Sunrise and Sunset

By Peyton Schultze

The summer box office domination of Top Gun: Maverick has many people wondering just what the future holds for movie audiences around the world (via Twitter).

In a standard, societal business that is slowly transitioning away from the lows of the COVID-19 pandemic, filmmaking is in the middle of a massive point in time. Long gone are the days of the dynamic New Hollywood scene, led by the stars of yesterday and carried by the backbones of the former studio structure, and films are now prepared for new battles ahead with all sorts of obstacles to overcome. Faced with the challenges of not only getting consistent audiences back into movie theaters, but also fighting back against the pandemic-era rise of streaming services, many theaters across the world have understandably had some real concern in terms of whether or not those same cornerstone seat holders would once again walk down the aisle to find their seats in the invisible realm of desire.

As of July 1st, 2022, three out of the top four movies at the box office in the past year have been a Marvel or DC film, starring the likes of a well-known superhero such as Spider-Man, Doctor Strange or Batman. The one that was not? Paramount Pictures’ Top Gun: Maverick, a film that has wowed audiences throughout the summer, inspired social media conversation time and time again online and become the first $1 billion film of Tom Cruise’s illustrious career.

But does Maverick’s recent surge point toward any sort of signs on the horizons for films in the theater? There is a very fine line between drinking wine and squashing grapes, and even when that wine comes from the cherished Pinot Noir-filled lands of Burgundy, there is always some type of unexpected surprise with each and every sip.

The battle of Theaters vs. Streaming seems to have a renewed interest, especially with a rise in box office numbers and some troubling signs on the horizon for Netflix (via People and Polygon).

Soaking in the riches of Top Gun’s recent success are the headlining studios and producers, who have been as concerned with the status of their own competitors over the past three years as they have been with the products being distributed onto the silver screen. This mainly has to do with the rise of streaming services and their prominence in the past three years amid the pandemic, which helped pave the way to an unclear future for many movie studios and top-end film producers. Yet with leading-man Netflix dealing with a major subscription crisis with falling numbers at the stock market and a lack of confidence across the board, other streaming services such as Hulu (now merged with The Walt Disney Company) and HBO Max (always reliant on their own original programming) may have some fights on the horizon in the near future if audience trends once again evolve and adapt.

Yet Netflix remains the strange outlier in this situation, especially with their status as the streaming service catalyst across the world for the last decade. Yes, the company is still running out highly-anticipated and original series such as Stranger Things and The Umbrella Academy, but first quarter showings for the company revealed a huge drop-off in terms of subscriptions, which could largely be placed on the idea that the company may have hit its peak during the pandemic and audiences are now turning toward new in-person experiences as pandemic-related guidelines continue to shift. Netflix has been the overwhelming giant at the top of the beanstalk for many years now, but with a celling possibly already in the clouds above, gravity constantly shows that there is only one way to go once that same beanstalk is finally chopped down from beneath.

The minor exception to this concerning streaming trend is Disney+, who just released the record-breaking Obi-Wan Kenobi series to massive, nationwide acclaim. With several hits already under their belt such as The Mandalorian and Loki, Disney looks like they will only to continue to build upon many of their nostalgic classics in departments such as Marvel, Star Wars and Pixar, and therefore continue to convert many of those universe’s stories into new tales for new generations under the specialized, one-time home of Disney+. This versatile formula stands as a basis for Disney in general, whether it takes place at-home, in the theater or in the form of many of their theme park attractions, and may continue to separate the company from some of their streaming competitors as many of them look toward alternate approaches in the very near future.

Disney’s six-episode series, Obi-Wan Kenobi, has dazzled audiences at home with its impactful storytelling (via IndieWire).

