Is Cinema Changing?

A friend once said to me, “cinema’s always changing.” At the time I think I was a little too quick in disregarding what he was saying and not really thinking any more of it. However, that was a few years ago now and while I never thought I would say this back then, now I look at cinema and wonder if change is possibly on the way and that I was perhaps fuelled too much by youthful naivety to notice how it could happen. But of course cinema has gone through so much in the last few years and for much of it I don’t think anyone saw it coming.

Going back to the early days of 2020 cinema was more or less doing what it always had at that time of year. The final month of the 2010s had been capped off with The Rise Of Skywalker and now there were films like The Gentlemen, JoJo Rabbit and 1917 along with the promise of the final portrayal of James Bond by Daniel Craig in No Time To Die and Disney’s live action adaptation of Mulan. It may not have been much but I would like to think that for a brief moment 2020 looked like a year where the films coming out had real promise, and for at least a while It seemed that was the way things were going to go on.

Fast forward a few months later and before you knew it, cinemas had shut down across the world along with several anticipated releases being delayed and film productions postponed. The only option for a while was of course for films just to bypass the cinema entirely and go straight to a streaming service which is exactly what happened with things like Trolls World Tour and Coming 2 America.

Of course, films being delayed was bound to be a problem for cinemas as they wouldn’t have much new that audiences would feel temped to go and see; not only that, but there was also the matter of people being anxious to return to cinemas after several months of being stuck at home. No doubt some people became accustomed to streaming and with new films being available instantly I’m sure that led to some staying away from cinemas as a whole, not just because of a lack of things to see but also because of how much it could cost.

Of course in August 2020 during a period of relaxed restrictions, cinemas opened their doors again and showed what small number of new releases they could. Some cinemas even put them next to re-showings of classic films. In the small period of time that this all happened in I am certain that I saw more re-showings than I did new films.

Then cinemas had to close again and in June 2021 they opened again and have stayed open. This was a point where new releases were finally coming out and the backlog of what had been delayed really got going. And now two years after that, cinema appears to be in a state of something that resembles normality and what it used to be like. But there are now things about cinema that haven’t escaped my notice.

The last three years have been anything but kind to anyone who works in the cinema or film industries and time is being very hard on some of the cinema trends that were mainstays during the last decade, starting with a studio like Disney. It may depend on who you ask but in terms of animated films during the 2010s, Disney seemed to do well with films like Frozen, Inside Out and Coco all getting positive responses from audiences as well as critics. After all, Frozen more or less took the world by storm for a while and there was no point in trying to avoid it, it really was everywhere you looked.

Now, the films that Disney releases don’t seem to reach the same heights of acclaim that they once did before. I know Disney has had rough points in its history before, but something about this feels different, and not in a good way.

If it’s not the animated films, then it’s the live-action remakes that may have started in 2010 with Alice In Wonderland but really made a mark with 2015’s Cinderella. They are often looked on as nothing more than retellings of their animated classic counterparts, but longer and less enjoyable.

It all seemed to reach something of a peak with the controversy surrounding the live-action Snow White with lead actress Rachel Zegler seemingly disrespecting the original film which of course was what the beloved Disney studio was built on. If it had been a failure back in 1937, Disney would have nothing.

Disney isn’t the only one in trouble. The superhero genre and its films, especially those tied to cinematic universes, don’t seem to be getting the same kind of appreciation that would at one point have been guaranteed. It could be down to two things: they are not as good as they used to be, or they’ve simply been going on for long enough now and people are getting fed up.

I know this could appear very bleak, but I do believe others who have the means to do so are doing their best to up the quality of their work in an effort to fill the space when these trends start to really fade out. Just last year The Batman was released – it was not tied to any cinematic universe, was long and darker in tone, there was no attempt to hide that this was, for lack of a better term, a more traditional superhero film. From what I can tell it seemed to do well and got a lot of praise, suggesting that there is still very much a soft spot for superhero films that have a mature and darker edge that can proudly stand on their own. It may not have been a superhero film in the obvious sense, but it could be argued that Joker was doing something similar. But that was more of a drama and didn’t feature anyone in a cape.

In the matter of Disney the situation feels similar. During the late eighties and nineties they seemed to be going through what people have called the “Disney Renaissance” where there was almost no stopping them from being successful. That changed with the arrival of DreamWorks and Shrek that revelled in subverting fairytale film expectations and wore its anti-Disney credentials with unapologetic pride.

I wouldn’t want to speak too soon but I do think that with Disney having nothing but bad luck at the moment and DreamWorks recently having a surprise success on their hands with Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, DreamWorks could be on their way to another period of being at the top of the animated film totem pole. They are still to bring out another Trolls film, and that could provide some kind of answer as to where DreamWorks is heading next. After that, who knows what will happen?

Moving on to streaming. Quite a lot of streaming platforms came into existence during lockdown and gave people many old and new films to watch. This was good for some but not so much for others. I’ve brought up my feelings about steaming services before and how they may not as good as some people think. But to a less than average moviegoer who maybe goes to the cinema only a few times a year, I can see why they would be appealing. There’s no need to pay for highly-priced tickets or snacks. You just go to whatever service you want, hit the right buttons and then you have the film you have been waiting to see for some time. Not forgetting that at home you can check your phone and talk all you want.

Some film fans keep ticket stubs to remember the films they have seen. Personally I don’t, but I do keep a documented list of everything I have seen in the cinema. From 2017 to 2019, I saw more than thirty films in the cinema during each of those years and that’s not even counting the ones I saw more than once. Looking over the numbers for the past three years I can see that they have fallen hard. In fact none of them get as close as twenty.

I think what I have let happen is that I am only seeing films that I have a genuine interest in seeing and that number is not as high as I would have thought. It also doesn’t help that very little of what I have seen in cinemas during this time has done much to impress me. It sounds surprising, but in terms of what I have seen in the cinema in recent years, I think I’ve been more entertained and engaged with older films than I have with newer ones. Or maybe I’m just not choosing my films well?

When I made my first cinema visit after lockdown I don’t recall there being much of what could have been called a packed audience. In fact if there were only a few people, but then it was a weekday afternoon and anxiety about safety was no doubt still lingering in the air. But when I went to see No Time To Die as far as I could tell the room was packed. It may have been that it was a highly-anticipated film, or that people were more comfortable going and sitting among others in a cinema then than they were before – or like me, some people knew what films they saw as a priority.

In all honesty I think I’m seeing changes already. I think The superhero cinematic universes have had their day and now it might be time to give something else a chance. Of course no one knows the future but given what happened with another surprise success of The Super Mario Bros Movie, I think it could be possible that films based on video games could really make their presence felt. I know they have never really been away, but Mario was a film that audiences as well as fans of the source material really seemed to enjoy. I’m not a video game expert but I do know it’s been something of a tough genre when it comes to making films out of them. But with not one but two Sonic films out that people appeared to enjoy alongside Mario, It’s possible that video game films may be about to enjoy a newfound sense of respect. I’m also not forgetting that the superhero genre went through a similar experience many years ago.

It may be 2023 but some parts of 2010s cinema are likely still hanging around and are for sure on the way out. Whether they are forced out or leave with grace and dignity remains to be seen, but for some I think it’s going to be a far from pleasant experience. But of course that will give cinema the chance to open its doors to something new. I don’t know what could be coming to cinemas in the next few years but I think I can guarantee two things: one that it will be different from what audiences have had in recent years; and that whatever it is that comes out, as long as it feels interesting enough to me, I’ll still be watching.