MOVIE REVIEWS

Let’s talk about streaming,

but first some background.

The golden age of motion pictures is generally considered to have run from the beginning of the sound era, late 1920s to around 1950. By that late date it was not just television cutting into ticket sales, but also a 1948 Supreme Court ruling that forced the studios to sell their interest in theaters. Without double ownership the studios could no longer control where and how their pictures were distributed. That previous monopoly is why many of the old-time movie palaces had names like Paramount, Warner and Fox. The motion picture industry took a big hit with the ruling but bounced back and thrived for another 60 years.

Consensus opinion by 1955 was that because movies went to wide screen processes, from Cinemascope, Panavision and Vistavision to Cinerama, Cinemiracle and Todd-AO, the trade stayed ahead of the entertainment curve. Wider use of stereophonic sound in theaters helped. By the 1970s, multiscreen theaters and higher prices for both tickets and food concessions put the profit margin well into the black.

Things rocked along into the 21st century, even though the Hollywood studios seemed to lose connection to adult tastes and concentrated more on teen-age and pre-teen customers. The advent of home video such as VHS tapes and then DVDs surely played a role. Studios turned to films based on comic book characters and video games. Animation enjoyed a major revival. Adult subjects were pushed deeper into the hands of independent filmmakers.

Before 1950 and in a few cases another decade longer, the men who invented the movies were in charge. These were guys like Jack L. Warner, Louis B. Mayer, Samuel Goldwyn, Darryl F. Zanuck, Cecil B. DeMille, David O. Selznick and Harry Cohn. They, too, liked big profits, but advancing the quality of filmmaking was always an important factor. They hired people like Irving Thalberg, William Wyler, John Ford, John Huston, Alfred Hitchcock and others. The business was their lives.

The separation of studio and theater ownership left these men behind and put bean counters — accountants and business executives — in charge. It spelled doom. Previously those types had been held at bay in faraway places like New York City. Their migration to Hollywood brought new profit-making ideas to both ends of the film trade. Not all of them were good.

Distribution of pictures was in evolution. Through the 1960s, most movies were released to theaters in stair-step fashion. Historically, films opened in large cities, drifted to the suburbs within weeks and then played in smaller towns. There was time to build audiences. Roadshow releases — opening first in less than 50 theaters nationally and screened on a reserved seat, advance ticket sale basis, with their big budgets and heavy promotion — didn’t make it to the small town theaters for up to a year, sometimes longer, after release. This seems to have been forgotten by many current film executives and historians.

“Jaws” opened on 464 screens, an unheard of practice in June of 1975, and it caused a sensation. Pre-covid, 21st century methods have been for films to hit 2,000 to 3,000 screens on opening day. A picture that doesn’t show a big profit in the first two days is considered a failure. A movie like “Bonnie and Clyde,” originally ignored by fans and ravaged by many critics in 1967, would today die on the vine. In the 1960s it was given time to find its audience and made a major profit. “The Big Lebowski” was a box office failure, but home video revived it and now it has a tremendous following.

In today’s market the instant success factor has big studio bosses demanding immediate, or even quicker, profit. Subscriptions that guarantee money before a picture is made is now preferred. Wi-fi and fiber optic technology mixed with 60-, 70-, and 80-inch television screens has encouraged studios to often skip the theaters and send the films directly into homes. Some theater chains will hang on, but streaming movies has proved profitable and the practice will, I’m afraid, continue to grow.

The Covid 19 pandemic was a factor, but streaming services were already an inevitability before that temporary closing of the movie houses. Why did Disney studios buy the 20th Century Fox catalog? Disney-Plus streaming service is a good bet for an answer. Prime streaming is the reason behind Amazon’s purchase of the MGM catalog. Large companies purchasing films and filming rights for streaming purposes is only beginning.

Today it is no longer a question of whether it’s good or bad. It is simply evolution. Considering there is now an odd combination of releasing methods between theaters-only and streaming services leaves a question of which will eventually become dominant. In any case, streaming has changed motion picture dynamics.

The major drawback I see is that widespread availability of watching many old movies will require subscription to several streaming services, from Prime to Disney-Plus to Paramount-Plus to The Criterion Channel. It’s no longer a choice of buying a ticket at a theater or a blu-ray or 4K disc at a store.

Adaptation will be necessary, even for classic movie lovers.

DON ELDREDGE is the retired editor of the Herald Democrat newspaper (Sherman-Denison, TX) and resides in Sherman. E-mail him at eldredgedon@gmail.com.

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