The movie industry has collapsed into two types of film - the $100 million blockbuster or the small independent film of $1 million or less - and the huge middle ground has been lost. Cable is filling that void.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
It's becoming increasingly harder and harder; there's no such thing as independent film anymore. There aren't any, they don't exist. In the old days you could go and get a certain amount of the budget with foreign sales, now everybody wants a marketable angle.
The thing about movies these days is that the commerce end of it is so inflated and financiers are just expecting this enormous return on their investment.
Fifty-million-dollar movies gobble up the medium movies. A lot of people aren't working in Hollywood because of this.
It seems like the studios are either making giant blockbusters, or really super-small indies. And the mid-level films I grew up on, like 'Back to the Future' and all those John Hughes movies, the studios aren't doing. It's hard to get them on their feet.
Even on a $100 million film, people will complain that they haven't got enough money and enough time, so that's always going to be an element in filmmaking.
Unfortunately, overall, movies are a conglomerate. People buy and sell people in this business, which can get really ugly.
There will always be big companies making big movies. But making film and distribution is changing in front of our eyes. I'm not sure what the future holds for this industry.
The movie business has been in enormous flux. It's always changing, and you've got to scramble. The Internet came along and devoured the DVD backend of the movie business. Suddenly you're watching dollars turn into nickels, and that's interesting to me.
People are making better and better small budge independent films these days.
The core of the movie business remains intact and it's not descending in scope. Studios want movies that are bigger than ever.