Where Did Mid Budget Films Go?
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- čas přidán 2. 06. 2024
- These days Hollywood seems to only release low budget indie films and high budget blockbusters, but where are those high concept character driven mid budget films? Films like The Truman Show, Fight Club, Rain Man and Eyes Wide Shut. The industry is run by money and have since phased out these kinds of films for safer profits with all the superhero films, reboots, remakes and other franchises.
In this video we explore if mid budget films are actually gone (Everything Everywhere All At Once, The Menu, Asteroid City), why are there less of them being made (evolving industry, physical media, streaming wars, TikTok affecting consuming behaviour) and if they will ever come back (streaming losses and blockbuster flops).
Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
00:58 - Have They Even Left?
02:52 - Why Did They Leave - Evolving Industry
07:26 - Why Did They Leave - Economy & Consumers
10:09 - Did They Go Somewhere Else?
13:09 - Will They Come Back?
Mid Budget Films. The Witch. Fast X. The Truman Show. Eyes Wide Shut. Rain Man. Fight Club. Everywhere All At Once. The Menu. Asteroid City. Nope. A24. Beau is Afraid. Babylon. Bones and All. The Fabelmans. Timothee Chalamet. Anya Taylor-Joy. Florence Pugh. Quentin Tarantino. Disney. Netflix. Streaming Wars. ArcLight Cinema Dome. Matt Damon Hot Ones Interview. Physical Media. Decline of DVD. Rising Ticket Prices. Doom Scroll. Dopamine. TV Shows Replacing Movies. BEEF. Box Office Flops. Big Budget Flops. Barbenheimer. Barbie. Oppenheimer.
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i really hope the mid budget character driven movies come back
Check out movies like The Whale and The Menu if you haven't already. Both are exactly what you're looking for and funnily enough both star the same actress in a supporting role.
My psychological thriller I just released is a character driven movie, but was told that it might not be too successful because of that :/
@@jimthar17 bet
Liar Liar is one of my favorite films and I miss watching these on a raining day lol just good ole fun and not a super deep story line but heartwarming
@@ParisDylan1why was you told it wouldn’t be good. I think character driven film wouldn’t be good because no one cares.. ur character has to stand out from all characters you’ve ever written about they have to be relevant and also extremely innocent
I hate how people complain about how Hollywood doesn’t make anything unique or original, but when an original film comes out, no one sees it, so it bombs! And then people wonder why they don’t see more original films. They have no right to complain. The death of mid budget films is especially tragic because those were the films that could mix artistic merit with commercial appeal. If you look at most Oscar-winning films from the 90s, most would fit into that category. They weren’t the highest-grossing films of the year, but they were films people had seen, or at least heard of.
Exactly! We the consumers are a big reason for why original films aren’t being released as much as they used to. The industry follows the money, and the money comes from us.
The problem is that they don't invest the same marketing budget into mid budget/original IP films as they do for films of established IP. Seriously, when was the last one you saw marketed as heavily as an MCU film?
Marketing plays a huge part, I see ads all the time for new Disney projects online or on billboards everywhere physically but if you take some of the best original films recently like 'The Last Duel' or 'Plane,' there was way less visibility for the casual movie fan to get wind of. I keep tabs on directors I like such as Ridley Scott or Jean-François Ritchet in this instance and add them to a watchlist to track (reviews from critics I trust who vary in taste will also play a part in my decision making) but creating awareness for someone who doesn't do this is absolutely key.
it is tough though to see those films too - my local theater doesn't show those mid budget films - example recently being landscape with the invisible hand. in order to see it I had to go 2 cities over and get to the 1 showing that it was showing at
EXACTLY! I’ve heard the “everything is sequels, remakes, or reboots. They don’t of anything original anymore.” YES THEY DO! YOU JUST WON’T GET OFF YOUR REDDIT RANT TO SEE IT! If it’s a film that had a sequel planned from the start (Dune Part 2, Beyond The Spider-Verse, and Dead Reckoning Part 2 to name a few), then I don’t mind. The artist had a story they needed to finish, and they will do so. If it’s a GOOD legacy sequel or reboot, and only if they succeed at the GOOD part, then maybe my opinion will change (Top Gun Maverick was pretty good, No Way Home can be viewed as a legacy sequel to the previous Spider-Men, and Ghostbusters Afterlife was supremely fine). But, I have no care for a remake. You can’t sell me with a live action version of a Disney cartoon, or a female led version of Ghostbuster. Maybe I don’t have the good remakes in mind (if there are any), but remakes aren’t always needed. There are a lot of problems with the current Hollywood system right now, but the audience should also learn to shut their mouths sometimes. And then, making an adaptation of a pre-existing IP can be good, if not amazing, when done right. Book adaptations, game adaptations, whatever. I don’t know. It’s just all so wild right now man
A24 kind of reminds me of what Focus Features was in the early 2000s. Films like Eternal Sunshine, Lost in Translation and 21 Grams inspired me to make films myself. They also opened the door for me to smaller, character driven independent films.
Right you are fam🤘🏼
I can definitely see that
What are the names of the films you have done ?
Eternal Sunshine is really good, Lost in Translation is quite mid, 21 Grams is arthouse for dumb people.
What ever happened to anything mid level?
You want a hotel or housing at minimal expense but you can't find it because the major corporations keep acquiring the smaller business to make everything expensive or "luxury" and have the audacity to say "it's what the people want"
I heard recently that the big studios want to fill theaters with $300 million block busters to make the cost of entry too high for the vast majority of would be producers creating more of a monopoly for themselves.. Hence, for instance, they freaked out that $10 million budget Sound of Freedom made $200 million. That one got by them.
It's all apart of a bigger plan we know nothing about.
Sounds like consumerism in general. You have a small group of powerfully wealthy customers, and a large group of mostly poor consumers.
@@weldsj8847That's a dumb idea. If you fill a cinema with super expensive movies, they can't all be billion dollar hits. Some will lose lots of money. And the winners won't be enough to compensate. Especially considering how many screens modern cinemas have.
@@greenbean2222 You're getting very close to the truth
The largest problem is that the cost of a movie ticket doesn't scale with the budget of the film. If people could see a film with a smaller budget for half the price, they might actually do that. Instead, as you point out, people only see the largest blockbusters in theaters.
This is what I've been thinking, too. People don't want the hassle of going out PLUS the expense of an outrageously priced ticket, then outrageously priced snacks, just to see what amounts to an indie movie that they have no idea is good or not. The stakes are too high to take a gamble. But if the ticket was $5, would it suddenly open the doors for a lot of people to take that gamble? I think so.
