Cinema is essentially the culmination of overall writing, directing, producing, acting and most importantly; art. It is also the overall accumulation of the experience one has when watching said culmination of art come to life and be presented on a big screen for thousands of people to watch. While cinema is an art form, and has always been presented and defined as one, modern cinema and movies have started to raise the question amongst its viewers. Is cinema really about art? Or is it simply a money-making business now?
While it is true that the film industry has always been about money—as is any big industry or business—there has always been a unique sense of art and style that has backed up the claims of money. While studio executives have always chased the usual marketing schemes in favour of money and gullible consumers on theatre seats, directors and writers were always able to manufacture and create products that were worthy of the notion that cinema was a derivative of art. This is not the case for every writer and director, but many movie classics that at the time were considered to be 'flops' had amazing artistry behind them, and it’s why they’re popular today. Nowadays, despite complaints about the cinema losing any form of artistic value, blockbuster franchises, reboots, sequels and adaptations seem to be the easy way out for Hollywood.
Wilson Gutierrez said for Eagle Eye -“Things are changing for sure, but in recent years franchise films began to dominate theatres as they’re only offerings. Major media conglomerates were quick to catch on to the fact that projects attached to already established properties were more successful financially than original ideas. This brought a surge of remakes, sequels, reboots, and franchises in theatres.”
It also begs the question, if cinema is only to become a strictly profit business filled with money-hungry corporations, is cinema truly cinema? Can we expect the death of cinema as we know it to arise from the ashes of an already crumbling industry?
The answer lies in the word ‘art’ itself. Art is a medium that can grow and evolve, and soon there will come a time when cinema falls, but from it will arise a new generation of creators and storytellers who are willing to share with the world the true essence of cinema.
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