George Lucas and Steven Spielberg Predict Massive Changes in Hollywood

[newworldafro]

Steven Spielberg Predicts 'Implosion' of Film Industry

Steven Spielberg Predicts 'Implosion' of Film Industry

2:55 PM PDT 6/12/2013 by Paul Bond

George Lucas echoed Spielberg's sentiments at an event touting the opening of a new USC School of Cinematic Arts building, saying big changes are in store.

Steven Spielberg on Wednesday predicted an "implosion" in the film industry is inevitable, whereby a half dozen or so $250 million movies flop at the box office and alter the industry forever. What comes next -- or even before then -- will be price variances at movie theaters, where "you're gonna have to pay $25 for the next Iron Man, you're probably only going to have to pay $7 to see Lincoln." He also said that Lincoln came "this close" to being an HBO movie instead of a theatrical release.

George Lucas agreed that massive changes are afoot, including film exhibition morphing somewhat into a Broadway play model, whereby fewer movies are released, they stay in theaters for a year and ticket prices are much higher. His prediction prompted Spielberg to recall that his 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial stayed in theaters for a year and four months.

The two legendary filmmakers, along with CNBC anchor Julia Boorstin and Microsoft president of interactive entertainment business Don Mattrick, were speaking at the University of Southern California as part of the festivities surrounding the official opening of the Interactive Media Building, three stories high and part of the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

Lucas and Spielberg told USC students that they are learning about the industry at an extraordinary time of upheaval, where even proven talents find it difficult to get movies into theaters. Some ideas from young filmmakers "are too fringe-y for the movies," Spielberg said. "That's the big danger, and there's eventually going to be an implosion — or a big meltdown. There's going to be an implosion where three or four or maybe even a half-dozen megabudget movies are going to go crashing into the ground, and that's going to change the paradigm."

Lucas lamented the high cost of marketing movies and the urge to make them for the masses while ignoring niche audiences. He called cable television "much more adventurous" than film nowadays.

"I think eventually the Lincolns will go away and they're going to be on television," Lucas said. "As mine almost was," Spielberg interjected. "This close -- ask HBO -- this close."

"We're talking Lincoln and Red Tails -- we barely got them into theaters. You're talking about Steven Spielberg and George Lucas can't get their movie into a theater," Lucas said. "I got more people into Lincoln than you got into Red Tails," Spielberg joked.

Spielberg added that he had to co-own his own studio in order to get Lincoln into theaters.

"The pathway to get into theaters is really getting smaller and smaller," Lucas said.

Mattrick and Spielberg also praised Netflix, prompting Boorstin to ask Spielberg if he planned to make original content for the Internet streamer. "I have nothing to announce," said the director.

Lucas and Spielberg also spoke of vast differences between filmmaking and video games because the latter hasn't been able to tell stories and make consumers care about the characters. Which isn't to say the two worlds aren't connected. Spielberg, in fact, has teamed with Microsoft to make a "TV" show for Xbox 360 based on the game Halo and he is making a movie based on the Electronic Arts game Need for Speed.

 

[Mr. Somebody]

Stop making overly expensive movies?

 

[spliz]

Basically saying people making too much big budget blockbuster and wide audience movies and not focusing on certain core audiences and niche markets...

 

[chemicalsword]

im not paying $25 to see Transformers X or Fast and Furious X.....

 

[valet]

I'll just wait till it gets to the $1 show then.

 

[The Real]

Stop making overly expensive movies?

Stop making franchise films, remakes, and movies like Man of Steel, basically...

 

[Master Teacher]

people go to the movies to see blockbusters with great visual effects, especially in this day and age there's no other reason to go to a theatre to watch a movie without those elements because you can view it better at home.

 

[Mr. Somebody]

Stop making franchise films, remakes, and movies like Man of Steel, basically...

MMMmmm i think they should continue making movies like the man of steel because its one of a kind and good. They should stop making films like John Carter because it is not.

 

[Nintendough]

All of those high budget, sell to everybody films are always risky. Smaller budget films for particular audiences>>>>

 

[The Real]

MMMmmm i think they should continue making movies like the man of steel because its one of a kind and good. They should stop making films like John Carter because it is not.

John Carter was trash, but Man of Steel isn't one of a kind- it had potential, but in the end, it's a pastiche of typical, generic films among other typical, generic films. Audiences are primed to expect things like that now, so they'll just keep eating it up when studios feed them these things again and again. That's going to lead to the inevitable implosion.

 

[Mr. Somebody]

Audiences are primed to expect things like that now, so they'll just keep eating it up when studios feed them these things again and again. That's going to lead to the inevitable implosion.

Hopefully they keep feeding us films like the man of steel because the action sequences in this movie were revolutionary for the genre of comic book films. No film in comic book history has better action scenes than the man of steel outside of blade 2 which relied more on martial arts. The Superman comic itself is not a deep comic so unless you're familiar with that you cant expect a whole lot. I mean really friend, this is for teenagers, and thankfully, many of us are stil able to tap into those old ways to enjoy this film for what it is, a comic book movie.

 

[Danie84]

This is ironic coming from the guys who invented the "blockbuster"

But they're right

 

[The Real]

Hopefully they keep feeding us films like the man of steel because the action sequences in this movie were revolutionary for the genre of comic book films. No film in comic book history has better action scenes than the man of steel outside of blade 2 which relied more on martial arts. The Superman comic itself is not a deep comic so unless you're familiar with that you cant expect a whole lot. I mean really friend, this is for teenagers, and thankfully, many of us are stil able to tap into those old ways to enjoy this film for what it is, a comic book movie.

The actions scenes weren't better, there were just more of them, and most of them were basically cartoon status- completely cgi, and so no different from a bigger-budget videogame cutscene. Only a couple of them were well-set up and engaging. These are all trends that are ruining modern action movies as well, and they'll contribute to the implosion described in the article. Unfortunately, you seem to be drinking the Kool-Aid and so unable to see what's coming.

 

[Danie84]

This is why TV dramas (especially Cable series) are breaking ratings, because people are actually

invested in fleshed out stories. But, the flipside to that is these days there's to much piff on TV to all watch at once

And, I'll still be at matinee for World War Z on Friday

 

[gho3st]

25 dollars 4 a fukkin movie? guess its CAM 4 me