Steven Spielberg, George Lucas predict Hollywood meltdown

Los Angeles: Hollywood veterans Steven Spielberg and George Lucas predict a meltdown in entertainment industry which will alter the movie business forever. While speaking on a panel about the future of entertainment industry at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, Spielberg said that there would be a implosion when several big budget movies would flop, the Hollywood Reporter said. “There’s eventually going to be a big meltdown. There’s going to be an implosion where three or four or maybe even a half-dozen of these mega-budgeted movies go crashing into the ground and that’s going to change the paradigm again.” [caption id=“attachment_869815” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] The Oscar-winning director revealed that his last directorial venture ‘Lincoln’ was very close to not getting a theatrical release. Daniel Day-Lewis won the best actor Oscar for playing the former US president in the movie. ‘Star Wars’ creator George Lucas echoed Spielberg, saying he found cable television “much more adventurous” than films. “I think eventually the Lincolns will go away and they’re going to be on television. We’re talking Lincoln and Red Tails — we barely got them into theaters. You’re talking about Steven Spielberg and George Lucas can’t get their movie into a theater,” Lucas said. The director-producer predicted that the time is coming when people will start getting tired of movies. “They’re (studios) going for the gold. But that isn’t going to work forever. And as a result they’re getting narrower and narrower in their focus. People are going to get tired of it. They’re not going to know how to do anything else,” Lucas said. Lucas predicted that after that meltdown there would be fewer but better theatres and watching a movie would cost more “like what Broadway costs today, or a football game. It’ll be an expensive thing.” Both Lucas and Spielberg think that post the meltdown, personal or quirky stories would head to small screen. “What used to be the movie business, in which I include television and movies… will be Internet television. The question will be: Do you want people to see it, or do you want people to see it on a big screen?,” Lucas said. PTI