The film industry: a slave to the digital age?
Films have come a long way since the early days of silent, black-and-white productions. Over the years, advancements in technology have revolutionized the way movies are made and consumed. From the first sound films in the late 1920s to the introduction of colour in the 1950s, films continued to evolve throughout the 21st century. The introduction of special effects and computer-generated imagery in the 1990s allowed filmmakers to bring their visions to life in ways previously unimaginable forming a mode of entertainment that was unmatched. Today, we are seeing a challenger rise that could possibly dethrone films making them obsolete.
Films have always been an essential part of society and culture as the most famous people in the world tend to be actors like Leonardo DiCaprio. However, due to Covid-19 and the lockdown, we have seen a decrease in the popularity of films and the cinema. Box office revenues before Covid-19 (2019) were £1.25 billion in the UK and decreased to £560 million after Covid-19 (2021). This is very uncharacteristic for the film industry as for the past 8 years before 2019, box office revenue was above a billion pounds. The effect of the quarantine is still felt today in the film industry.
During the quarantine, Netflix became more prominent within entertainment. Now, it is a market leader with the highest revenue in all motion picture and sound recording companies in the US. This is due to the sheer volume of content, convenience and price. Therefore, the presence of Netflix led to a decrease in the popularity of films and could lead to a stunt in the growth of the film industry. As more competitors are introduced like Amazon Prime and Disney Plus, could lead to an even larger decrease in popularity as the market gets saturated with content.
The film industry must undergo a revolution to keep up with the ever-changing demands of the consumer. The key to the revolution could be utilising digital media which was seen in the 2020 Sonic the Hedgehog movie where the producers listened to thier audience. The movie received backlash when the original trailer was first released. Sony then listened to the fans and spent time to reworked the movie based on the initial negative feedback. This helped the movie surpass any projections made to become the biggest video game move in America at the time.
The 2017 Justice League movie went through a similar situation as the Sonic the Hedgehog movie. The sudden switch in directors while the movie was being shot led to it becoming sub-par in quality. It was only rated 6.1/10 on IMDb which is very low considering that this was meant to be DC’s equivalent to Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame. Endgame received an 8.4/10 on IMDb which is considerably better. It also became the second highest-grossing film behind Avatar. This was a major letdown to DC as this was a clear indication that Marvel was far superior.
The fans were underwhelmed by the initial Justice League movie. Since the cause of its failure could be due to the switch in directors, more and more fans wanted to see the original cut from the first director, Jack Snyder. Fans then began to fight to see the initial story and vision of the movie made by Jack Snyder. Some fans even claimed to have seen the movie made by the original director and claimed ‘It’s absolutely amazing’. This added fuel to the fire. Petitions were made to release the cut and #releasethesnydercut was trending on Twitter.
The hype of the Snyder Cut was built as fans fought for years to see it. In 2019, film star, Jason Mamoa, that played Aqua Man, joined to movement. He put a video up on Instagram saying that the Snyder Cut was ‘sick’. Soon his co-stars such as Gal Gadot, Ben Affleck and Ray Fisher also joined in the fight, tweeting various posts that include the hashtag #releasethesnydercut. The voices became too loud to not listen to and Warner Bros. had to listen. They spent another $40 million to wrap up and release the Snyder Cut.
The Snyder Cut was then released in 2021 and performed significantly better than the previous Justice League movie released in 2017. It had a rating of 8.0/10 on IMDb which rivals Marvel Avengers: Endgame’s rating of 8.4/10. The success of the Snyder Cut can be attributed to the years of hype building around the movie on various social media platforms over the years. Warner Bros. utilised digital media to understand the audience to give a movie worth paying for. The social media build-up could have even led to the movie being too big to fail.
In 1959, Leon Festinger got test subjects to turn pegs on a peg board for an hour. This task was made to be agonizingly boring. The subjects were then paid either one or twenty dollars to lie to the next subject saying the test was fun. The subjects who got paid less rated the experiment as more fun compared to the ones paid more. This is due to cognitive dissonance or belief perseverance. This is when the brain tries to justify the little reward for the work. This could be why the Snyder Cut had little chance of failure since the fans spent years getting it released.
The digital world is now an established part of society and should be taken into consideration when making and marketing a movie so it is worthwhile paying to go and watch it. Producers need to use different forms of digital media to give a product that is tailored to the audience for a more enjoyable experience. However, fans can be ruthless and when given a treat will expect more. This will keep on increasing expectations that would need to be met. Now there is a new campaign to #RestoreTheSnyderVerse. However, it might not be possible.
