Movie Boom, Movie Bust

Few podcasts are as consistently delightful as 99% Invisible, and in episode 435, The Megaplex! they take a nostalgic look at the rise of massive multi-screen movie theaters in the mid-90's, and the surprising ways this phenomenon influenced not jus the movie-going experience, but also what kinds of movies were being made. The entire episode is worth a listen, especially if you're a film buff like me who misses going to theaters. The last time I had the chance was in February 2020, when I saw The Farewell at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Raleigh. But in 1999, as a recently arrived immigrant to the U.S. without much of a social life, I was going to theaters a lot. Unbeknownst to me, and as this podcast explains, that year turned out to be a unique, brief moment in movie history, likely never to be replicated again.

My interest in movies up to that point was mostly limited to huge blockbusters and mainstream thrillers. But there was an AMC Multiplex in Framingham, MA, where I was starting my Sophomore year of high school. And because it had something like 15 screens, I was exposed to a greater variety of movies than ever before. My small home town in Brazil, by contrast, had two theaters which only played one or two movies at a time. And for the 6 months previous to my move to the U.S., all they seemed to be playing was Titanic.

Now imagine 15-year-old me walking into the Framingham AMC in 1999 and being able to choose from the following movies throughout the year (all of which I ended up seeing, either in theaters or a few months later on video):

The Sixth Sense. Princess Mononoke. Eyes Wide Shut. Being John Malkovich. American Beauty. Girl Interrupted. Election. Fight Club. The Iron Giant. Magnolia. Office Space. The Insider. Any Given Sunday. The Blair Witch Project. The Matrix.

THE MATRIX.

As if the rest of the year wasn't a good enough year for movies, it was also the year for one of the most ground-breaking and mind-blowing of science fiction films to be released. And many of these films would not have been funded if it weren't for the mid-90's boom in screen availability generated by the invention of the Multiplex. It allowed studios to take a chance on weird, innovative screenplays, and newer directors working creatively on tighter budgets.

Sadly, that boom disappeared almost as quickly as it came, as original scripts gave way to more and more derivative drivel (sequels, franchises, remakes, etc) over the decade that followed. 99% Invisible also attributes that to the Multiplex, and the studios' realization that they could take greater advantage of the increased number of screens to play a single movie multiple times simultaneously, with start times every 20 minutes, in attempts to break opening weekend box office records, an obsession still alive and well today. I would add that, ironically, this was probably highly influenced by surprise 1999 hits like The Sixth Sense, which generated a huge amount of word-of-mouth due to its now infamous "Shyamalan twist ending", and The Blair Witch Project, which launched a clever online marketing campaign during the relative infancy of the Internet. Studios could never quite replicate these unique successes, however, and by trying too hard, they ruined the unique circumstances that created those possibilities for spontaneous hits in the first place.

Another possible influencing factor not mentioned on the podcast, but which I remember vividly, was the increase in illegal downloading of movies. This required a bit of technical know-how, but also saved a lot of money. So it was the ideal way for young movie buffs to consume more while spending less. This probably reduced the theater-going audience to less tech-savvy demographics, or relegated the big screen to only those movies deemed "epic" enough to justify the higher and higher cost of tickets.

Over the past decade, illegal downloading was gradually replaced by more tightly-controlled digital distribution, and eventually another revolution:  streaming. As the streaming giants clamor for attention and subscriptions, they are investing on originally produced content, probably of an even greater variety and diversity than the movie studios of the mid-90's, and largely in the binge-able TV series format. We're now seeing a different kind of peak year, or rather golden age of content, yet again shaped by the economic trends and forms of consumption that become available due to technology, or circumstances of life. It will be interesting to see where the industry heads over this coming decade, undeniably marked by a pandemic that has even further constrained the times and spaces in which we go to the movies.