The current state of cinema is in a spotty situation; “Poor Things,” “The Iron Claw,” “Zone of Interest” and many more films of high quality have shown that the era of lower-budget movies may be the future.
Box office flops like “The Flash,” and “Ant-Man: Quantumania,” are exposing the fact that these recent high-budgets movies are low quality despite having more money to work with.
These flops aren’t just comic book movies either. It seems as though audiences are tired of franchise movies as a whole. Beloved franchises such as “Mission Impossible,” and “Indiana Jones,” saw their most recent editions underperform at the box office. Lowering some of these budgets would force filmmakers to rely less on CGI.
Reducing crunch time on visual effects (VFX) artists is another way to improve these blockbusters. Marvel Studios is notorious for making its VFX artists work ridiculous hours, leading many to unionize last August.
Another issue I find to be a massive problem in the film industry, specifically blockbusters, are committees interfering with filmmakers and their work. Xochitl Gomez, who starred in “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” defended the writer of the film.
“Y’all need to stop hating on Michael Waldron…They asked for 33 rewrites…None of it is up to him,” Gomez said.
These higher ups are known to not have a single creative bone in their bodies, yet these people force writers to take their suggestions into account. The writers and directors are often the ones that get the brunt of the criticism from audiences.
I’ve found that lower-budget films, around $100 million or below, have been better but have also made their money back at the box office. Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” had a budget of $100 million and not only dominated the box office but looked far better than several movies with budgets of more than $200 million.
Even on a much smaller budget of $35 million, “Poor Things,” directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, looked gorgeous and made its money back at the box office.
The quality of the film was also leagues above most of the 2023 blockbusters. More people have grown tired of franchises and are seeking out more arthouse films.
“I think new age cinema is awesome,” said Seneca Whorton, a recent UMKC graduate. “There’s more opportunities for expressive freedom.”
While cinema is in a questionable spot, things can take a positive turn as long as big studios learn from their mistakes and people continue to support non-franchise films.
