As I write this, James Cameron’s Avatar is only a mere $50,000,000 from making two billion dollars at the box office. It’s the biggest moneymaker of all time, beating out Cameron’s own Titanic for the number one spot.
Is this a good thing?
I think it’s a mixed blessing. I like Hollywood. I want to see the studios make money and succeed. However, I haven’t always felt this way.
By the time the 90’s came along, I was tired of horror, tired of Hollywood movies. I looked toward the underground for my movie fixes. Film Threat and Film Threat Video Guide chronicled the last gasp of cinematic underground. Super 8 film was still in use and maverick backyard (and backstreet) filmmakers were churning out explosive, anarchic movies. I embraced these shoddy little productions and I loathed the mainstream.
I’ve changed again. I don’t watch a lot of independent movies any more. Now the shot-on-digital low budget products look cheap and ugly to me. I like Hollywood movies. But not the flashy, big budget stuff like Avatar and Sherlock Holmes. Though I haven’t seen these films, I loathe them. From what I’ve seen of them from trailers and other clips, they look like computer games. Animation. That’s not filmmaking. Not to me.
It’s good that the studios are making money. 2009 was a good year, with a lot of successful releases. 2010 looks to be another one. People are uncertain and scared in this foul time. They turn to the movies for comfort and escape. It’s always been this way, since the dawn of film production.
The thing that worries me is, will the extraordinary success of Avatar make it more difficult for the modest little productions I love?
Most of the movies I’ve enjoyed were either box office failures or they barely made their money back. Not all of the time, though.
Up in the Air was a refreshing change of pace and it has done nice business. Not anything near Avatar’s bankroll, but it made a tidy profit. Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino was a fantastic film and it did very well. Quentin Tarantino had a fabulous comeback with his best film in ages, Inglourious Basterds. (500) Days of Summer made peanuts in comparison with the latest Twilight movie or Harry Potter film, but it was made on such a modest budget that it was a success.
But what of some of the other little movies that I enjoyed in recent memory?
My favorite of last year was Judd Apatow’s underrated, misunderstood masterpiece, Funny People. It almost, but didn’t quite, break even. Same with Adventureland. Ditto with another favorite, I Love You, Beth Cooper.
Bob Goldthwait’s scathing World’s Greatest Dad didn’t even make a quarter of a million dollars at the box office. Werner Herzog’s delirious Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans barely made over 4,000,000. Woody Allen’s clever and funny Whatever Works performed poorly in America, but did well overseas.
Horror has always been apart from the mainstream. It walks its own path and does better in some years than others. This year wasn’t good, but wasn’t great either.
Orphan was one of the best. At least I thought so. And so did the public. It brought in a very respectable $75,000,000. Drag Me To Hell was Sam Raimi’s comeback to horror and it earned over eighty-five million. A drop in the bucket to his Spider Man franchise, but it doubled its money. Zombieland was surprisingly good and did surprisingly well, topping at almost a hundred mil, quadrupling it’s production budget.
The runaway hit was, of course, Paranormal Activity. This ragtag little wonder was made for less than catering costs on major movies. A paltry $15,000 budget brought in over $140,000,000!
It goes to show that there is no predicting the public and what they’ll stand in line to see. Still, things like Paranormal Activity are flukes. I can see studios stumbling all over one another to repeat the success of Avatar. We’ve seen it many times before, haven’t we?
I just hope that the studios won’t stop funding the little gems out there. Things like Adventureland. Like Youth in Revolt. Like The Lucky Ones. These movies may seem like modest, inexpensive productions, but will the studios wish to continue wasting their time on them? When the big money is in the big, dumb, loud special effects bonanzas?
Like most old fogeys, I miss the old days. Days when effects were done by hand, by artists. And I know…computer programming can be an art, but I miss the hand’s on method of special effects. I don’t like movies that look like computer games.
There’s only one thing we can do. We need to get off of our asses and away from these computers and our home theater systems and go out and support the little movies that need and deserve it. If we sit back and complain and don’t go buy tickets, we are as much of the problem as those that will only support the obvious blockbusters out there.
Go to the movies. It’s fun and I don’t know if I’ve just had luck, but audiences have been more polite lately. At least for me. I think i
t helps that I always see matinees. There are fewer people in the auditoriums and the prices are lower. I think it helps a lot to avoid the ones that will be packed with dumb teens and see worthy films like Brothers, Moon, or Away We Go.
And if you disagree with me, go to the movies anyway. Theaters are places of dreams for us. Houses of magic. See the blockbusters, but try to see some of the other things out there, too. Take your
kids, your nieces and nephews, little brothers and sisters. Sure, take them to see Avatar or the latest animated feature they want to see, but don’t forget that it’s a parent or guardian’s job to show them that there are other things out there than the latest blockbuster that all of the other kids are talking about.
One last thing: If there is a drive-in or an independent theater near you and you aren’t going on a regular basis, shame on you.
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