Spielberg Predicts Collapse of Film Industry

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• published: 14 Jun 2013
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In the future, watching movies might cost you 150 bucks. According to The Independent, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas predicted a meltdown in the movie industry yesterday. For all the hopefuls at the University of California's School of Cinematic Arts where they were speaking, this must have been a blow. Instead of inspiring the film students with promising talk of a career in filmmaking, the two directors instead said this is an "interesting time" for the film industry. I think by interesting, they meant rocky. Spielberg, director of Jaws, E.T., Jurassic Park- basically the man who made childhood awesome-said that Hollywood studios are only interested in investing in blockbusters, movies that will appeal to everyone, and will likely earn a ton of money. This is because people have so many entertainment options nowadays studios are likely to lose money by producing films that may be great in quality but do no have mass appeal, like biopics or indie films. He said: "You're at the point right now where a studio would rather invest $250m in one film for a real shot at the brass ring than make a whole bunch of really interesting, deeply personal -- and even maybe historical -- projects that may get lost in the shuffle." And Spielberg should know. He reportedly had difficulty getting his Oscar winning film Lincoln onto the big screen. It almost aired on HBO as a television film, and this is Steven Spielberg we're talking about. Imagine how difficult it would be for a new filmmaker, fresh out of college, to get studios interested in their movies. That is one problem for up and coming film-makers. Another problem is, when a 250 million dollar blockbuster fails, that's a big loss for studios, and if several of these blockbusters flop, then Hollywood would be forced to change its current business model and charge more for each blockbuster creating a gap between blockbuster pricing and other films. And that's exactly what Spielberg thinks will happen. He says audiences may end up having to pay 25 dollars for the next superhero epic like Iron Man and only 7 dollars to see an artsy historical film like Lincoln. Lucas, creator of Star Wars, agreed with Spielberg and said "What you're going to end up with is fewer theaters. Bigger theaters, with a lot of nice things. Going to the movies is going to cost you 50 bucks, maybe 100. Maybe 150." Yikes. So what's going to happen? Spielberg thinks that a lot of great filmmakers may be forced to put their less main stream work on television, and the small screen may become the big screen for more outside-the-box films. And if movie tickets really cost 150 dollars, a lot of us might just choose to watch TV instead. I know I would. So what do you think is going to happen to the film industry? Do you agree with Spielberg and Lucas? Comment below and don't forget to like, subscribe and check out more from the RunList.