Today’s movie viewers are more diverse than ever. What’s screening in most of today’s theaters is not. Can streaming services help fill the gap, enabling niche movies to turn a profit and giving fans a place where they can track down the type of fare they like?
The problem with theaters
In October 2019, Martin Scorsese provoked an outcry when he spoke out against the dominance of Marvel superhero movies at the box office. He was perceived as attacking the popular blockbusters and their fans, but as he went on to make clear, he has no problem with people liking what they like – the issue, as he sees it, is that movies like this are squeezing out the more varied fare that theater-goers used to enjoy.
The release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015 triggered similar expressions of concern after it emerged that Disney only let theaters screen the film if they agreed to a minimum run length. While this was not a big deal for city multiplexes, it hit small-town theaters hard. They had to choose between losing their audiences after people drove elsewhere and taking the deal, which meant a financial hit because they couldn’t run the new titles needed to keep customers coming in the short term.
Such models of distribution are harmful to smaller films and smaller players generally. What the COVID-19 pandemic showed us, by obliging audiences to switch entirely to home viewing, is that there’s still a massive appetite for niche cinema. Streaming services can help fans to find it.
The big players
Of course, there are also big players in the streaming market, with Netflix and Amazon dominant. The former has had some success in grouping films based on a genre but has a frankly terrible recommendation engine which means viewers must put in a lot of legwork to find what they like. Amazon is a bit better at it and is well regarded by independent filmmakers like Katharina Otto-Bernstein. She has enjoyed success there with Absolute Wilson and The Price of Everything. Its flexible pricing model gives viewers easy access to the latest titles but keeps older films available for those who seek them out or that seem like a good match. Sky Cinema continues to do well by offering blockbusters to stream, but even devoted fans can only watch these so many times. It’s plain that catering to various niche audiences provides a more durable economic model for the long term.
The specialists
Amazon’s success with niche cinema partly stems from its partnership with smaller companies as channel providers, such as Sundance Now, Icon, and MUBI. Some of these also offer separate streaming packages, with MUBI, for instance, specializing in high-end independent European cinema. Curzon has done exceptionally well as an independent niche service, running its streaming arm in parallel with its theaters. However, it’s not all about the arthouse – consider the success of Midnight Pulp, which has successfully carved out a niche amongst fans of very low-budget fare.
Why festivals matter
The key to the success of services like these is curation, which makes the big industry-focused festivals more important than ever. The traditionally volatile markets at SXSW and Cannes now have counterparts at the New York Film Festival, Toronto, Venice, and others worldwide. The gap between what critics like and what audiences want is closing. Buyers understand that good word of mouth from critics with niche interests is a strong indicator that a movie will do well if they can bring it to the equivalent niche market.
In-house productions
Alongside this kind of niche-focused strategic purchasing, there is, of course, the option of producing niche content in-house. Again, Netflix and Amazon are ahead of the game. The former has done particularly well at identifying audience desires for more movies made by minority groups, but the quality of its productions has only really begun to impress within the past two years. Amazon has enjoyed more consistent success but is still struggling to identify the best ways of engaging with niche filmmakers at a production level. Meanwhile, smaller players have enjoyed more success in supporting projects well suited to their niche brands. Shudder, for instance, is building a solid stable of filmmakers who can be relied upon to create consistent, high-quality horror movies.
All of this remains a work in progress, and there are still challenges to be overcome. Despite ongoing pressure from Netflix, most respected industry and critics’ organizations – even the Online Film Critics Society – will only give awards to movies that have screened for at least a week in theaters (often limited to those in New York or Los Angeles), which risks making straight-to-streaming films look like second class offerings. The viewers’ intelligence should not be underestimated; they are working out how to find what they want, and cinema is changing accordingly.
