Has the silver screen finally gone grey?

By Alfie Eville

Often, I hear people make the claim that “cinema is dead,” or that it is going down in quality; nothing more than sequels, remakes and obvious cash grabs. But, does this claim carry any merit? I would argue, as someone that is pretty well-versed in this field, that, no, movies are not dying. 

To say such a blanket accusation like “all movies are slop” is simply false, and we can see this just by looking at the previous year. We saw some of the greatest and most remarkable films be made in “One Battle After Another,” “Marty Supreme,” “Train Dreams” and Best Picture winner, “Sinners.” Were there bad movies? Of course there were, but over 600 films are released each year on average, so to expect an absolute cinematic masterpiece every single time is just absurd. 

To revisit the claim again, I think that the 21st century has been one of the best times to be a movie fan. 2007 and 2019 were two of the greatest years of film, with the releases of “There Will Be Blood,” “No Country for Old Men” and, later, “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” and “Parasite,” just to name a few. When looking at these and the many other instant classics, it becomes difficult to argue that cinema has gotten worse. What I will say is that there is an obvious and more abundant amount of slop being churned out nowadays. 

The blame is not hard to point out, as the rise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Netflix has directly impacted the way we consume movies. Marvel has been making adaptations of their comics for decades now, but it was not until Sony Pictures came along and released Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man” in 2002 when dozens of sequels, prequels, spin-offs and more started flooding theaters across the world. This money-making trend has spawned copycats who have realized how lucrative this method can be. While yes, some Marvel movies have been great, there’s a shared sentiment that, ever since “Avengers: Endgame,” the quality has dipped tremendously. Yet, the company still buys up all timeslots for theaters, making it impossible for other films to get their chance at being seen and making a large box-office return. The same goes for Marvel’s new parent company, Disney, as they do the same shady business practice of buying up every single time slot available and flooding movies with their subpar content as of late.

Similarly, Netflix and other streaming services have been detrimental to the film industry. While movies and television shows are much easier to watch, it has come at a major cost. Movies are being pulled from cinemas far earlier than they have in the past, and in some cases, being pushed out on streaming in tandem with theater releases. This hurts theater revenue and is a huge reason as to why they are struggling to turn a profit; people are less inclined to go buy tickets, when they could just as easily see it on streaming. Convenient, yes, but this has paved the way for the “Netflix-ification” of media. This trend is most apparent in the newest season of “Stranger Things,” as the writing panders to an audience of people glued to their phone. The writing was repetitive, exposition-heavy and just plain terrible. Netflix knows their audience, but is also responsible for creating it. 

With that being said, we are lucky enough to be seeing the rise of independent production studios like A24 and Neon; their growing popularity and cult-following is a revolutionary attack against these heartless conglomerates. They have been a breath of fresh air in terms of indie filmmaking getting to shine in the mainstream. Filmmakers with incredible and original ideas are being given the greenlight to create projects that would so seldom be represented in Hollywood. 

So, while there are many duds in modern cinema and several problems behind the scenes, it is untrue to say that it has gotten so bad to the point of “dying.” There are too many great films and original ideas coming out for that to be true. The future for cinema is bright.

Alfie Eville is a freshman history and secondary education major