Disney+ destroys that argument
People will watch blockbuster movies on a cheap subscription model
Also ticket prices aren’t set by the film makers and if they were they’d be a lot more expensive so it makes no sense to argue for that
@@Alphoric You have... no idea what OP is talking about. Your entire comment is dismissive but literally comes at every single point the wrong way
@@bradleylovej “people only see the largest blockbusters in theatres” well they watch the largest blockbusters on Disney+ or they watch low budget films in theatres like Parasite
“If people could see a film with a smaller budget for half the price, they might actually do that” movie makers don’t set the price so smaller budget films can’t make the price cheaper and neither can massive films as that would reduce the likelihood that they watch alternatives with higher ticket costs which would be really bad for the movie industry and especially the cinema industry as they’d lose so much in ticket sales.
“The largest problem is that the cost of a movie ticket doesn’t scale with the budget of the film” same reasons as I stated above, if it did scale it would lead to lower revenues for cinemas and small budget films
My arguments weren’t dismissive at all they’re based on the reality that cinemas need money and filmmakers don’t set ticket prices.
v true
Great video! One thing that concerns me about streaming services is how quickly they’ll cancel shows that don’t perform to expectations. So many classic TV shows struggled to find their voice and rhythm until third or fourth seasons in some cases. Those shows wouldn’t have a chance nowadays!
One that hurts us here at FilmStack is the cancellation of 1899. We were really excited to see what happens in season 2, but nope... cancelled. And really quickly cancelled too.
So many questions left unanswered 😢
@@FilmStack Gah! Yes! I was so bummed. Dark is a masterpiece, and I was really looking forward to seeing where 1899 would go.
I really wanted to see where Raising Dion would go and there's not many kid oriented live shows like back when I was a kid.
Thiiiis! It’s like a movie doesn’t find its audience in the first two weekends so it’s written off, dismissed and buried as an embarrassment and it’s like…? Can this movie have half a second to breath so working people can find them?!
Yeah, 1899 was the final straw for me with Netflix. I am so sick of critically acclaimed shows that I enjoy getting cancelled.
What I miss the most are the midbudget thrillers
I just released a psychological thriller, and we'll see how well it does, but there' no big marketing behind it :/
My god I miss them
@@ParisDylan1what’s it called?
@@patrickbyrne9631 It's called DYING TO SLEEP. Do you like thriller dramas?
You just made a feature film and you DIDN'T think about how you were going to market it?!@@ParisDylan1
I think a problem is also - these films are not being advertised well. Babylon, bones, beau and even the fabelmans were not advertised well at all! I didn’t even know they were a thing until the reviews started rolling out. Idk if studios aren’t willing to put additional funding into marketing or if the marketing is just bas
Before I paid for premium I'd constantly get ads for new hulu or Netflix shows and movies. Even though bros didn't do so well last year, there was an online presence.
Not as many people even sit through commercials anymore.
To be fair all of the films besides Fabelmans are a disaster do advertise.
But seriously how would you even afvertise Bones? Come see this new cannibal romance? Yeah that's gonna draw everyone in.
@@Hilter420 Same with Beau, even Ari Aster couldnt really describe it.
Those are bad examples. The Whale, The Menu and Glass Onion are examples you should have given instead.
Sent this video to my girlfriend since she and I really love these kind of flicks, and she replied “15 minute long video ugh”
LADY YOU JUST PROVED THEIR POINT!
break up with her
@@london8615 she watched it and said I was right and laughed at the irony, she’s a good one no worries
@@london8615Bro is from r/relationship_advice 💀
@@andrewmorris4628 wish u the best then
Definitely agree that mid budget films are being adapted to television shows because of budget issues. But also, a lot of the shows end up on streaming platforms so they are not paying crew and cast residuals anymore, which helps with their budgets, as well. I think that the strikes are making mid budget films harder for mainstream networks and the larger streaming companies, but will help with the production side of the business. A few shows have been cancelled by streaming networks before they are supposed to air because they don’t want to lose money through residuals but I think this is a tactic they are using to intimidating union workers hoping they’ll cave in and agree to AMPTP terms.
Good point! The strikes definitely add another layer to this issue that could’ve been discussed. Another factor that will be changing where the industry goes from here
Agreed. The problem is film makers don't get as much money on streaming compared to physical media, because streaming services keep their stats secret, and they pay a one-time fee instead of paying based on view count. I think this model is broken and something needs to change.
Hmm, interesting thought. However I also know big budget films tend to also rely on overworking people and not paying them enough. I wonder how the strikes will affect that.
@@beatm6948 I work in tv production and the strikes have reduced my work so much that I am literally waiting for tasks now. When it was busy, I'd work 10-14 hour days during filming, but never as long for pre and post. And most people in this industry sign deal memos that detail a flat rate for 12 hour days and most are aware of this. Whether it's a big project or a small one, overworking is a problem that effects the industry.
@@weird-guy Are you sure about that? The companies which own the streaming services never ever shared their actual numbers and how much a 'view' is worth. This also means that writers and actors can't get a good feel for how well their performance and story telling actually mattered.
One really important thing that I dont see anyone talk about when it comes to why so many mid-budget films are bombing is that for example, if a young person wants to or needs to save money, doesnt subscribe to any streaming service, but he still loves watching new movies that come out, there is a high probability he will just go to a movie pirating site and watch his desired movies after cinema release there. I mean its only reasonable from the perspective of somebody who cant afford the luxury of going to a cinema every week, or isnt interested in subscribing to a streaming service, that always has only a fraction of all the stuff that comes out. Also I live in central Europe, and the cinemas in my city dont even play these mid budget movies.
To add to that, you’ve gotta consider time budget. I’ve worked in the food service industry and generally get two days off a week that are often used for meal prep and catching up on chores. Could go during the work weeks where I’m not working 12 hour shifts to stay afloat, but it can be tough to find early showings for more niche movies.
the way you were just describing me... 99% of the films that I look forward to never even get any screening at my local theaters and they are so scattered across all diff streaming sites in which some aren't even available in my country
I love what A24 does. Beau is Afraid especially even though it didn’t do well
Keep buying dvds people
Beau sucked
I still buy blurays (i switched from dvd which I also bought a ton of) and CDs. Physical media will always be better than this streaming crap. Though I can't agree with you about A24. Aside from a few of their movies I find their stuff to be mostly either boring or HIGHLY over rated. Not to mention labeled as the wrong genre. (come on, you know it is.)
Beau is Afraid is amazing. One of the most insane and original films I've ever seen in a theater
It was a little annoying when my old laptop died and I wasn't able to find a new one that had a place to insert a disk. It was easy enough to fix, I just got an external dvd player that plugs in to the usb port. It does concern me though that the day may come eventually when it will become difficult to find a device on which to play dvds and cds.
