The Future of Cinema

I wrote on Solzy at the Movies this morning about the recent William Friedkin interview with NBC News. The Oscar-winning filmmaker has been making the rounds for this year’s 50th anniversary of The French Connection. Friedkin’s comments on the film were not the biggest takeaways. At least, not in my opinion. No, the biggest comments in the interview were what he had to say about the theatrical experience.

One does not have to live in a cave to know that things are changing. For better or worse, the pandemic is speeding up the changes. Gone are the exclusive 90-day theatrical windows. They’re being replaced with 17-day to 45-day windows, maybe more. Christopher Nolan is requiring a 100-day exclusive theatrical window for his Oppenheimer biopic and no other studio film within a three week period, before or after. That’s a heavy ask for any filmmaker, no less one of Nolan’s statue.

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