "R" rating.
Think about it. Bioshock didn't get a movie, but the “Smurfs” did. A property that is still making money to this day versus a cartoon that hasn't been relevant since the '80s.
The fact that none of these issues have not been fixed yet only confirms the obvious. Hollywood is run by gorillas masquerading as people.
