Passion projects are what make this industry great, they deserve theatrical runs

Blockbusters have returned to practical effects and on-set magic. It's making better films and better box office returns. Studios, heed my warning.

A trend I’ve been positively overwhelmed by in the last couple years is a return to practical effects, deeply impassioned writers/directors, and, most importantly, the acknowledgement and understanding that having the right crew/group in a production makes something magic. The last decade of filmmaking took a steep turn into franchise reboots, extensions, and overall big budget studio slop that has made everyone say “they don’t make ‘em like they used to.” Over the last few years, there have been glimmers of hope in that deluge and we are finally seeing some of those returns.

Last week I attended a screening of Sinners where Ben Stiller spoke with Ryan Coogler following the film. Ryan Coogler likened the concept of Sinners and how it operates to a croissant— offering that folks who are not equipped, or don’t wish, to pick apart the layers there can just “appreciate a good croissant,” while those who want to discuss the lore and the layers, who “are bakers,” have something to engage with fully on multiple levels. Throughout this entire conversation the thing that stuck out to me was how personal this film was for everyone involved. Sinners was not created by and for a franchising opportunity, it was a film borne out of grief, respect, and passion that found its way to a group of artists who could show up fully to those intentions and pour themselves into it. Coogler was constantly referencing his collaborators, thanking them by name and acknowledging their contributions and how much they brought to all steps of the process. The way he described it made me beam with joy; he has all of these people in his corner, who love and care so much about what they do, and they all fit together like pieces of a puzzle who trust and admire the work each other does. Sinners is a critical success, and more importantly a box office success, not in spite of these things but because of them.

Sinners was produced for about $90M — domestic opening hit $48M, and overall domestic capped out at just shy of $280M. For an original film that had no franchise tie, let on very little from marketing what kind of film it was, and had only a couple big names attached to it, it skyrocketed to success in a market that has largely favored franchise repeats and IP projects. It ran for over 7 weeks on average in theaters, and kept seeing returns with rewatches and word of mouth only improving its reputation. As someone who does not usually go for horror or fantasy films, I saw Sinners late in the run and was mad at myself I hadn’t mustered up the courage to see it sooner in the run.

Sinners is far from the first blockbuster film as of late to thrive on practical effects and dream collaborations — as early as 2023 we saw Barbie build real life sets and rely on as little CGI as possible. Though it was highly anticipated and based on a franchise and IP, it also had a relatively modest budget of $100M; the box office returns were massive. I may be biased, but when Greta Gerwig (and her beau, another favorite of mine, Noah Baumbach) became attached I knew we were going to have something special. Gerwig and Baumbach have a unique exploration of the human condition through a very specific lens. I constantly return to Gerwig’s Little Women, and Frances Ha is an indie darling I have held close for all of my 20s. They write and create in such a way that made the critical and box office success of Barbie no surprise to me, but hearing Gerwig speak with Kathryn Bigelow elicited the same joy I felt hearing Coogler speak about his crew. Gerwig was constantly talking about Margot Robbie producing, the cast, and each of the crew responsible for various aspects of the film. She talked about what a dream it was to make this film. It was a love letter, a slumber party, something that was free flowing and uniquely itself in that moment in time.

Looking slightly different than Sinners, Barbie capped out at over $600M domestically and just shy of $1.5B globally. Movies don’t hit the Billion-with-a-B mark as often as they did pre-Covid. Take it or leave it, Barbie did something special. While Oppenheimer made up half of the Barbenheimer double feature, Barbie significantly surpassed it — different release strategies and different audiences certainly played a part, but Oppenheimer was still a Christopher Nolan vehicle; that doesn’t count for nothing. Both installments of The Dark Knight crossed the $1B threshold, there was no reason Oppenheimer shouldn’t have done the same. I’d posit, after hearing two of the actors speaking about working on the film, that Oppenheimer was more about Christopher Nolan and working on a ‘Nolan film’ than it was about making something special to that group.

Yesterday I attended a screening of Wake Up Dead Man where Amy Heckerling and Rian Johnson spoke afterwards. The questions weren’t all that revolutionary, but something in Johnson’s energy was — a man giddy about each one of his creative pursuits, a team that meshes well, and a new cast of characters every time who add to the excitement of this burgeoning, now pretty remarkable, franchise. Frankly, the third installment of the Benoit Blanc Cinematic Universe (BBCU, if we want to have some fun) is the best one yet. It offers something much darker and heavier than the previous two installments, but tonally it’s exactly what this series needed.

I worry, though, about this franchise’s theatrical future. Given the news of Netflix acquiring Warner Brothers, and their almost immediate statement confirming shortened theatrical windows, the box office success of Knives Out may never be what it could and should be. Wake Up Dead Man is more akin to Sinners or Oppenheimer in audience than Wicked or Barbie, but it offers something more than Sinners or Oppenheimer in its openness: it’s a movie that tweens and teens can be fascinated by and beg their parents to take them. It’s mature, brilliant thematically and structurally, but it’s also incredibly accessible for multiple ages. This is the type of film that awakens something in younger viewers and allows them to feel closer to seeing ‘prestige’ films — it’s a special type of film that doesn’t get discussed or created enough.

Taking movies like this out of wide release chains (notably it is not screening at AMC or Regal) does a disservice to the grandiosity of a quality blockbuster. Wake Up Dead Man had a $210M budget, and has only grossed $2.5M at the box office thus far. A meager number, pitiful really. Knives Out was made on a $40M budget and grossed just shy of $27M opening weekend — Netflix controlling the distribution has destroyed a major player in theatrical runs. Though no one is surprised by this information it does not negate the impact — the compression of theatrical to VOD/streaming release windows will squeeze movie theaters and movie goers simultaneously. Theaters will see less returns on shorter runs, and viewers will succumb even more to the “we can watch it at home” mindset.

So many of the films mentioned demand to be seen in large format, and so many films will continue to be made and viewed on large format. I worry about an audience remaining who will care; few theaters outside of major cities are able to support celluloid screenings, which means in the not too distant future more and more theaters will shudder under the streaming pressure. While I can’t offer much advice for how to fix this, aside from calling upon Anti-Trust laws and cases (I’m looking at you United States v. Paramount) and investigating some of these mergers and acquisitions, I urge people to keep showing up to the movies. They cannot all go away if we keep showing up and telling these stories.