Open Forum Friday: Are We In Danger of Losing Movies Made for Grown Ups?

Posted by on May 10th, 2013   Filed under: Open Forum Friday

openforumpixarification

With the summer blockbuster season upon us, it seems like the perfect time to continue a debate that Danny Boyle stirred up last week while being interviewed about his latest film Trance. Boyle lamented what he called the “Pixarification” of movies, in other words, the trend towards making PG-13, family-friendly movies that reach the broadest audience possible. He notes that movies dealing with adult themes and perspectives are pretty hard to come by nowadays, and that outside of a few Oscar nominees that get a marketing push, most of them generally don’t make a lot of money. But are Hollywood studios creating this problem or are they simply responding to the fact that grown-ups don’t go to the movies anymore?

Boyle brings up an all-too familiar argument, noting that most of the adult storytelling is happening on TV nowadays thanks to cable networks like HBO, Showtime and AMC. He points out that this is the exact opposite of the way things used to be, when TV shows were tame and sanitized but movies were much more edgy and adventurous. It’s hard to argue with most of his points especially when the biggest movies happening nowadays, comic book movies, are still routinely dismissed as kiddie fare. What do you think? Are there still enough movies being made for grown-ups or is there a serious shortage forming? Do adults want to see deeper stories or do most prefer the light and fluffy stuff anyway? Can the influence of Pixar actually be a bad thing? Give us your thoughts here on Open Forum Friday.



  • 1138sw

    How can Pixar be singled out as being solely responsible for movies trending toward easy to swallow narratives that appeal to the widest range of audiences?…hence the term “Pixarification” which Boyle coined.

    This whole notion of Hollywood changing for the generic teeny bopper public has been around for quite some time way before Pixar existed.

    That aside I think the general public has changed for the worst expecting less complications in exchange for light entertaining fare. It’s not to say that movies can’t be enjoyed by people seeking more serious forms of narrative but Boyle is right and that it is harder to find and for creatives to find funding for such projects.

    At this point the Hollywood is filled with cowards vs risk takers and movie lovers that were found in the past.

  • I read an interesting point about this that people tend to forgey – every movie is a brand new marketing campaign vs every TV show is part of networks adding to an overall marketing campaign. The report talked about how a growing cable networks will take bigger hits on creative adult dramas because it’s part of building the brand of their network.

    (getting critics and the blogsphere talking about their shows/network helps them grow even if the number of eyeballs are low for that show. tentpole shows bring up all the other basic filler shows)

    Movies aren’t part of a larger family of entertainment; rarely do you say “lets see what Universal has at the old movieplex” like you say, “what’s on AMC right now”. (remember when you didn’t know AMC existed) This singular vs “family” branding kills movies because the 60 million dollar marketing package is to high for many singular projects.

  • patrik

    There sure aren’t too many nowadays. At least not that I’ve caught, like The Descendants..

  • David Letourneau

    Maybe it’s a matter of the evolving, market-driven reality that movie fans who want to see good films can wait and choose the time and place (be it Imaxx or Ipad), armed with internet-supplied intel, reviews, previews, message boards, podcasts and trailers to help them schedule a viewing in any number of ways besides the local megaplex cinema with bad sound and misbehaving patrons.
    Direct to DVD is the way it should be. Why should I have to pay full freight to suffer chattering dickheads at a screening of some anticipated movie when I can watch it at home on a huge screen with theater sound at my convenience?
    Welcome to 2013.

  • Bas

    If the supply of such movies dries up, then the demand grows and makers of such movies that couldn’t get funding from studios will head to Kickstarter. Problem solved!

  • Kasper

    I prefer good TV anyway most of the time, so it’s no problem for me.

  • jon

    I actually agree with him. It seems in general “adult” cinema in terms of story, complexity, and content is almost exclusively found in the independent market. And if you don’t live near a big city, it makes it difficult to see these types of films on the big screen. It’s too bad really, especially when those types of films are what your into.

  • Gregg

    This seems completely dismissive of Eastern cinema– true, if it’s focusing on “Hollywood,” films, then things have turned soft. This is an era of over-sensitivity– Hollywood has to play their moves just right. They can’t risk losing any portion of the shrinking theatre going audience.

    While yes Hollywood continues to shrink in this way; this only gives rise to more provocative and original films that are financed by smaller, independent companies.

    Hollywood has become bloated and skeptical– they have to tread lightly into these things now or someone might get offended.

  • The TV thing is critical here. I know that I go see movies that have a higher spectacle quality and are therefore worth the adventure and cost of going out to the cinema. For everything else I will enjoy it from home. Maybe movies are skewing more big, but with TV becoming really good there is no loss of mature storytelling in the visual media.