Time to upgrade to bluray or 4k. Much better than dvd or streaming
I went to see Barbie at the theater and the previews were sequels of old franchises, super-hero movies and remakes and was like "yup, that's why I don't come here anymore". And truth be told, I didn't see Oppenheimer yet for the reason the video points out... I don't want to sit through a long slow movie in the theater, I'm sure I'll like it, but I'll like it sitting at home.
Heck, it was to do the Oppenheimer-Barbie double feature that got me to the movie theater for the first time since the pandemic started. When we had $4 ticket day last month, I ended up seeing Barbie again because absolutely nothing else playing appealed to me.
@@MelissaBlue Yeah, I also find it weird when they try to advertise their special card that lets you see a movie per month and I'm like "per month ???" It's hard to find a movie worth seeing in theater per year.
I'm so glad I'm not alone, I thought I was just agoraphobic. I hate how LONG movies are, which continues to bamboozle me cuz I thought our attention spans were getting shorter? I am so happy when I watch an old movie and it's a gentle 90sumthin minutes. I can't deal with nearly 3 hours PLUS trailers. We used to have intermissions with movies that long for a reason. It makes me glad I grew up under a rock for movies cuz there's sooooo much my husband and I haven't seen.
Also, I even think theaters themselves are in decline. They're poorly staffed and managed to cushion profits and make the experience even worse. The snack stand lines are atrocious while many have extra snack stands throughout that sit unused and unstaffed. Most theaters in my area are nasty, from the seating to the bathrooms. Idk, I have not been to theaters much post panny to have witnessed cleaning upticks. Blame a few too many faulty theater AC's in TX summers solidifying my decision to stay home. An AC set to penny pinching temps or breaking down from refusing maintenance makes a packed theater real gross real quick.
I wanna be clear I'm not trashing theater workers, just the goons who own the theaters. They underpay, under staff, and under maintain to cushion those $8 candy profits.
Also the difference between a cinema and your home TV setup is not as jarring as it was in the 90'. Back then usually you had a 21 - 25 inch TV, with low resolution... nowadays everybody has 55-65 inch 4k TV.
This dropped as soon as I opened the CZcams app lol
Love when that happens!
One good thing is that Hollywood studios cannot justify their $100m+ productions anymore.
You gave an excelent overview. Many different reasons. I myself used to go to the cinema, now I go only once a year maybe. Has to do with prices and also there are less cinemas in my area, the one that was closest to me closed down during the pandemic.
I have seen over 1000 movies. At some point, you have seen it all. And my watchlists are very long. Also there is youtube which gives me content about absolutely every topic imaginable without having to sit through a 90+ minutes movie.
I hope that movie budgets shrink. The way Hollywood is treating theatres is horrible, to me it seems as if they want them to go out of business. Going to the movies is expensive, the ticket doesn't matter, 10 bucks is fine. But you have to pay for drinks, snacks and travel expenses because you have to go from where you live to where the theatre is. I would only do so if I really want to see the movie, not for any random movie anymore.
Very good points! I think we will start to see the blockbuster budgets dropping in the years to come, but its important to see what they do with those budgets. Don’t want them making the same blockbusters they do now and just cut corners but actually get creative with how they use their money.
We also have been going less to theaters than years ago. Ticket prices, popcorn / drink prices, but also just how quick we’re seeing films release onto streaming services after their theater run. And there’s so many great films still to come this year, but a lot of them are being produced by streaming services (The Killer, Killers of the Flower Moon) which will only be in theaters for a limited time, making it harder not to just wait for their streaming release.
@@weird-guy If I go somewhere, I need at least a drink. Watching (new) movies has become very cheap and easy to do so I get why the masses (they are import for the success of movies) are not excited for blockbusters or almost any movie besides the mentioned Barbenheimer hype.
Instead of going to the movies with friends we watched the new Mario Bros. movie at home and that guy has a great set up so it was like cinema without leaving the house 'cept for going to your friends house where you stay longer and don't pay much for food and drinks).
Nothing justifies 100+ million dollars. 2 things contribute to it: absurd actor costs, and poor pre-production planning, which leads to excessive CGI and reshoots requiring CGI. If you can't keep your budget under that, then you're mismanaging money.
Here's the problem: Hollywood's massive budget problem isn't going to the films as much as the productions. Some of these $300M films can be made for much less, but they aren't because that budget is getting divvied up and the lion's share is going to the executive levels. Combined with Hollywood Accounting it's a giant laundering operation. So even if the budgets shrink, the Industry won't stop the practice, instead the films will get hit harder to pinch pennies so the executives can burn dollars.
@@Theomite Please explain more in detail.
I never really thought about the IP overuse but you bring up a perfect point. Even the successful major films of this year all use something which has already been established. Whether by a previous film, a book, a historical event or another medium original stuff seems to be going down the gutter generally.
Most of the media that shaped my perception of the world was movies from the 80s-2000s (star wars, stand by me, dead poets society, etc). I actively seek out dvds and copies of these because they keep becoming harder to find. Good movies being chased out by bad ones.
I think what needs to be covered are horror films who really make their low to mid budgets stretch
Horror in general has been in a pretty good place in the last decade or so
Sure a few of those are reboots and legacy sequels but that kinda goes for every genre but a good amount of original horror has been able to
shine especially since the 2010s
Great video tho btw
Really? Because I've only been able to find two horror films with a rating above 7/10 on IMDb:
The Exorcist and Talk to Me.
For comparison, the Super Mario Bros movie is 7.1/10.
And the Exorcist was from the 1970s.
Talk to Me is the only modern horror film with good ratings.
Even Paranormal Activity has a mere 6.3/10.
Although, there is some great horror content on CZcams, most notably Kane Pixels' Backrooms series and Local 68 TV.
@@me-myself-i787 I dunno where you're looking then since the top 50 horrors on imdb are 7.5 or higher (sure some of the list are more horror adjacent than straight up horror there are plenty of horrors on that list
@@me-myself-i787 now the list is missing some newer titles but the industry and critics have a history of pushing horror to the back and not giving it the attention or fairness that it deserves
A24 and Blumhouse have been killing it for the past decade
@@me-myself-i787the black phone?
Hereditary is one of the best films I've ever seen (not best horror films, best films.)
All my favorite films are mid-budget films
i never really thought about it because i normally do not pay much attention to budget and honesty do not know where the lines are to separate small medium and large budgets, but i think most of my favorite films would also fall in the mid budget. though it is possible a lot of my favorite would actually fall in the low budget, thought the tag low budget kind of implies cheap looking badly made B and C films and i do not think any of them fall in to that category.
Not all mine are, but may are. And of course it's probably because those mid-budget movies are character driven which just makes them so much more interesting.
