Cinema, how Pandemic and Netflix killed the “seventh art”

2020 was the year of Covid. It is the year of the death of cinema. Or if not death than falling into a coma. Rooms forcibly closed. Ditto sound stages. Something that has never happened in the last century. 2024 was supposed to mark the exit from the deep coma. The habit of returning to the dark room was gradually returning. And instead there is new darkness about the seventh art. THE box office figures are alarming. The latest American blockbuster Furiosa, which was supposed to be the best seller of spring and summer, failed badly at the box office.

Only 32 million dollars gross in the first week of programming against the 168 million budget. In short, a probable catastrophe (when a blockbuster starts badly, it is difficult for it to regain its strength). A very bad signal, especially if we consider that the large US industry has for years concentrated on mega-productions and stories of super heroes. But it’s the whole American machine that seems to be stuck. The total revenue was 40% lower than those of 2023. Nor better news comes from the home cinema. The year started with the boom of Cortellesi’s films. But for a Cortellesi that fills the theaters, how many local products have been programmed in the first four months of 2024 to empty venues? It’s bad, it’s bad. It goes well (it seems) only for French production, but that is a cinema that is heavily supported by the state, it is difficult to get to the real numbers. Whose fault is it? One who has no doubts in this regard is a director who can look at the situation from above because he continues to make films that fill theaters and perhaps win Oscars: Oppenheimer’s Christopher Nolan.

Christopher came to Italy years before Covid to present his Dunkirk and had clear ideas. “Netflix is ​​killing cinema“. Netflix said, but the discussion could be extended to all platforms, to all pay TVs. Given that the film product was, is and will be (over the centuries) the most consumed by the world population, Netflix and co. had shocked the enjoyment of the product, had broken the habit of filming in a dark room. “Netflix” reiterated Nolan “has destroyed the average product”. Now the average product has been the backbone of cinema for over a century by viewers who don’t go to see Ben Hur every day but satiate themselves monthly, weekly (and once daily) with American thrillers, English horror films, French comedies and (once upon a time) Italian comedies on Netflix and c. they had invaded that market. First by killing the DVD, then by taking away the possibility of choice for the spectator in the theater.he no longer goes to the cinema” but he leaves the house (if he leaves) only on certain (and increasingly scarce) occasions. When Nolan accuses Netflix of bastardizing the product, of inexorably lowering the quality, he is not telling nonsense. The films on the platform tend towards the mediocre, towards the remake of the remake.

Is it an unstoppable involution? Probably yes. The spectators of the past don’t want to stop it, as they are becoming increasingly lazy, less and less willing to plan outings (because now for the cinema you have to plan the evening, as it has always been for the theatre). And even the product suppliers, directors and actors who have found an unexpected solution for their respective careers in Netflix don’t want to stop it.

Of course. Cinema has always been a “risk” activity. The box office response was a nightmare. One flop, two flops in a row could kill careers (it is no coincidence that many film industrialists were and are passionate about gambling). Netflix freed them from the nightmare. Because the danger of failure exists there too, but the consequences are not as immediate and harmful as in the aftermath of the show in the theater. Today directors can propose for streaming all the films they want and the actors too. Already the actors. Long gone are the days when failure was always around the corner. Now they find once unexpected opportunities on the platform. Big names like Julianne Moore, Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, Kate Winslet are no longer welcomed by film producers. Now they produce themselves, they have found the right vehicles in TV miniseries, the guarantees for further careers with the wind in their sails.

In short, everything seems to conspire to make it stay there seventh art in a deep coma. The only hope for those of us who for decades have had cinema as a side dish (and perhaps a substitute for bread) is that one day by a miracle ten or one hundred Christopher Nolans will arise to bring people back to the cinema.