Philm COLUMN

Philip Weyhe is your Southern Minn Scene editor, which means he can write about what he wants (within reason). He lives in St. Peter with his husband Ian, and they enjoy all things A&E, especially movies. If you have any comments on this article or the entire Scene publications, email him at editor@southernminnscene.com.

What the movies offered in 2021

Largely impacted by a global pandemic, but also general changes to consumer consumption, 2021 was something of a historic year for film — and for some people, not always in a good way.

The most obvious place to look is at the theaters. According to Nash Information Services, LLC, the total box office gross for film in 2021 (through the weekend of Dec. 17) was about $4.1 billion. That’s a big gain over the $2.04 billion of 2020, but movie theaters were shut down for a large portion of that year. In the pre-pandemic year of 2019, the total box office is reported at $11.26 billion.

Certainly the pandemic still impacted the numbers in 2021, but theaters were largely open throughout the year, and while a few blockbusters, like Spider-Man: No Way Home (on track to be one of the biggest grossers ever), No Time to Die (James Bond), and a few other superhero and action movies were able to post strong numbers, “studio programmers,” awards season flicks and independent films were largely left in the dust.

It’s worrying for those invested in the future of movie theaters that such a small selection of films can excel there right now.

Take a look at the movie theaters in Mankato, as an example. Mankato is a mid-sized market that has traditionally played a decent variety of films — limited releases wouldn’t normally be seen here (at least not for several weeks after opening), but the midsized movies — the ones you would see advertised in the previews for blockbusters — normally would. At the Christmas weekend box office, SpiderMan and Sing 2 took up the majority of showings, followed by a couple more action movies in The Matrix Ressurection and The King’s Man, plus another animated family affair with Encanto.

Awards season favorites, like Nightmare Alley, West Side Story and Macbeth, were nowhere to be found. Those movies were directed by Guillermo Del Toro, Stephen Speilberg and Joel Coen respectively. Those are major names! And they’re not even getting a chance in a middle market theater.

But can you blame these theaters? West Side Story and Nightmare Alley bombed at the box office. These movies don’t need to be making hundreds of millions in domestic earnings, but they need to do better than $10 million or $3 million in their opening weekends (compare that to $260 million for Spider-Man’s opening weekend).

This is the trend of 2021 that has many worried. Studios won’t be motivated to make anything for theaters, except blockbusters, and while those are fun, they’re just one part of the theater experience. I, for one, want to see Spielberg’s bigger than life spectacles and Del Toro’s creepy crawlers on the big screen.

Of course, the flip side is that audiences have always decided what they want. And perhaps what the majority wants is to watch most movies from the comfort of their homes on streaming channels or even cable, but if they ever do want to see that latest event movie at their local theater, will that option even exist? 

Have you seen a movie recently that you’re itching for more people to see? Do you know of a should-be classic that many might not? Do you just want to send a rant about a movie you love or hate? Send me your thoughts at editor@southernminnscene.com and I might share with the Scene audience in a future edition.