Barbenheimer, a Year On: Is Cinema Still In a Good Place?
On 21st July 2023, the cinema world experienced a phenomenon. Film-goers across the globe marched into theatres in black suits and pink dresses, ready to sit down for ‘Barbenheimer’: the double feature of a lifetime.
When Barbie and Oppenheimer dropped into cinemas the same day, it was more than a silly excuse to dress up. The trend to attend both movies injected new life into cinema culture, with both films cracking the top five at the 2023 box office. For the first time since the pandemic, the industry’s future looked bright.
But has that excitement survived? A year on from Barbenheimer, the film industry is in a precarious place. The writers’ strikes may be over, but concerns over AI remain. Cinemas are booming, but streaming services are chopping profits in half. With all that in mind, is the industry truly in a good place?
The Issue of Creativity
For cinema snobs worldwide, Marvel Studios has been giving them nightmares for over a decade. The blockbuster machine has churned out dozens of high-profit successes ever since Iron Man in 2008, but now things seem to be taking a turn.
After the commercial failure of The Marvels and the critical embarrassment that was Quantumania, Marvel has taken a backseat this year. The franchise became infamous for hogging cinema real estate, minimizing the chance for more avant-garde and independent films to get a spot on the silver screen.
A noticeable difference is there aren’t news stories about another Marvel movie breaking box office records, but there’s more stories about films doing better than expected, financially, and I think this is a result of the downfall of superhero films dominating the space year round.
Jamie Puckett, Scottish filmmaker
Seven months into 2024, not a single Marvel film has hit cinemas this year. Instead, the erotic tennis drama Challengers and the slow-burn sci-fi flick Dune: Part Two have dominated discussions. In many ways, creativity is blooming in mainstream cinema.
The Issue of Streaming Services
Although creativity is on the rise in Hollywood, the same can’t be said for profits. While some films boom like the billion-dollar smash Inside Out 2, others gather dust. Even films that seem like they would be the next big hit end up performing at a loss, and the reason why is often the same: streaming services.
Perhaps Hit Man is the most recent victim of this. Critics praised the comedy as a breath of fresh air, but the box office wasn’t so kind. After its release in theatres, it only took a fortnight for Netflix to add the film to its streaming catalog. The impact is obvious: Hit Man made a mere $5 million at the box office, performing at a loss against an $8.8 million budget.
Streaming platforms have different financial structures, impacting the revenue potential for filmmakers and potentially affecting the budgets and scales of their projects.
Beyond monetary concerns, streaming services take away part of the magic of cinema. There is far more to movies than watching the film itself. In the cinema, you get the spectacle of the big screen; the excitement of watching something as a community; the joy of discussing it afterward. That is exactly what made Barbenheimer so special. Compare that to watching a blockbuster alone on your iPad, and the difference is stark. With some films only taking a few weeks to transition from the big screen to the small, that magic is fading.
The Issue of Artificial Intelligence
A year ago, Hollywood was divided. While executives scrambled to keep their productions going, thousands of writers went on strike. The threat of artificial intelligence replacing writers was one of their main reasons to protest. Almost a year after the end of the strikes, the fear of AI still looms over the industry.
Although AI hasn’t outright replaced writers, the technology is on the rise. Whether visual effects artists are using it to clean up animations or writers are using ChatGPT to speed up research, AI is here to stay. For the most part, it’s more of a helpful tool for creatives than a career-ending replacement for humans.
The capabilities of AI, when used by the right people, just allow it to be another weapon in the arsenal of expression. Somewhat similar to how painting as an artform didn’t go extinct after the advent of the camera.
Jamie Puckett, Scottish filmmaker
However, the future looks dark. On social media platforms like X, creators are sharing their animated films, built completely from AI. Entire online communities are dedicated to making AI the new norm for filmmaking, to the dismay of creatives across the world. Although the technology is far from taking over the industry, the popularity of AI-made movies is a living nightmare for artists.
Is cinema in a good place?
Cinema has never been perfect. For as long as films have dominated our culture, people have worried about the collapse of the industry. Back in the 1930s, the advent of ‘talkies’ had silent film stars fearing for their careers. Fast forward to the late 1970s, and VHS had cinema owners shivering at the thought of theatres being abandoned. The film industry is always changing.
A year on from Barbenheimer, the financial state of the film industry is in turmoil. The profits around streaming services continue to worry creatives. Mid-budget arthouse films are breaking records while supposedly guaranteed hits like The Fall Guy are underperforming. More than ever, whether a film will be a smash or a flop is unpredictable.
On the creative side, things are looking up. Challengers, Kinds of Kindness, and Civil War are just a few of the best-performing films of the year, proving that arthouse madness has a place in the mainstream. While the future of AI is uncertain, one thing is undeniable: the film industry is getting back on its feet.
Can Barbenheimer be replicated? Studio executives think so, scrambling to make ‘Glicked’ the next trend — the joint release of Gladiator II and Wicked. Whether the marketing gimmick will work is debatable, but therein lies the magic of cinema: you never know where it’s headed next.
