 "Technology to cause 'Massive Implosion' of film industry: Steven Spielberg and George Lucas")
The Hollywood apocalypse is coming and the bearers of the doomsday news are Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. The legends have warned that the film industry is on the course to a “massive implosion” thanks to the competition with cable TV and the Internet.
Speaking at the opening of a new media at USC School of Cinematic Arts in Los Angeles, the duo warned of a meltdown that will change the face of the entertainment industry forever, leading to big-budget films falling flat on their faces and multiplex prices shooting through the roof.
“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,” said Spielberg.
“These poor souls won’t know what hit them, George!”
The reason behind these gloomy predictions is the advent of cable television and services like Netflix on the Internet. There just isn’t enough time for the audience to consume all the movies released in theatres anymore.
Things happen to be so bad that Spielberg revealed that his Oscar-winning biopic Lincoln almost did not make it to the cinemas last year. The movie was “this close” to being a premiere on pay-TV network HBO. If the name behind blockbusters like Jurassic Park and ET can’t take his movie to the silver screen, you know things are starting to look grim.
Star Wars creator Lucas said that he found cable television “much more adventurous” than films these days. “I think eventually the Lincolns will go away and they’re going to be on television,” he ominously warned.
Of course, technology has been a cause for concern when it comes to movies and cinema has still managed to survive despite the VHS tapes, the DVDs and cable TV. However, as companies like Hulu and Netflix have made a home for movies that the multiplex audience does not accept, cable TV and Internet is turning into safer bets for film makers to find a release for their movies. Will the theatre end up being domain of just high-budget, popular movies? Spielberg and Lucas sure seem to think so.
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