Table of Contents
May was a record-breaking month at the box office. It was the first month to break a billion dollars since 2019 and the first ever to do it without a Marvel movie. Who led the charge? Indie movies. Indie movies made up 20% of the top ten films with Obsession and Backrooms leading the charge. Both movies are micro-budget movies based on original ideas from the directors.
Then, out of left field, The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act, the final installment of a popular web series, debuted at number four at the box office in June. Leviticus is on track to make a profit in just two weekends. As of June 23rd, Obsession still holds number two at the box office (holding its record-breaking pace), Backrooms sits at number four, and The Amazing Digital Circus is at number nine.
All three had the highest net profits of the summer. Meanwhile, Masters of the Universe has completely flopped.
There's no denying it now-there's high demand for original stories. Big budgets aren't necessary so long as the director has creative control and enough of a budget to work with. Meanwhile, traditional blockbusters marketed the traditional way aren't seeing the same profit margin.
Now, Hollywood infamously learns the wrong lesson every time we have a record-breaking moment, but here's what I hope we learn from this.
Instead of spending $170 million on a remake or a reboot, you could take that money and give it to $170 passionate directors. People like Kane Parsons or Curry Barker and just let them tell the story they want to tell.
Audiences are fine waiting for streaming services when it comes to IPs they've already seen 1,000 times over. What gets people going to theaters is social media saying, "Have you seen this weird indie movie made by an obscure new director?"
The mind boggles at all the new amazing stories we could see come to life if they gave more chances to original creatives.
For years, we've been hearing fear-mongering about "theaters being dead" and "original ideas being unprofitable". Now we have concrete proof that that's not true.
You just can't keep recycling the same old formula. Bring in new minds, new blood. Take a chance on that strange kid with more passion than they know what to do with. Now, knowing Hollywood, we will likely see more of the same, with them throwing the occasional bone to YouTubers. There is no doubt in my mind they will attribute this success to the number of subscribers.
I still dream of a brighter future for the industry where original ideas and director-focused projects see more attention and more success than they have seen in the past decade. The world needs new stories. Now more than ever, especially during these ever-turbulent times.
We're at a weird time in history; it'd only be fitting for us to have weird stories to back it up.