This brings us back to Top Gun: Maverick, and why its powerful success may have been a telling reveal. First, it shows the power of nostalgia when driving audiences back to the theaters. While the new film is certainly a direct sequel to the 1986 classic, its own 36-year gap in between films shows how time, patience and relatability can fulfil a viewer’s ultimate desire. Stats from IndieWire show that 55% of film viewership was over the age of 35, and while a strong 37% were also between ages 18 and 34, a more accurate balance of viewership between males and females (58/42, in comparison to Doctor Strange’s 62/38) pointed toward a film that was destined to succeed.

In addition, the film did an incredible job of marketing its film without any sort of reliance upon its previous story. While many people clearly flocked to the theater once the film came out on Memorial Day weekend, it is interesting to note that the film narrowly edged out previous Memorial Day films for the biggest holiday opening ever. Considering the film now stands in the top 50 of the highest grossing films of all-time, this shows how clever marketing through social media and a reactionary word-of-mouth approach based upon audience opinion helped guide the film toward even more financial success in the following weeks after an eventful jump out of the gates. These tactics are very similar to the approach that Warner Bros’ The Batman was able to take in the spring, blending a rare mix of audience awareness of the traditional character with the ability to create new stories that had not been told before, especially in the ways of the former franchise starring Christian Bale and directed by Christopher Nolan. Of course, Batman remains one of the world’s most attractive on-screen characters and actor Robert Pattinson was scheduled to make his first appearance as the Caped Crusader, but the campaign behind the film did a great job of situationally mixing social media ads on TikTok and Instagram with the traditional out-of-home models such as billboards and posters.

Yet one of the main reasons for the success of the film certainly has to point in the direction of actor Tom Cruise, who returned to the infamous role as Pete "Maverick” Mitchell for the first time since the original film release. Despite the many controversies that have followed Cruise in his personal life, there is no doubt that audiences have always had a clear pulse for his energy and his work on-screen, which is reflected in the quality of the pictures that he has starred in over the course of his career and why his beloved Mission: Impossible films continue to get the green light on a 3-0 count just when it seems that audiences may no longer have a future desire for anything other than the standard base on balls. Few movie stars outside of Cruise, Scarlett Johansson, Denzel Washington, Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio seem to have that type of singular appeal in the ways of Bogart, Bacall, Monroe, Poitier or Hepburn, but the now-59-year old actor has once again shown that he still has that same charm in his repertoire for audiences returning to the theaters for nothing short of pure and original entertainment.

With supporting help from Miles Teller and Jon Hamm next to leading man Tom Cruise, 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick has been an audience propeller over the past month (via Twitter).

With that said, Maverick’s success clearly shows three things: films outside of the franchise/superhero model need to find ways to drive audiences to the theaters through creative and passionate campaigning, assertive casting and intense care over the story at hand. These three marks, and in particular the last point, will not be what convinces an audience of whether or not a film is good or whether it is worth seeing; instead, they will be what keeps people talking about the stories they are seeing on the screen and how they can relate to it on some type of emotional level. Pilots, generals and members of the armed forces are not the ones driving the film’s success, but instead average people around the world who just want to see an impactful film that is certainly worth their time.

However, this is not to say that popular flicks in the Marvel Cinematic Universe do not do this already; in fact, 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home did a great job of hitting all three of these marks, while finding ways to still surprise viewers at the theater. Yet these types of films have major advantages with historical ties behind them in the form of comic-book origins that can sometimes restrict overall creativity and innovation in the arc of a story, which prevents storytellers and filmmakers from taking major risks that may or may not pan out well in the end for our beloved characters.

But only the future can tell which route storytelling on the big screen will head in. Marvel’s Thor: Love and Thunder starring Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman will be the next blockbuster to hit theaters in July, but stay tuned for Universal Pictures’ and Jordan Peele’s Nope, a film that has cleverly revealed next to nothing in terms of its overall plot through trailers and national spots. It is this type of effort and execution that will set its high-charted course onto the seven seas of uncertainty in the world of filmmaking, keeping moviegoers surprised and on their toes each and every time they sit down in a theater to enjoy their buttered popcorn and bask in the endless possibilities of what happens next.