@@gurratell7326 i completely agree with that.
I was just thinking the same
Seen the replies and what movies r ur favourites. Have 2 ask cus someone said on a similar post that the one before endgame is mine.lmao 🤣
Just to point out, Forest Gump wasn't a "midbudget" film when it came out, it was a big budget film, and the cutoff back then was 30mm. Heck the first to be made with a budget over 100mm was
"Independence Day", and now that's the higher end of "midbudget" because inflation has been that bad, for that long.
T2 and True lies had budgets of 100m
I think now more than ever there’s really a need for people skilled in making movie trailers. This current trend of having a formula for each film to appeal to the broadest audience doesn’t work anymore. I was pleasantly surprised Babylon was almost nothing like the marketing made it see to be
I also have a feeling that mid-budget movies are threatening to disappear up their own ass, so to say. I've noticed a trend of many of them becoming very theatrical quiet dramas, "award bait" almost. It's not bad, there's several films I enjoy like that, but I feel like we've also lost the kind of smaller budget movie that'd dare to be just fun and weird. Stuff like Hackers, The Hunt for Red October, Kindergarten Cop, they all encompass a lot more genres and ideas compared to today. I also think it's why they struggle. There's only so many very intimate character dramas audiences can get interested about.
They’re vanishing up their ass in two ways;
1. Mid-budget Oscar bait dramas
2. Mid-budget franchise pandering bait (F&F, Despciable Me, etc)
@@austinreed7343despicable me wasn't a franchise at first tho and those movies cost an arm and a leg they ain't good but aren't mid budget
@@twigwigsoso
They’re mid budget by today’s standards though.
@@austinreed7343 mid budget compared to like... disney pixar? they are made with only like 10-40% less budget, they are still high costing films for said study. the third cost 80 million
A mid budget animated movie is like orion and the dark, 38 million budget.
Or 9 with a budget of 30 million.
you don't see a lot of mid budget animations because animators are already underpaid, shaving off costs is hard to do with animation vs filming live action. Juno was made with like, 12X as much budget of a low budget animation.
i mean you are like saying The avengers and Atlas shrugged have the same level of franchising.
I felt really bad about the Last Duel. Never went to see it in theaters because I had no idea what it was about, the advertisement wasn't great. Finally saw it and it was a great movie. Not only that but period films are notoriously expensive due to wardrobes and props.
Saw that recently. Was much better than I thought it would be. They should have just advertised it as Rashomon retold. Instead it projected an image of being a mindless testosterone/war flick.
That's another reason why we don't see mid-budget films. It's like the studios have no idea how to market a film that isn't part of a franchise anymore. Trailers either give the wrong impression or they just tell the whole story.
Cinemas should do a second wave showing. They should wait for us to watch videos(etc.) about it and then want to watch it in cinema, i just dont have the time to see everything the minute its released
@@DondreTrotmanMarketing is hard. You have to get the audience excited for the movie and tip them off as to what type of movie it will be, without spoiling the plot. If it has a famous director who consistently makes great films, e.g. Brad Bird, Pete Doctor, Phil Lord/Chris Miller, Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg, James Gunn, and James Cameron. The audience doesn't have to know of the director, they just have to know of the movies they've worked on. E.g. "From the director of The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille", or "From the director of Monsters Inc, Up, Inside Out, and Soul", or "From the creators of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, The Lego Movie, Spiderman: Into and Across the Spiderverse, and the Mitchells Vs the Machines".
This only works if the director (or studio) already has a strong portfolio. If not, the movie could be marketed using short clips from near the start to build intrigue.
@@jackpeterson6670Also, the Mario movie put me off going to the cinema before a movie gets a significant number of good reviews.
I still can't believe "Bones and All" flopped. One of the best movies I've ever seen, let alone one of the best of its year
What??! It flopped? I'm surprised when I was in cinema all seats were occupied and it was few days after premiere.
Not surprised cos I saw people walk out of my viewing, you have to admit
it’s strange and not for everyone
See, they used to actually _market_ these movies.
Now they put one out, say nothing about it to anyone, and when it underperforms they go "See, no one wants to see smaller movies!"
I can't imagine why these studios are struggling... 🙄🙄🙄
Love that we still kinda get the mid budget type movies through tv
Yeah! And most of the time TV does it better for those kinds of stories
@@FilmStack Yes exactly!
I agree. The industry is simply shifting. It's not that Hollywood is abandoning thos types of projects. They are just changing the medium. I honestly don't really miss going to movie theaters. Now if the economics and greed could shift with it, that'd be great.
Or in cinemas like parasite or massive budget Disney movies on a subscription platform almost like the whole point of mid and low budget films are dying is complete bullshit
It's the audience fault. They complain but don't go to see it.
not everyone can watch cinema
@@weird-guy Elemental has actually been pretty succesful, it just had a very slow start.
its actually amazing how both the film industry and gaming industry are both in a similar situation where middle market films and games just don't seem to exist anymore.
But an indie game costs 5-25$ on release
Whilst a AAA is at 70$
Movie tickets all cost the same
The other side to this problem is that a lot of video essayists on CZcams BARELY talk about mid-budget movies either, like where are the video essays for The King? The Devil All the Time? The Power of the Dog? Maybe it's my fault for the channels I subscribe to, but the algorithm sure doesn't boost videos about prestige indie dramas either. The same thing goes for certain TV shows, NOBODY wanted to talk about Y: The Last Man or Paper Girls or The Peripheral, but channels will *gladly* dedicate weekly videos to complain about some shitty adult animated show that "ruined their childhood"! 🙄
One of the reasons why mid budget films are not made anymore is that they would be able to recoup their lost if they didn’t do well in the box office by video rentals and so it would be get a second life and a chance for the producers to make some money - but with streaming coming along and being the way most folks view films at home they lost that revenue.
the early 60s and late 80s showed us that we're on the cusp of a new Indie Boom
I hope so
I think that people are starting to realize that you need to buy DVDs or you run the risk of losing access to media. The streaming wars, inflation, the pandemic and the current strikes currently have a huge impact on the industry, but this won’t last forever. Like you mentioned, people are sick of superhero movies and soulless remakes. People are craving thought provoking, visually appealing, interesting, character driven films.
Broey Deschanel has a great video on the current state of film, “Oscar’s 2022 and the Death of Cinema” that discusses many of the issues that you touched on. I am cautiously optimistic about the future of cinema/mid-budget films- I can’t wait for “Poor Things” and “Priscilla”.
Piratebay and a 2TB external drive. I have spoken.
@@fantasy9917I do this too but it means we are not contributing to making the films we want to see, we are worthless as customers. Piracy genuinely is a problem in this regard as if I don't see a film in the cinema it means I don't fund it. Piratebay is a great solution to watching films, but it's a complete financial abdication of responsibility.
