As the movie year 1996 winds to a close, Hollywood is once again congratulating itself on another profitable 12 months at the box office, capped by the phenomenal $300 million-and-rising success of Fox's monster hit, "Independence Day."
And as further evidence that the movies are still America's best friend, almost every studio in town has at least one film in the $100-million-gross club: Warner Bros.' "Twister," MGM/UA's "The Birdcage," Paramount's "Mission Impossible," Disney's "The Rock" and Universal's "The Nutty Professor."But beneath this thin layer of ebullience, the American movie business at year's end seemed a troubled industry, uncertain exactly who its audience is, assaulted by a gauntlet of unpleasant pressures, mystified as to why nine out of 10 films it released in 1996 seemed to go belly up on opening weekend.
Everyone agreed there were too many films. But the Disney-led production cutback that was announced midyear amid much fanfare did not materialize. More theatrical films were released than ever before, competing harder for a shrinking audience.
And these films cost more than ever. The trade publication Variety claimed production and advertising prices "increased by double digits from a year ago." The production budget for an average studio hit the $30 million mark, which meant that an ordinary bad movie like "Bio-Dome" or "If Lucy Fell" had to gross a staggering $75 million just to break even on the investment.
If the film had a name in its cast, it cost even more. The salaries of big stars also took a colossal leap in 1996. An actor like Sylvester Stallone, who hasn't had a hit in years, could command $20 million a film. Bruce Willis was paid $18 million for "Last Man Standing," even though he could not deliver even a first-night audience for the picture.
Producers complained that they had less time than ever to make that investment back. In 1996, the tyranny of the opening weekend gripped the movie business. There suddenly was no such thing as "legs." Any wide-release film that didn't make $10 million (and in some cases, $15 million) on its opening weekend was given up as a dead fish.
Adding to the woe was the fact that all of the tried-and-true movie formulas seemed to suddenly stop working in 1996. Action movies - Hollywood's bread-and-butter for the past 20 years - failed at an alarming rate. What would have been guaranteed moneymakers in other years - "The Quest," "Escape From L.A.," "The Frighteners" - never got off the ground.
Indeed, youth movies in general stiffed. Banking on expensive youth-oriented action movies ("The Long Kiss Goodnight," "Last Man Standing") and lower-budget youth dramas ("Bed of Roses," "Feeling Minnesota"), New Line Cinema had the worst year in its 30-year history. Where was that knee-jerk audience for a Christian Slater or a Keanu Reeves movie?
Most likely, it was home watching videos. Though the industry has no real statistics yet to back it up, the consensus is that the demographics of theatrical movies is rapidly changing. Except for the occasional "event" film, the teenage audience that had ruled the turnstiles since the late '70s seemed to desert the multiplexes and embrace the VCR as never before.
Nothing brought this home quite like the surprising, $100 million success of Paramount's "The First Wives Club," a feminist-minded comedy starring three women in their 50s. Suddenly, the smart money in Hollywood began to think that the theatrical movie-going audience of 1996 just might be older, more feminine and perhaps even more intelligent than anyone suspected.
Indeed, the lesson again and again in 1996 was that the audience was getting older, more discerning and more interested in ideas and story. True, silly extravaganzas such as "Independence Day" and "Twister" still made the biggest splashes. But the combined grosses of "The Birdcage," "A Time To Kill," "Phenomenon," "The Mirror Has Two Faces," "Lone Star" and "The English Patient" beat those two films.
The weight of this audience definitely was felt in the art-house market. A half-dozen "Pulp Fiction" clones failed miserably, while just about every film with a culture connection scored. Adaptations of "Jane Eyre," "Jude the Obscure" and "Emma" found loyal followings, while flimsy Generation X comedies like "Denise Calls Up" and "Ed's Next Move" did not.
There were no less than four Shakespeare films in '96 (five if you count Kenneth Branagh's lavish new version of "Hamlet," which was delayed in Seattle but has opened in New York and Los Angeles). All worked. It may be hugely significant that the only teenage love story that really captured an audience was a new version of "Romeo and Juliet."
The impact of this new and more discerning movie audience also was felt in the foreign film market, which may have had its strongest year in the '90s. For the first time since the '60s, the three films that most excited critics were foreign - England's "Secrets and Lies," Scotland's "Trainspotting" and Denmark's "Breaking the Waves." All would seem to have a shot at a best picture Oscar nomination.
Even more evidence of this growing audience was the success of restored, new-print revivals of classic Hollywood films such as "Giant," "Taxi Driver," "Willy Wonka" and especially the 1958 "Vertigo," which Universal marketed as one of its major releases.
Indeed, the restored "Vertigo" was the movie-media event of the fall, a rallying point for critics and audiences alike who seemed to be tired of flatulence and body counts and hungry instead for elegance and sophistication.