When I read pieces like this it makes me reflect on the on dimensionality of nostalgia. We are speaking about the golden age of cinema and trying to understand the current world of cinema based on that template. It’s a great premise and makes for a neat perspective that is tidy but the reality is far more complex.
I stopped going to movies a few years back because I couldn’t rationalIe the cost of a film to get an unknown level of reward for having spent that money. I’m someone who waits for the film to be available for streaming and will rent it that way. The social nature of film is a wonderful thing but I can have that with people I socially chose in the comfort and relative inexpense of my own home.
Declining box office returns except for culturally charged moments in history and holiday weekends when family’s are packed together into bus like cars and head to the theater should be a sign of a changing pipeline to viewership rather than a decline in the ability of an actor.
I can’t wait for the industry to catch up to the culture of now and learn from its own history. Box office and cinema were launching pads for investors of now giant film conglomerates. It made sense to have theaters as that pipeline to the people. Own the theaters make money for showing films and then use that money to make films. Companies like Netflix and Hulu didn’t forget their history and created the digital equivalent of that pipeline.
Jennifer Lawrence is an enjoyable actress and I hope she takes a page from Johna hill and Emma stone and start working with digital power houses for direct to viewer content.