Spielberg warns of two-tier pricing structure for movies with tickets for blockbusters rising to 25 dollars while other films cost 7 dollars
Steven Spielberg has predicted that the movie industry could soon move to a two-tier pricing structure with consumers being charged a premium to see summer blockbusters compared with other types of films.
‘You're gonna have to pay $25 for the next Iron Man, you're probably only going to have to pay $7 to see Lincoln,’ Spielberg told students at the University of Southern California.
Spielberg was speaking at the opening of a new media center at the University of Southern California, where he was joined by his friend and peer George Lucas.
Hollywood legends Steven Spielberg and George Lucas have predicted that the movie industry will soon to shift to a two-tier price structureThe two legendary directors warned that a perfect storm of half a dozen or so $250 million blockbusters flopping at the box office was inevitable and would radically change how the industry works.
The ‘implosion’ would lead to consumers could be asked to paying varying prices at movie theaters, reports The Hollywood Reporter.
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'There's going to be an implosion where three or four or maybe even a half-dozen mega-budget movies are going to go crashing into the ground, and that's going to change the paradigm,' said Spielberg.
Lucas suggested that in the future movies might follow a more 'Broadway play model', whereby fewer are released, but they stay in theaters for longer and ticket prices are higher.
Worthy of $25 a ticket? Spielberg predicts rising tickets costs to see future installments of blockbuster franchises such as Iron Man'You’re going to end up with fewer theaters, bigger theaters with a lot of nice things. Going to the movies will cost 50 bucks or 100 or 150 bucks, like what Broadway costs today, or a football game. It’ll be an expensive thing. … (The movies) will sit in the theaters for a year, like a Broadway show does. That will be called the ‘movie’ business,' he said.
'There’ll be big movies on a big screen, and it’ll cost them a lot of money. Everything else will be on a small screen.'
Spielberg, who also revealed that 'Lincoln' was almost premiered on HBO, told USC students they were entering the industry at a time when even established film-makers were struggling to get their projects into cinemas.
'I think eventually the Lincolns will go away and they're going to be on television,' Star Wars creator Lucas added.
Spielberg revealed his critically acclaimed hit 'Lincoln' came close to being premiered on HBO rather than in cinemas'As mine almost was,' Spielberg interjected. 'This close - ask HBO - this close.'
'The pathway to get into theaters is really getting smaller and smaller,' said Lucas, pointing out that 'Red Tails' - his own passion project about the Tuskegee airmen - flopped.
'We're talking Lincoln and Red Tails - we barely got them into theaters,' he said.
'You're talking about Steven Spielberg and George Lucas can't get their movie into a theater!'
His prediction prompted Spielberg to recall how his 1982 film 'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial' had stayed in theaters for a year and four months.
Spielberg also praised Netflix, but said he had 'nothing to announce' when asked if he planned to make original content for the online streaming service which has started to generate its own content.
Back in 1982 'E.T.' stayed in theaters for a year and four months