Over the summer I’ve grown kind of tired of hearing about the Hollywood movie slump. Then this fall a survey came out which indicated that the major reason that people aren’t going to the theater is that the movies just don’t interest them enough. Big surprise.
I’ve formed a personal theory about entertainment trends. I think Americans are more interested in long story arcs and character development than they used to be. The movies that were huge sucesses in the past few years were all movies that stood alone, but were also part of a larger story. Lord of the Rings, Spiderman, X-men, Star Wars, I’m sure there are more, but they’ve slipped my mind at the moment. TV has also trended this way. Sit coms with their static characters are not as interesting as dramas with arching storylines. Shows like Lost and 24 take this even farther where each episode is only a fragment of a larger story.
I personally like this trend that I’m seeing. I like seeing characters develop and grow. I like story writing that shifts in response to character growth. It’s one of the reasons I like reading Schlock Mercenary, which incidentally fits right in with this trend.
So, am I seeing something that isn’t there? Are there movies/shows that uphold my theory? Are there movies/shows that disprove it? What do you think?
Does “Desperate Housewives” fit this mold? I always thought that part of the decline in movie viewing was because, at any given time, almost all the movies you can find in a theater are basically the three same concepts rehashed, with different actors and different sex scenes with little else to differentiate them. Sex and violence only go so far with entertainment, and people get bored of the same old thing over and over again.
Maybe that’s why that Penguin documentary did so well – it was fresh, it was different, and it didn’t feature the same bimbo/bimbette of the week in various stages of undress – the movie “Forty Year Old Virgin” was also different, in how it wasn’t a simple sappy love story, hijinx-and-slapstick comedy, or wasn’t your usual ‘action hero du jour’ flick.
No, I think you’re entirely right. Even reality shows, the whole point is watching the relationships and competition develop between the people over the course of many weeks. Sitcoms, the things people cared about most were the long-running story arcs (which for most shows boiled down to “continually unresolved romantic tension”, but can be done really well)… I think the television audience has more of an attention span than a lot of people (myself included, sometimes!) give them credit for.
Meanwhile, Hollywood sits there churning out the same old formula crap and lame sequels like Police Academy IX….
“Movie sales are down. Uh …. People must be PIRATING THEM. Yeah, that’s it.”
“Maybe they want more substantial plotli-“
“LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA I CAN’T HEAR YOU! LA LA LA LA LA LA….“
One thing about Hollywood is they don’t ordinarily start a movie with the intent to make it more than a self-contained unit; sequels are only tacked on afterwards if the first installment makes any money.
There are a few exceptions to this in modern (post 1950s) moviemaking, like the Back to the Future, Lord of the Rings and Star Wars prequel trilogies. But studios still seem reluctant to committing to a full-blown series when they want all the money from a story as soon as possible.
That’s kind of my point. Right now the big successful movies were ALL made with a larger plotline planned than would fit into a single movie. Hopefully studios are beginning to see that this is how to make lots of money over the long term.