Twelve cues and trends in 2023 movies and series

Covid 19 is more or less behind us, but there are wars in Ukraine and Gaza, fears of one sort or another, and on top of that, Artificial Intelligence has emerged, and invites apocalyptic outlooks, where a recent film like The Creator can be found. Many veteran directors have produced films, to the relief of moviegoers, and many “auteurs” cause wonder (let each one let understand this as he wants) with their proposals. And the Hollywood strike has removed quite a bit of glamour from the party, although we will always have Barbenheimer. In any case, here I intend to highlight twelve cues and trends presented to us by movies in 2023.

1.

Movies go on and on and on…. The tendency is now to exceed two hours in length, and even go beyond three, sometimes justifiably, sometimes not at all. And so we have Oppenheimer (180 min), Killers of the Flower Moon (206 min), Napoleon (158 min), the latest instalments of Indiana Jones (154 min), Mission Impossible (143 min) and The Hunger Games (157 min), The Eight Mountains (147 min), Master (129 min). It is hard to understand why this is happening – except perhaps to boost their importance – for the simple reason that this is not good business, for longer duration means less screenings can be scheduled.

2.

Streaming platforms are encountering sustainability problems and are looking for ways to make the numbers add up. The monthly subscription fee has increased in many of them, and Netflix and Disney+ have drawn up formulae that include advertising so as to be more affordable. In addition, Netflix no longer offers only movies and series; it has added video games, reality shows and even plans to show live events, such as a special Nadal plus Alcaraz tennis spectacle. It is anyone’s guess whether they’ll end up becoming more and more like standard television? Attempts are also being made to integrate several streaming services as a support to Prime or Movistar+, to remove the need for jumping between platforms to find the show you want.

3.

Superheroes have never been flying lower. They cost too much, and the fact that they are at the top of the box office does not necessarily mean they are profitable. The crisis of DC’s superhero-based films is significant, so much so that, among other surprising moves, Warner has signed up the “genius” of their Marvel competitor James Gunn, while cancelling the release of an already filmed Batgirl film. Disney+’s Marvel series, such as Loki, have also failed to arouse much interest. In general, even the most diehard fans recognize that a certain exhaustion has set in and that their favourite characters don’t have the lustre of yesteryear.

4.

Artificial Intelligence’s role as a tool for making movies is producing fear, and even panic. Given the low level of some scripts, more than one Hollywood executive wonders if it is worth spending millions on a script, when perhaps AI could create one, within a few conventional parameters, but one that would do the job. All the guilds are trembling: actors who could be replaced by an AI version of themselves; dubbers who would be unnecessary when faced with the version of what an actor says in another language and with the same voice; editors whose work on a scene is done by the machine, etc.

5.

This explains, in part, the strike that has paralysed many Hollywood productions for almost all of 2023. They are demanding streaming rights that have not been regulated to date, but also insisting that AI creations based on existing work of a flesh and blood actor, screenwriter, etc., should generate him or her royalties. Regulating all this, which lies in the future and is already present, is quite complex. Although an agreement has been reached, surely the last word on the subject has not been said.

6.

The big studios are still trapped in their crossroads. They produce expensive behemoths around a franchise, but sometimes they don’t produce the desired income, such as the disappointing results for Indiana Jones and Mission Impossible. On the other hand, sometimes there is the odd surprise, such as the phenomenal Barbenheimer idea of jointly promoting two films of genres as diverse as Barbie and Oppenheimer. Nice trick, but also one that demonstrates that different stories can, with a little bit of originality, outdo the superheroes and sagas “brands”.

7.

Who said that people in movies don’t think? Some of the most successful films of the year owe their success to connecting with a certain social trends or concerns. This is certainly the case with Barbie, for its themes of women, masculinity and sisterhood, Oppenheimer for the fear of nuclear weapons and the fascination with science, and Sound of Freedom for the horror of child sex trafficking and the toxically addictive pornography industry.

8.

Walt Disney celebrates its centenary amid an existential crisis created by the ideological slant now put on its family films; their films are viewed with suspicion even prior to release. Many parents are suspicious of the new titles (Wish has suffered collateral damage) and ask themselves: “Can my child watch this movie?” Bob Iger himself has admitted that they should pay more attention to entertainment and less to transmitting messages; shareholders too are concerned about income and expenditure problems which not even theme parks or Disney+ can fix, and which undermines stocks on the stock market.

9.

Female directors continue to emerge and are producing interesting titles, or confirming that they can be commercially viable. Among them we find Greta Gerwig (Barbie), Celine Song (Past Lives), Justine Triet (Anatomy of a Fall), Paula Ortiz (Teresa, Across the River and Among the Trees), Estibaliz Urresola (20,000 Species of Bees), and Arantxa Echevarría (Chinas).

10.

Few memorable comedies are being made in these gloomy times full of war, violence, and apocalyptic climate crises. Even the genre of horror is no longer as scary as it used to be. Documentaries sometimes provide the occasional escape but at other times they drag us back to how bad everything is. Anyway, maybe people want to escape but documentary makers don’t get the support they need, not even from those public channels which are supposed to offer a service to viewers by supporting these kind of products for “a large minority”.

11.

There are no more “stars” like in the past. This is the way it is. Young actors and actresses, with so much direct contact with their fans via social networks, no longer shine as they used to. If we leave aside the veterans, perhaps the relatively young stars who have shone the brightest on a movie screen this year are Margot Robbie (33), and pop star Taylor Swift (34) who has dazzled the whole world with her concert tour, The Eras Tour.

12.

There are no memorable new series on offer. Perhaps the much-vaunted new golden age of series is starting to show signs of wear and tear. The main attention grabbers Succession and The Crown are coming to an end, while others like Ahsoka or Loki have seemed to many as simply tiresome. Even the celebrated video game zombies of The Last of Us are likewise turning out to be a bit boring.