Missing Mainstream:

Blockbusters Actually

Christine Hickey

Although the general outlook is bleak, art does not always perish when grasped by commercialism

The commercialisation of films is inevitable, no matter the context. Marketing departments of studios release trailers revealing glimpses of the most attention-grabbing moments within a film in order to generate interest within the market, often spoiling its plot as a result. If the intellectual property of a popular film is owned by a corporation, then merchandise is mass produced and sold in stores globally to capitalise on the popularity. Without cinemas or studios which operate on business models, audiences would have a harder time accessing films. Filmmaking is a service which must be paid for, and those involved cannot simply live on the praise that their film may generate.

As a result, profitability is an important consideration for studios when deciding to finance a production. When the desire to maximise interest among cinemagoers is combined with modern industry trends, the result is standardisation in blockbusters. Such trends include the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and the beginning of a juggernaut that engrossed superhero movies, beginning with 2008’s Iron Man (Jon Favreau). There has also been the rise of legacy sequels which bank on nostalgia of beloved classics to entice people to the cinema or pay a streaming subscription in order to rejoice in watching old characters on screen once more, namely Jurassic World: Dominion (Colin Trevorrow, 2022). In these instances, the numbers delight. The MCU has earned billions and continues to be lucrative. Legacy sequels are equally profitable. With the calamitous Covid-19 pandemic subduing cinemas, it was films like these that kept projectors rolling.

Yet there have also been negative consequences of this trajectory. Prolific directors not being able to access funding for their visions is not a contemporary issue. Alfred Hitchcock struggled to fund Psycho (1960) with studio money, so he financed it himself. More recently, Martin Scorsese revealed that for years he could not get funding for his 2019 film The Irishman until Netflix stepped in. The pessimistic account of this is that studios seek the most common denominator, PG-13 productions which appeal to the biggest audiences, therefore non starting scripts that fail to meet these criteria. The ultimate ramification is that theatrical films cease to be artful. They are too safe and formulaic, almost juvenile.

This is partly true. However, blockbusters are not innately devoid of creativity and craft. Think of Avatar: The Way of Water (James Cameron, 2022) and Top Gun: Maverick (Joseph Kosinski, 2022). Despite these films being sequels, it was evident that they were made with thought and effort. They have been met with immense praise from audiences and critics alike, proving that the market still has a palate for productions other