Legendary directors Steven Spielberg and George Lucas made a bold prediction while talking to students at USC. The two icons said that they believe that the film industry is currently in a state of upheaval and an “implosion” is around the corner.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Spielberg and Lucas were part of a panel with CNBC anchor Julia Boorstin and Microsoft president of interactive entertainment business Don Mattrick, which was part of the opening events for the new Interactive Media Building at the university. While they were supposed to talk about entertainment of the future, Spielberg talked about the changes that are happening now and said that because the studios are obsessed with making $250 million mega-budget movies, even he had trouble getting Lincoln made.
“I think eventually the Lincolns will go away and they're going to be on television,” Lucas said. Spielberg then said that this almost happened with the Lincoln we saw in theaters last year. "This close -- ask HBO -- this close,” the director said.
The Verge reports that Spielberg touched on how today’s 24-hour news and information cycle has given audiences so many choices. Because of that, studios have been very careful with picking which projects to invest in, which is why they try to appeal to the widest audience possible.
“You're at the point right now where a studio would rather invest $250 million in one film for a real shot at the brass ring...than make a whole bunch of really interesting, deeply personal — and even maybe historical — projects that may get lost in the shuffle because there's only 24 hours,” Spielberg observed.
Spielberg said that the industry will change again when a string of these mega-budget movies fail. “There's going to be an implosion where three or four or maybe even half a dozen of these mega-budgeted movies are going to go crashing into the ground. And that's going to change the paradigm again.”
One of the bolder predictions came from Lucas, who suggested that going to the movies may become something like a sporting event or a Broadway play. “What you're going to end up with is fewer theaters,” the Star Wars creator commented. “Bigger theaters, with a lot of nice things. Going to the movies is going to cost you 50 bucks, maybe 100. Maybe 150.”
With this model in place, films would run for over a year in big markets, similar to Broadway plays that run months (years, in successful cases) before closing. Spielberg remembered that E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial ran for a year and four months in 1982 and 1983.
The two noted that cable television has been more adventurous lately, since Hollywood has decided to ignore niche audiences.
image: Wikimedia Commons
