Is the film business currently sustainable in the United States? The answer, according to American industry leads, is a conditional yes. This year’s Creative Investors’ Conference at the San Sebastián Film Festival kicked things off with a panel taking the temperature of the U.S.
market. “Anything that feels like a communal experience is working right now in the US,” said Scott Shooman, head of film at AMC Networks , a portfolio that encompasses IFC Films , RLJE Films and the streaming service Shudder. “The specialty market is much more genre-friendly.
Things you could not release in a specialty way before, you now can, as audiences are more receptive and have gotten younger.” Shooman highlighted how, while major studios are currently grasping at straws and declaring that “the business is dying,” several independent distributors are experiencing their best weekends of all time in 2024 like A24, Neon, and Magnolia Pictures. “This is largely due to genre film and why our business has gravitated towards that type of product lately.
” This genre boom, Shooman believes, has ushered the US into a shift similar to what occurred in the ‘70s and was chronicled in Peter Biskind’s seminal book “Easy Riders, Raging Bulls.” “Filmmakers are using different genres and films to be culturally relevant and push the societal threshold. We are seeing a big transition in the voices of storytellers in the States right now and the types of stories they want to tell.
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