Cinematic aspirations of TV
TV shows like “Game of Thrones,” “Westworld” and “Breaking Bad” are just a few examples where TV is beginning to overtake movies with original and compelling stories in the last several years.
That’s not to say these are the first shows that have done this, but they show an increase in the presence of cinematic television in the public realm and their ever increasing popularity.
I discussed what makes a movie cinematic in a recent article, and many professionals in the film industry argued that it came down to the story you’re telling. There can be aspects that are part of the technical side of things, but most said that it depended on what you were trying to tell your audience.
Actor Dustin Hoffman said in a 2015 interview with Independent “I think right now television is the best it’s ever been and I think that it’s the worst film has ever been.”
Movies have begun to stagnate in their cinematic storytelling. There’s a lack of innovation in the field.
The graph above shows there were over 122 remakes released between 2003 and 2012, and while they’ve been getting middle-of-the-road reviews by the critics, they are earning a massive amount of money. Those 122 movies earned more than $12 billion and averaged just about $101 million per movie.
While those numbers certainly can’t stand up to the most recent superhero movies, they are still very respectable to be throwing up.
When you throw in sequels, reboots and spin-offs, you get even less originality. In 2016, there were a total of 21 of these. When you break it down further, 11 of these films were direct sequels to established franchises.
While they may put up good numbers, movies have been stagnating until very recently.
According to “The Numbers,” up until 2016, movie ticket sales were sitting around 1.3 billion until 2017 where they hit an all-time low since 1995 of about 1.22 billion. The first year to see a significant increase in ticket sales was 2018 with 1.5 billion tickets sold.
Viewers are getting consistently new and original content on the TV side of things. Be that about a teacher who turns to dealing drugs to pay for his cancer treatments or an adaptation of a fantasy book series that deals with dragons and warring families.
TV is going to continue to innovate on a level that film hasn’t seen in years. Streaming services only add to the level of innovation with tons of new, original programming like Netflix’s anime adaptation of the “Castlevania” video game series that has been critically praised, or “Stranger Things,” which is based around the 80s horror movie genre.
Film has seen its first significant increase in ticket numbers in nearly a decade and original movies like “The Shape of Water” and “Get Out.” So, it’s going to take time to see if TV will continue to assert its dominance in cinematic content.
