Rethinking the Movie Industry in 2024: Changes You Need to Know
2024 is around the corner and we have seen changes in how the entertainment industry is consumed. We get endless streaming services, shorter cinema runs and even completed movies cancelled. With all the changes, it has become harder to keep up with the latest content, seeing movies overhyped for too long and release dates becoming more separated.
Today, I am going to look at the things I would like to change in the industry to make everything more enjoyable for everyone.
This is just a list, not a ranking and I understand why some of these can’t happen.
Changes in the Movie Industry in 2024
1 – Streaming Services Newsletters
Streaming Services have a massive amount of content added seemingly daily. However, they never seem to give the audience any idea outside of their biggest projects what is coming. I often find myself needing to make a weekly check, usually over the weekend to see what is coming to Netflix the next week. Elsewhere, Prime Video doesn’t even offer a new release or upcoming page.
Streaming Services need to improve their advertising massively and stop relying solely on word of mouth for the content to gain success. A newsletter would be an easy option, that just informs the users of new content coming each week. It would even be optional for people not interested in the concept.
2 – Same Day Release Worldwide
One of the biggest talking points for decades has been the award favourite movies getting a messy release schedule. Here in the UK, we don’t tend to get a large number of them till award season has started or even after the Oscar ceremony. While America gets them all before the year is out. While this isn’t exclusive to the awards movies, recently we saw parts of the world including the UK get Wonka a week before America.
If we could start getting the same-day release, we can stop spoilers and overhyping movies from one release market. I know some of this goes down to how different movies have different distributors per country and a desire for premieres stagged around the world for the event feelings.
3 – Cinemas Opening Earlier
Time for one of the most difficult ones. I would like to see the cinemas start opening earlier again. The only time they tend to open before midday is weekend and school holidays. This limits the number of movies being able to be shown, meaning a lot of the movies end up with one or two showings a day. If they opened earlier, they could offer more screens to the smaller movies and stop movies being left with only one late-night showing.
Now, I know this one is a lot harder to bring into effect, because it is a business. Why would they open for a handful of tickets being sold, when their main business comes from full screens. However, this idea will play into a couple more to come.
4 – Regional Press/Preview Screenings
On to another popular discussion point, press/preview screenings. In the UK, nearly all the screenings are located in London, and while the times can range from 10 am to 8 pm, it is still extremely costly and difficult to get to them for many critics around the country. If we return to my earlier point about cinemas opening earlier, this could be one of the benefits of that. If one chain or both adopted this option for their smaller screens, we could open the door for more writers.
This would give the cinemas more of a guaranteed full screening in the early morning. On another point for this side of things, we could use this to give the next generation of writers early opportunities to experience and understand the etiquette while attending them. I would also point out this wouldn’t be the biggest of big movies, but the ones studios need that little bit of word of mouth to create some buzz about. Or even the limited-release movies.
5 – More World Cinema in Cinemas
2024 has seen six Chinese movies reach the top 20 highest-grossing of the year. However, three never got a cinema run in America and the other three didn’t even make $10 Million combined. Now, that is just a minor example of movies outside of the English language not getting a fair cinema run. In the UK, we have seen a rise in Bollywood movies getting a few showings a week and most recently Godzilla Minus One has received rave reviews.
Once again, this returns to my earlier cinema opening times, as it offers more opportunities for these movies to be shown. Finally, it would give everyone a chance to see the award contenders from each country too.
6 – Small Window Between Festival Showing and Release
One of the major frustrations of 2023 was the early festival buzz around Killers of the Flower Moon. It started around 6 months before it was ever going to get released. With the amount of best film ever, or masterpieces being thrown around. The movie was completely overhyped and by the time it was released, people were tired of hearing about it.
Once again, I know that this is used to help sell a movie but for the audience, we only get the movies much later. By the time they get released, we end up losing the buzz and they just go through the award merry-go-round.
7 – Less Awards Ceremonies
Every year we go through award season and with that, we seem to get a new awards brand. This season takes up nearly 3 months and people get into endless arguments about what movie should win. However, many of the better-received movies get ignored. It can get extremely exhausting keeping up with what has been nominated or won where.
While I am all for movies getting praised the hard work should be praised in different ways. It is just we get put through the award season for too long.
8 – Stop Spoiler Leaking
This is a mixture of leaked clips from movies with major spoilers and early casting news. The first side of this is a common courtesy that all audience members should follow. While the second point is more for the studios to stop. It is headlines like person x has returned to the franchise, or person x won’t be returning after the latest movie. This all gives away too much information about the movie we are about to watch.
Also, behind-the-scenes sequences should be held back for a later date. This doesn’t mean we should watch them, but having how a major fight sequence unfolded a day after release takes away from seeing it for the first time.
9 – More Behind-the-Scenes Access
I know this point goes against what I just mentioned, but hear me out. Once a movie has been released and had its run through the cinema or a few weeks on streaming, whichever happens first. We could get a more detailed creation discussion. This would create an inspiration for the next generation and give a bigger appreciation for the work. There are so many talented people behind the scenes that don’t get the credit they deserve, we can put the spotlight on the people whose work we take for granted.
This could include seeing more web series detailing the smallest details. I have become most interested after seeing how ‘Night House’ created the creepy imagery throughout the movie. This could see us get a more in-depth look at movies like Talk to Me and how they created the horrors in the movie. Or more on the detailed fight sequences from John Wick.
10 – Reduce the Number of Streaming Services
I previously wrote about how I feel streaming services are spiralling out of control. This is because of the pure number of them out there which results in a massive monthly cost if you wanted access to them all. I suggested the Spotify model, where more is within one service at a more afforded price. We could see some merge together to give audiences a wider selection of content.
These are 10 things I would like to see change in the movie industry in 2024. What are some of the changes you would like to see?
