It’s 1994 and I’m a precocious little seventh grade filmgoer with a real obsession with movies. It started in 1993 when I was in 6th grade and it’s now reached the point I’m watching Siskel & Ebert every Sunday like it’s late night church service. All I want to do is watch every movie I can, and the movie I’m obsessed with is Leon The Professional, a French American thriller by Luke Besson staring Jean Reno as Leon the hitman who takes in a 12 year old girl played by Natalie Portman after a ruthless monster played by Gary Oldman tries to kill her after wiping out her family. All of this appealed to me. The Lion King felt tame in comparison. The Professional was not a huge hit in 1994. It made $20 million in the USA and about $25 million abroad. But it made stars of Reno and Portman and lead to them getting big paychecks in huge franchises like Star Wars and Mission: Impossible.
Not because they were big movie stars, but because they were in the movies and showed off their talent. And they showed off their abilities in a film where Gary Oldman was playing his version of The Joker, unhinged and foaming at the mouth. Today though, this tiny masterpiece wouldn’t be in theaters, it would be streaming. It wouldn’t jump start two of the longest running careers in Hollywood, but instead be buried in a sea of films with no trailers or marketing campaigns. But ask any film lover about this film or many others from the independent era 30 years ago (Pulp Fiction, Clerks, Before Sunrise, etc.) and they can tell you about these tiny gems even if they weren’t the biggest hits. And why? Because they were in the movies. In a theater. I’m thinking about this hit man movie because another charming film called Hit Man - with a similar main character is going straight to Netflix on June 7th - and what could have been a marginal success at least will not become a film for the fans or connoisseurs of cinema because we didn’t all see it at the same time. Say what you want about streaming, theatrical, and the hybrid model, but films that hit 1,000+ theaters last longer in the zeitgeist than the ones who come and vanish like a fart in the streaming wind. Movies aren’t doing well this year at the box office, and one reason is that the smaller films aren’t there to pick up the movie goers the tent poles won’t catch. Hit Man wasn’t going to make $100 million, but it might have made $50 million, and on it smaller budget, Richard Linklater’s rom-com crime caper with an all-star cast including Glenn Powell would be a topic of conservation. Even if it flopped. See, films have three phases they go through to become known entities. And unless they go through all three, they’ll be forgotten. Like Roma, Marriage Story, and Flaming Hot. All Oscar nominated films; all forgotten a week after released on streaming. The Three Phases of a Film Phase 1 - The Marketing A movie’s life begins in the pre-release stage. The trailers, the Deadline and Hollywood Reporter announcements, the press junkets. Here is the stage we start talking about it. But straight to streamers don’t play trailers, and because many are made quietly or bought after they’re filmed, we hear little about them. Even though Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga bombed at the box office, everyone “knows” it’s out there. Phase 2 - The Release The moment of truth arrives Friday night with early box office reporting. From there the film is either a success or not. Maybe word of mouth can save it. Maybe it can destroy it. But it’s out there. A film like Pixar’s Elemental opened to small numbers and eventually grossed $400+ million, whereas The Marvels was DOA upon arrival and dropped almost 80% by week 2. But you’ve heard of all of them. Meanwhile, Netflix’s original and wonderful animated film Orion and The Dark came and went without even a whimper (holding a 91% Rotten Tomatoes score) and I still haven’t met anyone who watched Red Notice on Netflix, though the streaming minutes claim otherwise. Phase 3 - Life After Box Office Some films didn’t do well in theaters but eventually found an audience on TBS, TNT, and DVD. Films like The Shawshank Redemption, The Dark Crystal, and even It’s a Wonderful Life all found second lives on video. But people knew they were out there, and it just took a while for them to catch up. Linklater’s Hit Man on the other hand is going straight to Phase 3, and that means it’s basically straight to DVD. With the exception of maybe Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, I don’t know if a direct to streaming film has a sort of cultural relevance. The Great Abyss of Cinema As people question why Fall Guy, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and Furiosa bombed with big name actors and solid marketing, one reason is because little films aren’t there to wet the theater going appetite like they did in the 1990’s. A great independent film back then got people to want to go back to theaters, so they would go see films like Con Air, Big Daddy, and other marginal $100+ million hits. Today, those films wouldn’t make a dime. In fact, think about Adam Sandler’s filmography. We all remember Little Nicky, his most infamous flop but do any of his fans remember any straight to Netflix films? Sandy Wexler? Wexler? Wexler? Every Hit Man that went straight to streaming caused people to stay home for the current flops that should have made more based on reviews, stars, and other usual signs of success. Filmgoing isn’t a vacuum, it’s a community event running all year. Today’s hits are going to help Christmas releases, because people will have seen their trailers and walked past their pop up posters at AMC. Now they’re going to enter the great abyss of cinema of that opening weekend doesn’t hit hard. In 1993 Grumpy Old Men opened to $3 million. It made almost $100 million off word of mouth. It inspired two sequels and revitalized Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon’s career. Today, it would have been put on streaming. Or maybe be a TV show. Hit Man, even by making $40 million, would be helping the Fall releases with similar Oscar caliber performances and writing. A Hit Job Netflix has clearly provided an avenue for filmmakers and TV creators, but it’s also purposely devouring films to hurt the cinema. They can survive if audiences go to the occasional Barbie or MCU blockbuster. But they’ll lose money if people go out instead of staying in, and sucking up utility films that enrich the whole year of film, they might look like they’re platforming various directors and stars, but in reality they put a hit job on the multiplex.
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Paul Douglas Moomjean Blog's About What's on His MindBlogging allows for me to rant when there is no stage in the moment to talk about what's important and/or funny to me. Archives
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