This video does a really good job explaining today's overall situation in the film/theatre landscape. The subject may have been mid-budget films specifically, but it sheds light on the whole film environment. Great vid.
2 reasons may have contributed.
Death of the film star. In the 80s/90s you had box office stars who could get small independent movies greenlit just by attaching their names to it. Now none exist.
2. Death of the independent movie push by studios.
There is no more studios like Miramax making movies that are box office draws for low budgets anymore.
3. Mid-budget movies becoming seen as lowest common denominator trash as bad as big-budget if not worse; see F&F, Illumination’s output, etc. they’re seen as being like the MCU despite being mid budget in actuality.
@@austinreed7343F&F 10 was the most expensive movie of the year 😂
@@me-myself-i787
10 is an exception; the franchise up to then was mid budget.
This is why I appreciate Paul Thomas Anderson’s work. Straight mid-budget. Original work. Licorice Pizza had the highest budget: 40 million. The gross amounts of each of PTA’s films have either fallen short of its original budget or did only a little better than its original budget. I can’t imagine there would be a movie studio that would a grant him a $100 million dollars to make a movie.
This video was amazing. I’ve been bummed out how the number of mid budget movies have shrunk recently, but I liked the point that they’ve been re-contextualized into some of the best shows I’ve ever seen over the last few years. Also I’d been harsh on the studios for abandoning the mid budget movies, but I never realized how much physical media (or the lack thereof) kept mid budget movies afloat. I really hope they do figure out a way to make them more prominent because some of the greatest movies are mid budget.
Films coming to streaming weeks after being in cinema is also a factor changing viewers behavior
Definitely. I remember even just a few years ago in like 2016-17 a movie would usually be in theatres for 2 months or so, afterwards a 3-4 month break before they'd appear on DVD and digital sales, and maybe another 2 months after that before they head to streaming. It created pressure to go to the theatre if you wanted to see something. I specifically remember going out of my way to watch Thor Ragnarok. I had put off watching it for a while because I was busy but looked at the local theatre where they told me the next screening was the very last one.
The studios seemed to think that creating mega-franchises would make them star-proof, but a lot of these franchises are clearly still very dependent on particular actors playing particular roles for their success. Just look at how the MCU's been doing without Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man or how killing off all three main characters from the original trilogy turned off so many Star Wars fan (and even many of those left are only interested in Pedro Pascal as The Mandalorian and not much else). They seem to want to create brands that are bigger than anybody involved, but audiences notice when they aren't seeing who they've been coming to see anymore.
Thor is still alive.
@@archlinuxuser In name and actor only. Thor 3 and especially 4 really regressed his characterization, which in turn worsens the stories he leads.
IDK if its just the actors, they might play a part, but I think its much more about oversaturation and quantity vs quality! Really the MCU was at its peak when they didn't overload us with subpar projects that either were too many to feasibly get around to watching, or were just so bad they weren't worth watching at all. Marvel movies used to be show stoppers, and whether thats a good thing or a bad thing is not up to me to conclude, but it did work in ensuring that the projects were higher quality and that all of us in the audience didn't get fatiqued. I, like many others largely tuned out of the Marvel projects after Endgame, only occassionally tuning back in in the case of a particular character or director. Most notably Guardians of the Galaxy volume 3.
@@drdewott9154 True. Not to mention that starpower isn't even what it was to rely on anymore. I can count on one hand how many actors can draw crowds just because they're in something, and still have fingers left over. As much as we love RDJ, he's not that guy. We show up for his Tony Stark or Sherlock Holmes, not him. Doolittle, Due Date, The Judge, all these other movies he did during the MCU, nobody showed up for them for him.
I also think the age of the superhero movie is over. We'll always have movies for heavy hitters like Spiderman and Batman because they are just part of the cultural zeitgeist, but as far as something like an Iron Man 1 or a Green Lantern making a billion dollars, it's gonna have to be akin to Philip's Joker or Nolan's TDK kind of spectacular, or come after an extended hiatus when audiences want these kinds of stories again. Example: Blue Beetle's basic story, average visuals, and campy characterization would likely have connected better in 2002-2008-- what I will call the Camp Phase. These are the Fantastic Four and sequel, Ghost Rider, Raimi Spiderman years. This is also when Venom and Morbius should have come out, imo. But in 2023, after several consecutive years of spectacles like Avengers, Guardians, TDK trilogy, Joker, etc, a Blue Beetle with yesterday's standards on today's bloated budgets is practically DOA.
Another factor: Showtimes.
Those midbudget films, like The Menu, Retribution, Bones and All, etc, those get shoved into the early and mid afternoon slots, and only get a few weeks, maybe even just TWO WEEKS in Retribution's case, worth of theatre run. I *work in the movie theatre* and never got a chance to see Retribution, because when I get off work at 6pm? The only movies playing right now are Barbie and TMNT and the Nun. I don't want to see the Nun, and the other two I've already seen a couple times. Why should I waste my *free* movie tickets on films I don't want to see, when the ones I do, I just... can't?
no A24 is not stale or repetitive the only people claiming this are those who worshipp major motion pictures and get bored if there isnt an explosion every 5 seconds in my opinion
Though it hasn't always been successful, I think the Superhero Genre works best in a TV show format vs Blockbuster films. At their core, most of those characters were originally intended for a serialized format (comics). Heck, when I was a kid, I often heard some adults referring to my comics as "soaps for boys" and the like. The big budget films are really best for character highlights, which can work sometimes, but becomes terrible when you try to cram all the highlights into one film. (Such as throwing in "The Dark Knight Returns", "The Death of Superman", the founding of the Justice League, and the introduction of Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, and Cyborg into a single film). Heck, we now have spent time with and know Loki far FAR better than Thor thanks to the Loki series.
The other problem with "Spectacle" superhero cinema is that the characters often require initial setup, so you spend the first film on an "origin" story. This leads to the problem that if the story fails, you never get to actually know the character(s). (Green Lantern, The Eternals) If it succeeds, then the same origin story will be repeated ad nauseam every time the franchise relaunches. (Batman, Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Batman) With a TV series, you might spend the first 1-3 episodes, at most the first season, on the origin, but after that, it's about telling other stories.
That's what made the DC universe from the 90s/early 2000s so good. You could have separate episodes cover certain villians/heros and go more in depth on each individual character.
Brother i am from india and we had this conversation just 4 days ago and somehow today i came across this . Thanku for making this .❤🙏
Great video as always. I for one am so glad The Bear is a show and not a movie because it’s phenomenal.
