The current state of American cinema
By Andrew Brennan ’25, Staff Writer
franchise, and Harrison Ford, back to the big screen. Photo courtesy of Slate.
With another year in the books, the state of American cine-
ma only seems to be getting more and more bleak. This is certainly not a new observation, but it is important to reflect on the situation as movies, and Hollywood in particular, appear to be at something of a crossroads. It is tough to say exactly when this decline began, but several signs have become increasingly noticeable over the last few years.
The most alarming of signs is the recent stream of box office failures to come out of the big studios. There has been a steep increase in budgets for blockbusters, with eight of the last ten most expensive movies in history being made in the last decade. The year 2023 had 14 over 200 million-dollar budgeted movies alone. However, few were able to turn a profit. The Marvels, the biggest flop of the year, became the lowest-grossing Marvel movie ever, seemingly marking the beginning of the end of Marvel’s dominance at the box office and cinema as a whole. While superhero movie fatigue may be overstated, given the great success of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, it nevertheless shows the audience’s desire for quality and ingenuity over just another old installment in a franchise. With the rise of streaming services, most notably Disney Plus, which promises viewers movies just months after their theatrical release, audiences require good reasons to see a movie in theaters rather than waiting to watch it in the comfort of their own homes. Nevertheless, the success of movies such as Oppenheimer and Barbie demonstrates a strong desire to go to the theaters to see quality movies. But with the constant production of remakes, sequels and more movies from the same tiring franchise, going to the theater feels less like an event and more like a hassle. This is worsened when movies demand viewers to have watched shows or multiple other previous movies, which has been a major problem for Marvel recently.
This recycling of movies greatly contributes to the decline
of cinema. With movies coming out this past year such as Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and The Little Mermaid that desperately try to rekindle movie magic in unmagical ways, audiences see the movies as content, or as products, rather than as quality pieces of art. Cinema nowadays is a far cry from the work of the auteurs of the past who made classic films, not because of a lack of present talent, but because of the artist’s inability to create their vision due to corporate oversight and interference. Remakes ruin old characters in new stories just to make easy money off of their names and faces. Sequels, such as Star Wars: The Last Jedi, almost intentionally divide fanbases to create controversy and clicks. Political messages are shoved into movies not for the sake of real care and attention to a cause, but for the sake of pushing an arbitrary corporatized agenda, which removes any possibility of escapism for the audience.
on the Marvel comics, was the lowest-grossing Marvel movie ever. Photo courtesy of Disney Productions
But with all of that said, the magical experience of cinema is not dead. There are still studios, directors and visionaries pushing the envelope of what can be achieved on screen. Some of the last great independent filmmakers, such as Christopher Nolan and Martin Scorsese, are still directing at a high level. Animated movies such as Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse and Puss and Boots: The Last Wish are helping continue the innovations that Disney and Pixar helped cultivate before their decline. Independent filmmakers and studios, notably A24, also have helped maintain the work of auteurs that was so prevalent throughout much of the 20th century. Even the big Hollywood studios occasionally produce something new and exciting. While cinema has certainly seen better days, quality films are still being made by quality artists. But as box offices continue to be unreliable and as mega-budget movies continue to flop, the large corporate studios must reassess their strategies and their priorities.
Studios are at a crossroads, and they must decide whether to continue to decline with their stagnant corporatized production of movies, or to take a leap of faith in new ideas and new artists. Hopefully, for the long-term good of the studios and us as audience members, they will decide to make changes that will allow inspired and ambitious filmmakers to make more movies that we love and enjoy.
