New York Daily news reported in an amazing statement that George Lucas "Star Wars" guru, announced the death of the Hollywood blockbuster era.
He said "The market forces that exist today make it unrealistic to spend $200 million on a movie, those movies can't make their money back anymore. Look at what happened with 'King Kong.'"
"I think it's great that the major Oscar nominations have gone to independent films,"
"Is that good for the business? No — it's bad for the business. But moviemaking isn't about business. It's about art!"
Is that a joke said as George smiles behind his hand?
"In the future, almost everything that gets shown in theaters will be indie movies," Lucas declared. "I predict that by 2025 the average movie will cost only $15 million."
Movie City Indie said that "The portly Lucas, whose "Star Wars" sequel was nominated for the Oscar in makeup, was clearly in Yoda mode at Saturday's Weinstein Co. party — Harvey Weinstein's first Oscar bash since he abandoned Miramax to Disney last year."
"Lucas told me, adding that it's no accident that the "small movies" outclassed the spectaculars in this year's Academy Awards."
Who knows if George is trying to say something about the Oscar process here. But he makes some key points about market forces; those are for real. And his prediction concerning costs of movies could even be real.
The continually fragmenting market makes the possibilities of this quite possible.
I predict that everyone that makes categorical predictins abuot showbiz will be proved wrong!
Joking aside, there definitely is a tendancy away from the mega budget movies. In fact, it has been a well-known fact that it's the mid-budget movies that bring the most profit to the industry. The big budget movies are the ones that get investors excited, improving the visibility on the stock market. They probably have less to do with the business of movie-making than the business of corporate financing.
Posted by: Michael | March 12, 2006 6:02 AM | Permalink to Comment