Praying it doesnt get canned because its genuinely incredible
Bro I remember when 5-15 million was mid budget and near or a little over a hundred mill was only for summer blockbusters, holiday releases, and some children’s stuff. The fact we are even calling the number you cited mid budget is the very problem with the industry. They’d rather conflate budgets than release things of substance- at least studios like Disney and WB.
At this stage I'll take a bad day with Tarantino over a good day with Disney.
Excellent video essay. You hit every nail on every head.
This is what makes knives out/glass onion special. Theyre very popular mid budget mystery movies. I hope the third one isnt completely poached by netflix because glass onion at least got a limited theater run
Something that I think feeds into it and tends to get glossed over is the availability aspect like in the era of the video store. Part of the draw to see a movie in theaters was that it often wasn't even available to rent until about 6 months after it came out in theaters, and they weren't available to buy until even later. When DVDs came around the window between when you could rent and when you could buy started to shrink and then vanish altogether with movies being available to rent and purchase on the same day. Video stores started to take the hit in the same way movie theaters are now because some people were fine to just buy instead of rent (if you could afford it or already knew/hoped you'd like it) or just loan it out to anyone that might want to see it. The second you give someone either a faster or easier way to experience something, or often both, then it's only the die hard fans that are going to go that extra mile to see it in theaters or like you mentioned, you have to make the movie an experience that is really best to see on the big screen.
The Truman Show is my all time favorite movie
Great video dude... Makes so much sense
Same thing is happening with videogames. It is either a 2d indie game with the lowest of budgets or a AAA tech demo made by a big studio with a giant budget.
Mid budget games like those that existed by the truckload in the PS2/early XBOX 360 era seem to have conpletely died out.
What a great video. You definitely made some great points.
I think the differnece maker for a lot of studios is how they present their films to the audience, and it comes down to effective marketing. Look at the way they turned the dual release date for Barbie and Oppenheimer into a meme, a cultural touchstone, months before they rolled out the red carpet. They leaned into the public's idea of an odd double billing, and made their opening weekend an event. Families went to see Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse and Super Mario Brothers not just because they are bankable IP, but because the animation studios were trying new techniques and telling original stories with familiar characters.
I think that they aren't promoting films effectively enough either, because they still rely on cable TV and commercial breaks to push public awareness, or they show the full length trailers in theaters when supposedly the audience is there to see another feature film. It's annoying when they plant a funny piece of dialogue into the trailer that you're now anticipating seeing in the film, and it takes away the impact of the joke, or as you may be disappointed to find out, that it's one of the only truly funny scenes in the whole movie. They'll give trailers a tone that is wholly different from the film itself, or phone it in and just mash together a montage of scenes out of sequence so the plot isn't obvious. Its sloppy, lazy, and condescending to the audience. I hope that the strikes have been a major turning point for the industry to start funding your creatives more and your executive boards less. Studio interference is another major drag, because they can't be bothered to promote smaller budget films effectively, while they over-correct blockbuster franchises in order to put out inoffensive pablum they can sell to international audiences. Maybe the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes are exactly what is needed to get them off this doom loop.
Indy 5 only made 379 million?
Disney lost their ASS on that one. I knew it didn't turn a profit, but I thought it hit more like 500-600.
Studios don't want to make 300 milion from 30 million they want to make 1 billion from 200 million. Thats one of the reasons.
In the last few years I have been looking at the numbers for what you are calling mid budget films. It amazes me that more of them aren't being produced with so many theatres losing customers. By the numbers I am seeing many mid budget films that are excellent from a creative point of view and offer an excellent return on investment. Why wouldn't you want to produce many smaller budget films that yield better returns on investment? Spend $20-40 million and get a profit of millions of dollars. The huge potential blockbuster films that fail fail big. But when a mid budget film is described as a flop it is compared to total dollars at the box against competing films. Sure all movies can lose money. But we're calling movies a flop because they don't draw as much as other films often while being very profitable. The book budget flops lose tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. Meaning they spent a ton of money to produce and market them and bring in less revenue. If you are going to take risk and fail why not take smaller financial risks and cap your losses to a few million dollars when your net returns on many small films will be positive?
This was a great episode and new here. Def subbed
We went to see Oppenheimer a week ago. It was an amazing movie! But the tickets were very expensive! 22,90€/person! With that price it is guaranteed that even us, belonging in the middle class, will go see a movie max once or twice a year.
Excellent video! I love going to movies in the cinema would love to see these movies come back
Thanks for that. I'm going to sound a lot smarter the next time this topic comes up in conversation!
Good video! I wouldn’t exactly say that people are completely sick of superhero movies or media, rather they’ve become far more selective on what they want to watch. Across the Spider Verse and Guardians 3 did very well because the previous films grew massive fandoms, and the latter was directed by James Gunn, who made a name for himself in comic book films. Meanwhile Quantumania didn’t do so hot because while most people liked the previous films, they weren’t as revered as Spider Verse and Guardians, meaning that they likely weren’t as interested in it comparatively.
Also small contradiction, but when you say people are sick of franchises, Barbie kinda goes against that since that has been a brand for so long.
We just have to go out and see them!!!! Talk to me, landscape with invisible hand, support your local theaters!!!
One thing I do see a fair bit with mid budget stuff nowadays too along with movie pitches being turned into series, is also whole movies being done to be repackaged as a miniseries for streaming. That happened 2 years ago in my country with the movie "Margrethe, Queen of the North". It had a budget of around 10 million dollars for a 2 hour long film, which is small for American standards but the largest budget for a movie in the Danish language ever. However after its theatrical run the movie was repackaged into a 3-part miniseries for streaming where it has had decent success. Especially since the movie released in the middle of the pandemic and had underperformed a fair bit.
So as for now, I'd say expect a lot of midbudget stuff that isn't from the US, but from other countries. In many smaller countries, especially in Europe, a large scale production by their standards would be a mid budget movie by American ones. Denmark is an extra small case here since its a country just the size of West Virginia with only 6 million people living in it, but it has its own acclaimed and renowned movie and TV industry that even garners Oscar attention quite regularly, most notably in recent years with "Another Round" starring Mads Mikkelsen, but other popular examples in Movie and TV include Borgen, Toscana, Broen, The guilty, and many others. Some projects from Denmark and other Nordic countries have even been remade several times by US studios for quick cash but often with poor choices that make the American remakes worse than their Nordic originals.
Denmarks movie studios don't have access to the same funding and resources and IP that American ones do, heck we're only just now getting our very first digital wrap-around sets like those used on the Mandalorian, so our studios have to go down different avenues or think outside the box if they wanna stand a chance at the movie theatres or on streaming.
Good video. Very informative. The World is a different entertainment place. CZcams is my information tool now. I'm 39, and I miss not knowing everything, but it is hard to turn the phone off, especially when you are lonely.