  • Scott-El

    Think we’ve already lost them, but when you guys don’t even mention the interesting examination of corporatism and its implications in your Oblivion review, can you blame the studios for not being interested in interesting fare?

  • Lior

    Well, Iron Man 3 just made 175 million dollars in one weekend domestically so this is not gonna change anytime soon.
    This issue Danny Boyle is raising is not anything new. He joins other filmmakers such as Cronenberg. It’s interesting because now high-profile filmmakers themselves are starting to diss Hollywood, and I guess the fact they mostly work outside of the Hollywood system allows them to speak more freely.

    But let’s be honest, there was only one period in history where Hollywood was focusing on movies for adults, and that was the 1970’s. People pay to see comic book and animated movies, so that’s what Hollywood is making. I don’t see many American animated films, but most of the comic-book ones are pretty average. There is this movie-going mentality lately of “average is good enough”, or “just turn off your brain and enjoy”. We’re not asking much from Hollywood, apparently, so why should it deliver? When a crapfest like Twilight is making the equivalent amount of the budget of a small country solely based on the strength of its franchise?

    I got nothing against blockbusters or PG-13 films. For me, an R doesn’t necessarily mean a better movie. But what Hollywood needs is some risk-taking, even in the blockbuster department. Have a single vision behind the movie instead of a script being re-written a million times by a dozen writers until it’s totally watered down.

  • bullet3

    What Hollywood desperately needs is for the bubble to burst and for a massive string of these big budget movies to start failing in a row. The only way we’ll get back to modestly budgeted (not indie, but the sweet-spot 30-60 mil range), intelligent Hollywood movies is if people stop going to these blockbusters.

  • Josef

    The problem is that younger people are the ones that always go to the movies. Most older adults that I know go to the movies 5 to 6 time a year. So these blockbuster movies that cost so much money need to be targeted to teenagers and younger adults so they can make their money back.

    Personally, I don’t mind it. It seems like blockbusters in the summer are for kids (which makes sense because school is out) and in the fall/early winter we tend to get movies that tend to be more for adults. However, I do agree that it would be smart for movie companies to do modestly budgeted movies (around 50 million). Not every blockbuster needs to have these 150 -200 million budgets. I also agree though that a movie cannot be for adults and still be rated R, and making a movie rated R does not make it better nor more adult.

  • bullet3

    The other issue, as Soderbergh laid out recently at his State of Cinema talk, is that the baseline distribution costs of a wide release make anything that’s not a big action movie hard to justify.

    It takes 30 mil to release/market a wide movie domestically, theaters keep half, so that’s 60 mil baseline, regardless of your budget. That means even if your movie costs nothing, with the way movies die at the marketplace now after opening weekend, it’s gotta open with at least 20 million opening weekend, if you want any hope of getting a return on your investment theatrically.

    Well anything remotely edgy, or non-action oriented, is gonna have a hell of a time opening to those kinds of numbers, so studios will actually feel safer spending 100 million on a comic book movie than 1 million on a Primer or Upstream Color.

    It’s all pretty depressing. Ya, these types of movies will continue to get made on TV and VOD markets, but its not the same as seeing them on a big screen, and its a damn shame things have gotten to this point.

  • swarez

    No, there is plenty of cinema for grownups out there. We just have to put in little bit of work to seek it out.

  • Niklas

    The question is why is this an issue at all? If themes targeted towards adults are made for TV and those are the themes you want to explore.. go make TV! I’m sure Danny Boyle could get a meeting with HBO etc.

  • What Swarez said. I find now shortage of adult fare at the cinema…usually by way of film festivals…It’s certainly still out there with only the most modest of effort seeking it out.

    Currently playing:

    The Gatekeepers
    Mud
    Kon-Tiki
    To The Wonder
    Upstream Color

  • patrik

    And just one of the above is playing within a 2 hour drive radius of where I live, and it’s only playing there because there’s a swedish aspect to the movie. Otherwise none of the above would play at my “local” cinema. Sure, finding them on dvd/bluray wouldn’t be so hard I guess but I would like to see more movies like that in the cinema. I think it’s much less of a problem for you north Americans though.

  • what I don’t understand is why someone isn’t capitalizing on this. go crazy! think of a multitiered media outlet that had say 100 seat flex-space / dinner theatre designed with crowd-sourced menu of films and events. it’s all tied in with festivals and cable station partnerships. a new venue for what everyone wants! sort-of a Starbucks venue/brand for movie loving crowd.

    why can’t we get this!!!

    I know Sundance and others started to do this (they were literally going to build the first Sundance theater down the street from me…its now a brand new Target, LOL) I think it needs a creative up-and-coming business mind the likes of google, netflix, etc.