Steven Spielberg is an absolute directorial legend. We owe the director to such masterpieces as “Schindler’s List”, “Saving Private Ryan” or “AI – Artificial Intelligence”. In an interview with the the filmmaker has expressed his ambivalent relationship to streaming services and the change in the publishing policy of some film studios due to the Corona crisis.
The main director in particular has few good words for Studio Warner and its streaming platform HBO Max. Spielberg said in an interview that he felt that many of his fellow filmmakers were “thrown under the bus” by Warner in late 2020.
At the time, the studio surprisingly announced that all of next year’s films would also be released on the HBO Max streaming platform, in parallel with the theatrical release.. At the time, there was already a lot of criticism: as a result of this decision, “Inception” director Christopher Nolan announced that he no longer wanted to work with his actual home and garden studio and instead realized “Oppenheimer” at competitor Universal.
The magic of cinema as a social binding agent
This moment was something of a turning point for Spielberg – but not all moviegoers saw it as just a negative development. But the filmmaker continues to believe in the power of film magic, which can also forge a society together:
“I think the elderly in the audience were relieved that they didn’t have to step on sticky popcorn anymore,” Spielberg said in an interview. “But at the same time, I believe that once these older viewers are in the cinema, they cannot escape and are even stimulated by the magic of a shared experience.”
Could “The Publisher” Be Streaming Exclusive Today?
While Steven Spielberg remains a strong believer in theatrical release, he still believes that there are films that could benefit from direct release from a streaming provider. Even with one of his earlier films, the journalistic drama “The Publisher”, he would now consider offering it directly through a streaming service:
“I don’t know if if I had gotten the script after the pandemic, I would rather have shot the film for Apple or Netflix, making it accessible to millions of people. […]. Because the movie had millions of people to say, and we could never have gotten those millions of people in enough theaters to make that kind of difference.”
Streaming as a mouthpiece for the masses? An interesting thought. Of course we agree with Spielberg’s words, because we at FILMSTARTS are also big supporters of the cinema experience.
Anyone who wants to experience Steven Spielberg and his cinematic magic right in the cinema will have the chance early next year. On January 26, 2023, his new movie “the fables‘ in German cinemas. In this semi-biographical film, Steven Spielberg explores his own childhood and his fascination with the moving image and the big screen.