They haven't gone away, they've simply changed forms. Instead of a mid ranged budget movie, in today's market it makes more sense to make it a limited run streaming exclusive series.
Great video, but dang bro the Armie Hammer dm was out of pocket😭 3:30
Had never even considered this conundrum until I saw the title of this video. And it all made so much sense and sadly im one of those who loves mid budget and have been greatly missing it. Sure, I love the big blockbusters as well but the middle is gone and replaced by 'made for streaming' movies that are ten a penny. Filmed in 6 weeks, mostly in front of a green screen to produced all the sets that would normally have to be built or sourced. It's all about how many movies you can get onto your streaming platform, not the quality of them.
One other contributor in my opinion is that to your average movie viewers, mid budget films are seen as 'not worth it' to watch on a cinema screen when it'll probably come out on some streaming service at some point on top of that we're also at the stage where if you have a decent screen and audio set up at home. At least for mid budget films, the viewing quality difference aren't that big (other than the screen size) that you have to experience the movie in cinema like with your blockbusters with extravagant productions
In addition to it being easier to access at home, think about how much home entertainment has evolved, there's a big difference between a modern big flat screen with great sound and an old box tv with cable and commercials in 1997
Same thing thats happened in the video game industry. You have gigantic big budget AAA (usually 1st party) releases and small indie games. Almost nothing in between, and when these games do come out they often disappoint or even shut down their developers.
If you're not a must-play AAA GOTY contender or a quirky Indie darling, no one wants to spend their money on them. The only hope for these mid-tier games are services like Gamepass, with the most recent success story being Hi Fi RUSH.
Such a great analysis, I also think romcoms were great mid budget too. I miss seeing those in theaters
Going to the cinema in the UK can be cheap. At my local multiplex, Vue in Southport (near Liverpool), it is £4.99 (about $6.30) for any movie bought online (£5.99 in theatre) at any time for the cheaper seats (which are fine).
The interest thing for me is that I get 2 free tickets a month from my Sky Cinema satellite subscription, which I pay £12 for. So for a £5.99 standard cinema ticket, it’s “free”.
Part of the thing is that physical copies are just so expensive these days. So, why not stream? And if streaming services arent paying the prople working in the films, why not pirate?
Its this icky cycle. I really want physical media to make a comeback but with the price of DVDs and such being what it is, it just doesnt work.
Give us more films like Idris Elba's movie "Beast" from a few years ago. It wasn't any 3 hour blockbuster, it was just a 90-ish minute movie about a father protecting his kids from a lion. The characters were good, the pacing was great, it didn't overstay its welcome, it had a satisfying ending. And it wasn't a sequel/remake/reboot of anything. I'm so tired of the modern movie habit of making everything pushing 3 hours. I like rewatching favorite movies, but with that much of a time sink, even if I love the movie, I could watch 2 whole other movies I love in the same amount of time it would take to watch a single modern blockbuster, granted, I love a lot of films from the '30s and '40s which sometimes end up being like 70 minutes, but still.
I have to agree with most of what you said except that people are tired of super hero movies. People are not sick of them, they are sick of bad movies and shows. DC has had a poor track record and Disney has seen declines as the quality of Marvel took a big drop after End Game. Spiderman No Way Home and Guardians of the Galaxy 3 were examples of them doing well when done well. When the studios don't put the effort into good writing and prioritize political and social issues over making a good movie then they will suffer. Disney is quickly loosing the trust of fans. When they bought Lucas Films I had such high hopes for Star Wars because how well they were handling Marvel, but was wrong on that. I used to be excited about Marvel and even after End Game I would go in hopeful for a while to now I am not excited about really anything marvel. At least the 2 I were still excited for were good, spiderman and GotG 3. This problem stems further than just Disney, were are getting a lot of movies with huge budgets but not much of a story or good characters to offer. With all the opinions to see big special effects on screen, people need more that that to get them to be interested.
Back then there was no social media so people loved going to the movies for thst experience. Today is different. Franchises are all the rage. Star power cant surpass the star playing a superhero. I miss the days of star power and films about humanity. I love humanity. So yeah.
i think many things, and i'm afraid to share any of my opinions cause social media is dangerous for that, but i'd like more types of stories that focus on narrative and style than big budgets to be made
People need to realize that movies are an investment for the elites to push their NWO agenda. It's not about profitability, it's about the mind control of the public. So that's why Disney doesn't care that they are not profitable because their goal is not profitability but mind control.
There are a ton of midbudget movies from this year. They just tanking at the box office. What about last voyage of the demeter, strays, asteroid city, paint, a haunting in venice, beau is afraid, are you there god its me margaret, air, gran turismo. People assume these type of movies will release on streaming and they dont wanna go to the cinema for these movies anymore. Anyway, thanks for the good video!
A Haunting in Venice hasn't opened yet so there is no evidence of it tanking. I'm going to see it after it opens.
@@jimthar17 well death on the nile was a big bomb.
I feel like a european u are unwillingly forced to see more mid budget movies because everything that does not come out of hollywood is considered mid budget and local cinemas still want/need to advertise "local" movies which is why I have seen sooooo many good mid budget movies lately.
I love the movie In Bruges. It's slow pace movie perfectly crafted. Every scene is here for a reason and for me its really pleasure to watch. Hope this types of movies survive :)
Articulate and holds the attention. Good work fam 🤘🏼💪🏼
I wonder how the ongoing strikes are gonna affect the industry after everything starts again. As a VFX artist working in movies, I can tell you that the future is looking really scary for a lot of people, me included
Propmaker for 30 years, and I agree. Budgets seem to have been shrinking for a while now, and the mid budget films that the company I work for used to do once a year at least - Imitation Game, Breathe, Theory of Everything , etc - have disappeared. There’s a restructuring of the industry coming post strike, and I think the workforce will have to shrink as a result. A lot are leaving anyway, and new entrants are being dissuaded. Interesting times ahead!
I'm glad all budgets and types of film still exist. I just think that in an ideal world these netflix movies could be released on physical media and/or in cinemas, since the former means they don't get lost to the either, and have potential to look at bonus features, and the latter is overall the best viewing format.
I don't think we've even begun to notice the nightmare. I have a low budget home entertainment system that outperforms most theaters in my area without cellphones+entitlement, seven dollar candy bars or bedbugs. Why would I leave? At worst I have to wait a few months for home release. CINEMA IS DEAD. What our new world of streaming will bring is worth speculation but I suspect it will be worse than we can imagine.
Good video, but I hate to say it, there's one simple answer: Ancillary markets. Studios used to be able to take risk because there'd be a whole other market after the movie came out (DVDs).
