Steven Spielberg is the man behind some of the greatest films in history, but it seems the director didn't have much hope for the future of cinema.
Back in 2013, the legendary filmmaker made a worrying prediction about the direction in which the film industry would head, and that now seems to be closer than ever.
The 79-year-old won't have too many regrets after an incredible life that's earned him a net worth well into the billions, although one scene he edited out of E.T still plays on his mind.
Many of us will have grown up with the likes of Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones and Jaws, and perhaps it's unfair to compare the films of today with the timeless classics that Spielberg has helped to create.
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There's certainly no shortage of money in Hollywood, but there may well be a shortage of ideas, with remakes the recipe of modern years, while it's also regularly discussed how much CGI has deteriorated despite the technology being far better.
Spielberg suggested 13 years ago that an implosion of the film industry was near, claiming that prices would massively vary and films would stay in cinemas for longer, similar to the model used on Broadway.
An implosion in the movie industry
While speaking at the University of Southern California as part of the official opening of the Interactive Media Building, he said, per the Hollywood Reporter: “That’s the big danger, and there’s eventually going to be an implosion — or a big meltdown. There’s going to be an implosion where three or four or maybe even a half-dozen 'mega-budget' movies are going to go crashing into the ground, and that’s going to change the paradigm.”
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It would have been painful for Spielberg to witness the 2023 iteration of Indiana Jones become such a box office disaster, while Marvel has also been guilty of a few in the years since we had Endgame.
The reality today is that films rarely stay in longer than two months, and some don't even make it there at all, as the growth of streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime sees users stay at home to take in a film rather than heading to their local theatre.
And that's another thing that was suggested by both Spielberg and Star Wars creator George Lucas: “I think eventually the Lincolns will go away and they’re going to be on television.
"As mine almost was,” Spielberg interjected. “This close — ask HBO — this close.”
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“We’re talking Lincoln and Red Tails — we barely got them into theatres. You’re talking about Steven Spielberg and George Lucas can’t get their movie into a theatre,” Lucas said.
“I got more people into Lincoln than you got into Red Tails,” Spielberg joked.
Although they both went on to praise Netflix at the event where they were speaking 13 years ago, it is unprecedented that a series as successful as Knives Out wouldn't have had a cinema release for its third instalment back in 2012.
Topics: Cinema
James Moorhouse