Revisiting the 2018 film year

Believe it or not, even German cinema feels threatened by climate change.

The industry needs to give some serious thought to its reaction to increasingly hot summers, said Johannes Klingsporn, managing director of the Association of German Movie Theaters. His warning coincided with a year that hasn't been the best for German cinemas.

Unlike moviegoers in the US — where air conditioners provide relief on sweltering summer days — people in Germany don't go to the movies as much when it is hot and sunny.

In the land of air conditioners, many summer weekends in the US count as the year's most profitable times and by mid-November, the country's cinemas were reporting record revenues of $10 billion (€8.8 billion). That sum has never before been raked in after exactly 11 months and 11 days — early in the year. With Christmas still around the corner, 2018 just might top the 2016 US domestic box office revenue record of $11.4 billion.

Movie theater industry outlook

Those figures are coming in at a time when doomsayers have predicted the end of the movie theater is nigh. Young people, they argue, prefer to stare at their mobile phones, play video games and stream series. While that may be true — media consumption is changing rapidly and series are booming worldwide — statistics say it isn't an argument against cinema.

The end of silent films, the advent of television, the digital era — it's not the first time cinema has been declared dead. Yet Hollywood blockbuster movies still make a lot of money. Art house film, too, presents itself well and alive at numerous festivals and in small movie theaters specialized in challenging cinematic fare.

There is no need for concern if you look at the successful movies presented this year at the festivals in Berlin, Cannes and Venice.

No reason to worry

The many smaller festivals that target up-and-coming filmmakers, including events in Saarbrücken, Munich and Hof, are thriving. Going to the movies is being marketed as an event in itself and film festivals are increasingly popular.

Of course, more often than not, beyond the major commercial Hollywood productions, films depend on subsidies and state funding, as do theaters and the opera, in Europe in particular. There is no doubt about it, culture is costly and consumer demand is changing.

And of course, series do serve as competitors to their "big brother," the movie theater. In 2017, combined worldwide revenues from movie theaters and home entertainment amounted to $88 billion, with $41 billion stemming from moviegoers. Both sectors have been thriving, but the home entertainment growth rate has been larger.

The drama film Roma by Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron pinpointed the changing situation of film in 2018 like no other movie. The story of a nanny and how she sees her life in the Mexican capital in the early 1970s premiered in Venice, won the Golden Lion and was celebrated by the international press as a masterpiece.

It wasn't a forgone conclusion that the black-and-white Mexican-US co-production would be presented at the world's oldest film festival as the movie was co-financed by US streaming giant Netflix. The Cannes Film Festival had decided not to show Netflix productions, arguing the films would never make it to the movie theaters.

Roma is in fact available on Netflix, but it was also shown on the big screen in many countries, at least for a limited time — also because the film was in the running at the Academy Awards where only films that have played in North American cinemas can be entered. In Germany, for instance, Roma appeared in theaters but there were only 40 copies made available in select cities. China, however, showed Cuaron's film on over 2,000 screens nationwide, due in part to differences in the legal system.

Classic evaluation model for films beginning to falter

The situation has grown confusing, varying from country to country. It's impossible to make an easy prediction as to how films produced by streaming providers like Netflix will be show in cinemas in future. One thing is certain, however: The classic evaluation chain — cinema to television to DVD to online — appears to be passe. 

Moreover, Roma is real cinematic fare, screaming to be shown on the silver screen. "Of course, I would prefer to present Roma to the audience interested in the film under the best conditions," said director Alfonso Cuaron. "And of course, that would be a cinema with a big screen and a sound system that can reproduce under atmospheric sound design."

Roma is a masterpiece, one of the most impressive films in recent years — whoever has the chance to see Cuaron's work on big screen should use it. In doing so, you will see that the "seventh art" won't die out so quickly — despite the smartphone and the summer heat.