Studios want more sources of revenue than just box office. Well known IP was always safer, sequels have existed for a long time. But now it's the only option, and can be paired with toys, parks, merchandise, etc.
Streaming killed mid budget not because of the competition of readily available content, but because a midbugdet film requires pretty much all revenue to be made at the box office
To wit, the mid budget Ip that survive like Despicable Me and Fast & Furious rely on merchandising.
Great analysis. I do not love everything that A24 produces but their movies are the only ones I am willing to watch. Beau was Afraid was really weird but I applaud them for trying something new.
Great analysis
Just like Disney selling the rights to “The Sound of Freedom” for a pittance, only for it to make more at the domestic box office than that Indiana Jones 5! 😂
If only that wasn’t a money laundering scheme 😂
Your videos are so underrated
Well, at least Fincher is releasing the Killer this year.
nice analysis
The truth is, character-driven movies with a medium-sized budget are easy to make when you have a fully-fleshed out idea for one. You need a much bigger budget for the marketing than the actual film. The real issue is, the internet's obsession with ongoing franchise lessens the demand for more of these movies, but increases the interest in people who miss them. This may be why The Holdovers needed to come out in 2023, to be a throwback to a simpler time when there was no huge craze for sequels or prequels to ongoing movie series in 1971.
Character-driven films with medium-sized are also great opportunities to put new stars on the map, like in E.T., or to show how talented an established actor already is, like in Groundhog Day. The Holdovers achieved the best of both worlds with Paul Giamatti, Da'Vine Joy Rudolph and Carrie Preston being known actors in the main cast, and Dominic Sessa was the new coming actor who plays Angus Tully. Back to the Future itself was once a character-driven mid-budget blockbuster in 1985, because it was not planned out as a whole trilogy until Universal Studios wanted more in 1986 after Back to the Future was the highest-grossing worldwide film of 1985. Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis did what they could to satisfy the studio and the audience who wanted to see where the ending of the first movie would lead, and their second and third parts were ready to go four and five years later.
Back to the Future is an unusual success story that sets a good precedent for actors and movie budgets for me to follow. Because Back to the Future had a budget of 16 million dollars in 1984 (raised to 19 million dollars after firing Eric Stoltz and re-filming with Michael J. Fox), the script, the director and the casting agency were not depending on A-list actors who were already big movie stars to sell tickets for their film. Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox were comedic icons known for their television work in Taxi and Family Ties who were perfect for the roles of Emmett Brown and Marty McFly. Thomas F. Wilson and Lea Thompson were new stars who had only acted in several movies before Back to the Future, so you can tell this movie was a big star-making role for them, and they have played main and recurring characters in many TV shows and some other films after Back to the Future Part 3. Before Part 2 was made, Claudia Wells disappeared from acting for 20 years when her mother had cancer, and Crispin Glover, who quit on the sequels and was also recast, was the only main cast member of Back to the Future who felt confined by long-term television work and decided to stick to movie roles after Back to the Future, but as for the other four Back to the Future stars who signed up for the sequels and stuck around for the full trilogy, Christopher Lloyd, Thomas F. Wilson, Lea Thompson and Michael J. Fox mean so much to me because they proved that any actor who is not overbooked can choose to play a main character in both time commitments, in short-term films and in long-term television shows. November 27, 2023, 3:04am
1:00 My favourite Zach Galifinakis movie by far...
I really think the studios hold the most of the blame, amid the strike we're learning how much crew & talent are making compared to the studio execs, how streaming residuals are basically non-existent, and it just creates an industry that leaves very little room for people to work in it. Combine this with the massive shares studios take from the box office & how that strangles theatre chains, it's not shocking the industry is in such a weak spot where even Disney is looking to have a very unstable year.
I'm optimistic about how we're moving away from the year long blockbuster model, but I think there needs to be a restructuring of the industry that gets people paid their share for what they're making and for what they contribute, putting the artists and their works first.
Nope, audiences not studios are to blame. It’s a simple case of supply and demand; if the movie going public wanted more films like Pulp Fiction or Fight Club, that’s what they’d be financing.
I honestly feel that the conversation of the 'Movie Star' keeps overlooking the representation aspect of it. Movie Stars were always whoever got the most push, drew in the crowd, and policed what was allowed to be said and WHO got to say it. Due to this, it's not a surprise that most of the 'Movie Star' title's recipients were/are given to predominantly White or White passing actors.
This may seems less important but it actually is. *_We do have raising stars, many recognizable names and faces but they feel very selective due to an industry who wants to give the opportunities (Awards, Promotion, Prestige) to those that mirror the status quo, and how it excluded certain groups from such titles._* Timothy, Ana, and Florence all were great examples that showcase this:
_Timothy mirrors the "Movie Heartthrob" like Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp_
_Ana mirrors the "Modern Hollywood Starlet" like Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman, Anne Hatheway, Julia Roberts_
_Florence mirrors the "Unconventional Starlet" like Tilda Swinton, Uma Thurman, Toni Collette, Sigourney Weaver_
They all fill in a lane that had references that made it easy for them to be identifiable with a standard Hollywood. However that also means that those who don't/didn't fill those archetypes visually or narratively (many who have a connection to audiences but little opportunities to be a standard) are left to keep fighting. Because of that, audiences get turned off, we have many talented nonwhite actors getting into the space in a pivotal time of their careers yet outside of big budget films or acclaimed indies - they rarely get to be the 'Movie Star' unless they conform to a narrative that hurts them. And even then it doesn't help their chances at all. Halle Berry did it - barely given the status of her white contemporaries, Michelle Yeoh - literally couldn't even get roles that let her do it, Angela Basset - has the most iconic roles and moments in pop culture, rarely given the time of day. And these are just the women, but the industry has pretty much been built on the back of Hollywood Actress anyway.
It's a disconnect that has actually given way to IPs - _"if you won't give those we want their chance, but these big budget films will then they win"_ a sad truth
7:20 Just want to point out that AIR was actually massively successful when you consider that it was a streaming movie and had a very limited theatre run. Great video overall but it's more than just box office numbers with streamers since of this revenue is more like "extra" money
Before clicking this I too was thinking, "Yeah, whatever happened to unique mid-budget films?" then watching the video I realise I'm one of those people who tend to stream said mid-budget films nowadays... lol. Though you are right near the end of the video, I am kind of sick of so many sequels, reboots, and remakes, and would love for more original content.
Someone finally summarized everything I’ve been wanting to say this year especially. 😪
Pretty wild that Mario had a 100m dollar budget and has grossed over a billion. That's like slasher movies in the 80's made for less than a million and raking in tens of millions.
Uh yes nostalgia bait the movie ...
@@ashtonndlovu9470 Yeah unfortunately