Steven Spielberg tells The New York Times the business of making films has almost changed too much since the pandemic began.
“The pandemic created an opportunity for streaming platforms to raise their subscriptions to record-breaking levels and also throw some of my best filmmaker friends under the bus as their movies were unceremoniously not given theatrical releases. They were paid off, and the films were suddenly relegated to, in this case, HBO Max. The case I’m talking about. And then everything started to change.”
He adds that a particular moviegoing demo is missing out on the experience: “I think older audiences were relieved that they didn’t have to step on sticky popcorn. But I really believe those same older audiences, once they got into the theater, the magic of being in a social situation with a bunch of strangers is a tonic… it’s up to the movies to be good enough to get all the audiences to say that to each other when the lights come back up.”
Regarding movies bucking trends and bringing back the older crowd, Spielberg says he’s happy with how Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis performed.
“I found it encouraging that Elvis broke $100 million at the domestic box office. A lot of older people went to see that film, and that gave me hope that people were starting to come back to the movies as the pandemic becomes an endemic. I think movies are going to come back. I really do.”
Spielberg notes, worried that his type of prestige films won’t have a home in the new landscape, “I made The Post as a political statement about our times… I don’t know if I had been given that script post-pandemic whether I would have preferred to have made that film for Apple or Netflix and gone out to millions of people.”
He concludes, “Because the film had something to say to millions of people, and we were never going to get those millions of people into enough theaters to make that kind of difference. Things have changed enough to get me to say that to you.”
The legendary filmmaker will attempt to strike a chord with audiences with his new film, The Fabelmans. The autobiographical film opens exclusively in select movie theaters on November 11th before expanding nationwide on November 23rd. Read our review here.
The film stars Gabriel LaBelle (The Predator, American Gigolo series) as 16-year-old aspiring filmmaker Sammy Fabelman; four-time Academy Award nominee Michelle Williams (Manchester by the Sea, My Week with Marilyn) as his artistic mother, Mitzi; Paul Dano (The Batman, There Will Be Blood) as his successful, scientific father, Burt; Seth Rogen (Steve Jobs, An American Pickle) as Bennie Loewy, Burt’s best friend and honorary “uncle” to the Fabelman children, and Academy Award nominee Judd Hirsch (Uncut Gems, Ordinary People) as Mitzi’s Uncle Boris.
The ensemble cast includes Oscar nominee Jeannie Berlin (The Heartbreak Kid, Inherent Vice) as Sammy’s paternal grandmother, Hadassah Fabelman; Julia Butters (Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood, 13 Hours) as Sammy’s sister Reggie; Robin Bartlett (Moonstruck, Lean on Me) as Sammy’s maternal grandmother Tina Schildkraut and Keeley Karsten (Hunters, Evil Lives Here) as Sammy’s sister Natalie.
