So how many comic fans are there out there? Some of you might be old enough to remember back in the late ‘80’s, early ‘90’s the comic industry went through, what is now referred to as, THE GULT! [que INCEPTION, “BARWAG”]
All started with the first incarnation of Valiant Comics, when they did a really fun redemption program for #0 issues. A promotion really unheard of at the time, and I think they were the first one to do #0 issues too. But what happened? The after market on these comics BLEW UP! Going for insane amounts of dollars.
Safe to say all of the other publishers, including Marvel and DC, took notice. Somehow, from there, this idea of special issues transmorgafied into these gimmick covers. And before you knew it, you were getting this influx of “special” editions. Featuring chromium, prism, hologram, you name the sparkly cover… all carrying a premium cover price, but no added story or content benefit to the reader.
Next thing you know, the comic book industry as a whole hit an all time low. It was a dark time. And the GULT had taken hold.
Slowly but surly comics came out of it. Putting more value on story then some variant cover. And before you knew it, comics became a varied wealth of strong stories.
Why do I mention this? It kind of feels like the Film Industry is head in it’s own little version of the GULT right now.
Feels like for the last 10 years, if not longer, Film has been putting it’s money in a constant stream of reboots, reimaginings, sequels of classics, and prequels of classics. But not really producing any original content.
And the few gems that are produced these days and get booked for a decent amount of screens and seen, seem so few and far. But the mass market seems to have so beaten over the head with uninspired content, they just don’t seem to get it, or even give it a chance.
And this trend doesn’t seem to be letting up anytime soon.
Which is sad, because it doesn’t seem that long ago where you could go to the movies and see varied, enjoyable content. From Shakespeare in Love, Man on Fire, Serenity, Shall We Dance (the original Japanese movie, not the shitty JLo remake), Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, The Proposal, Sliding Doors, Cowboy Bebop: Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, The Matrix, Love Actually, Amelie, Lost in Translation… just to name a few.
Now I realize a lot of those films named didn’t play at the same time. But A LOT of those pictures probably wouldn’t have gotten any distribution in today’s marketplace.
And that’s the point.
And it doesn’t help when you have studio executives like Harvey Weinstein wanting to cut down films like Snowpiercer, because he feels like US moviegoers wouldn’t be smart enough to “get it”.
And that sucks.
But I’m hopeful that Film is coming out of this Gult it seems to have found itself in. With a lot of smaller pictures being released on OnDemand and iTunes before whatever theatrical release it gets, gives me hope that…
- More people will be able to see some great pictures
- If that’s measured in anyway, and I hope it is, I hope the numbers will show that the American public is really hungry for more diverse content.
At least that’s my hope.
What do you think?