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Forum namePass The Popcorn
Topic subjectWell, here's what the optimist would say.
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746617, Well, here's what the optimist would say.
Posted by Frank Longo, Wed Nov-16-22 12:42 PM
The optimist would say, "These movies create passionate fanbases around stars/creators of Marvel content. So then, these Marvel actors/directors will have more clout when they want to try to get more artistic endeavors funded, similar to what Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart have by and large done since the Twilight movies. If Marvel movies make big money, the rising tide lifts all boats."

The pessimist would say: "Marvel doesn't make stars. They're increasingly forcing out the filmmakers with genuine vision of scale, increasingly snatching up Sundance and TV directors who (a) very reasonably want the paycheck and (b) are completely disposable so the suits can make them into their personal Pinocchios. Which is bad for both these Sundance style movies and for the quality of the Marvel product. Marvel movies making a ton of money only teaches studios that Marvel-style movies make money, so while most studios have already gotten nearly entirely away from movies that aren't based on pre-existing IP, they're also all doubling down on "created universes," hack directors helming generically quippy scripts and bad CGI that was pre-vized before the directors even signed the contract, actors forced in lengthy deals to appear in these things with a gun to head, etc. Instead of making good movies, they're just trying to make the next Marvel, which isn't going to go well and will force everything other than 5 mil budget horror movies and the odd Oscar bait flick out of cinemas and into streaming services. And even streaming services like Netflix, which *do* fund and platform a lot of interesting art, will continue to view this art as "content," not advertise it well enough, and let it slip through the fingers of pop culture before it even had a chance to make a dent."

I... am obviously more in the pessimist boat here, lol. I think, strangely enough, TV is avoiding a lot of these problems for the time being, as more singular, interesting things have been more able to find homes there, because people in TV don't want to be Marvel (yet), they want to be HBO. Netflix's mostly terrible shows notwithstanding, there is a lot of pretty awesome prestige TV out there. (I don't really watch any of it, because I'm a movie guy through and through, but it's there.)

But in terms of movies... I wrote an article mid-last decade (for a site that no longer exists, sadly) where I cited a statistic that something like 60% of kids under 25 will see fewer than 2 movies in theaters a year. Twitch, YouTube, TikTok-- all are vastly more popular. (I think the optimist could also make a compelling argument about how the democratization of filmmaking resources will ultimately yield more opportunities for low-budget art than ever before.) So old people die and are replaced with people who don't give a shit about the theatrical experience. So movie theaters march their slow death into being a novelty, streaming becomes king, and pop culture increasingly just doesn't include movies at all. As a lover of film, all of this is, of course, insanely depressing.

Then again, as someone currently working in the TV movie space, it's not like I'm exactly on the front lines fighting the good fight, lol. But yeah, long, long, probably incoherent ramble short, I think Marvel caring more about the quantity than the quality of the content is absolutely a bad thing for the future of cinema. And I'm hopeful that, maybe if the Disney+ show ratings tank or whatever, they can pare down, slow down, and try to focus on making the 400 million dollar budget into something more than a 600 million dollar return.