The 'SCENE' by Seymore Flix

Make 'em Laugh ... Make 'em Laugh ... Make 'em Laugh

According to Greg Foster, Head honcho at IMAX  (the movie theatres with the XXL screens), audiences are now looking for 'happy films'.  Speaking at a recent conference, Foster stated, "Maybe people are getting a little sick of the post-apocalyptic, dark, angst-ridden, suicidal movies.  There's maybe a few to many of those (films). "

If true, Foster should be taking to the studios which have nothing but super-hero and darker mooded, vampire and undead movies planned for the foreseeable future.  Now, it may be that the average moviegoer is tiring of all of the high-impact, fantasy genre films, but they still reign supreme at the box office.  Perhaps lighter, funnier fare is to become the next big thing in movies, but I don't think so. The top ten grossing films so far this year included 8 high impact, fantasy movies: Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America, Transformers, Maleficent, X-Men, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Spider Man, and Godzilla, only The Lego Movie and 22 Jump Street bucked the trend.

That trend will continue in 2015, as the big bruiser films are going to be more of the same: Avengers, Star Wars, a Bond film, Ant-Man, Terminator, Fast & Furious 7, Batman v. Superman, and on and on.  Yes, there will be funny moments and lines in each of these films by there overall purpose is shock. awe, escapism, and in-your-face special effects.

Sorry Greg, but I think what you term "dark and angst-ridden" films will be with us for some time to come - and the 'make 'em laugh' films will be second stringers.

Movies Loss Is TV's Gain

As I noted before in CMG, it's TV and not movies that hold the most promise for directors, writers, actors, and the multitude of highly skilled that are required to make good entertainment.

In the past decade, the studios have shifted their business models toward making fewer, bigger would-be blockbuster bruisers based on a comic, a toy, a video game, a sci-fi or fantasy novel.  The movies that make up the foundation of the American cinema (dramas with adult storylines are few and far between).

Veteran scriptwriters, like Scott Frank, who has been writing movies for over 30 years says, "It's gotten harder and harder to make movies about people. I could never get a movie like 'Get Shorty' green lit today. It took me more than a decade to get 'A Walk Among the Tombstones' - which opened this past weekend- to reach the big screen." 

In this environment most of the younger screenwriters are going right to TV where there is lots of work and they can be creative.  "There's been a big change in the time I've been doing this, and that's been the rise of marketing-based decision making," says Frank, "Everything comes from marketing. Marketing is now even part of the greenlight process. Once you believe you have a formula and you know what people are going to see, all the movies tend to become similar."  But the movies loss is TV gain - as most of the younger top talent is gravitating to TV and cable productions, particularly serial productions.

As we have reported, moviegoers may be getting a bit tired of the high-impact, action film and need more 'story' to fill their entertainment needs. It will be interesting to see how this plays out as the big tech firms, as well as, the content streamers get involved and set the tone and pace of what is viewed on the small and big screen.

Best
S. Flix