Steven Spielberg said services such as HBO Max are throwing filmmakers “under the bus”.
The 75-year-old film director seemed to be referring to high-profile new films that are being released on streaming platforms and not theatres.
“The pandemic created an opportunity for streaming platforms to raise their subscriptions to record-breaking levels and also throw some of my best filmmaker friends under the bus as their movies were unceremoniously not given theatrical releases,” Spielberg told The New York Times.
“They were paid off and the films were suddenly relegated to, in this case, HBO Max. The case I’m talking about. And then everything started to change.
“I think older audiences were relieved that they didn’t have to step on sticky popcorn,” he added.
“But I really believe those same older audiences, once they got into the theatre, the magic of being in a social situation with a bunch of strangers is a tonic… it’s up to the movies to be good enough to get all the audiences to say that to each other when the lights come back up.”
Spielberg gave the example of Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis which gave him hope for films to do well at the box office.
“I found it encouraging that ‘Elvis’ broke $100m at the domestic box office,” he said. “A lot of older people went to see that film, and that gave me hope that people were starting to come back to the movies as the pandemic becomes an endemic. I think movies are going to come back. I really do.”
Spielberg’s comments came after his autobiographical coming-of-age drama The Fabelmans won the Toronto International Film Festival’s top prize, the People’s Choice Award, solidifying its early status as an Academy Awards frontrunner.
“This is the most personal film I’ve made and the warm reception from everyone in Toronto made my first visit to TIFF so intimate and personal for me and my entire Fabelman family,’” Spielberg said in a statement read by Cameron Bailey, festival director.
