We're currently in the midst of the fall movie season, but you wouldn't know it by how meager the box office is or how muted the conversation is. To put it simply: where have all the indie hits gone?
It wasn't long ago that the slate of acclaimed, critically acclaimed, prestige films coming out in the fall amounted to something like an indie version of blockbuster season. There's a reason the movie calendar was structured this way. Critically acclaimed films tended to open late in the year because that's when they did a good job. And the trend crystallized in the '90s, when Harvey Weinstein turned the old awards season into an awards production complex (welcome to your lives, actors and directors, who now have to spend five months campaigning on the road to the Oscars).
But the days when a buzzy fall film could become box office gold are starting to seem like a strangely distant memory. The flames have been building for some time now since the pandemic brought about an unfortunate paradigm shift in moviegoing (i.e., more and more people don't like going to the movies). You could see it in the gap between praise and popularity that accompanied films like “Thar,” “Anatomy of a Fall” and last year's “Anora,” which topped $20 million, although it was a sobering reminder that in the indie film world, $20 million is the new $50 million.
However, this fall it began to seriously feel like the bottom was falling out. One high-profile and prestigious film after another has opened with a deafening roar at the box office, and the failures are so varied that each film has its own carefully crafted excuse.
“After the hunt“People didn’t want to see an anti-woke academic thriller starring Julia Roberts as a professor.”Destruction machine“People didn't want to see Dwayne Johnson in a serious role, like the Hulk's screwed-up cousin, in a movie that felt like a staged documentary. “Springsteen: Deliver Me Out of Nowhere”? People didn't want to see an art-house musical biopic about the making of The Boss's most austere record. AND “ChristiePeople were more interested in watching ads for Sydney Sweeney's jeans than in her famous performance in the gritty, rousing boxing biopic.
And there is also “Bugonia“, the most exciting film of them all. It will earn $12.5 million at the end of its second weekend of wide release – in other words, it's no Trouble Things (Emma Stone's previous, highly successful collaboration with director Yorgos Lanthimos), but it may end up joining the $20 is the new $50 million club.
What exactly is happening? Is indie cinema dying on the vine? I think this is an exaggeration, but before we get into the larger meaning of all this (and yes, there are signs of hope at the end of the rainbow), let's go over the reasons why this is happening.
The rise of streaming. At this point it speaks for itself. People don't need to go to the movies anymore because movies are coming to them.
Closing windows. If films took longer to move from theaters to home viewing, there would be more incentive to watch them. The window collapse was a Hollywood disaster. But can the industry collectively change course?
Theaters suck. In my opinion, this is an overrated factor. But we all know the list of complaints (the floors are dirty, people are on their phones, trailers are 35 minutes long, and there are fewer avid people). hum to the whole experience).
Television is the new indie film. Quality television, and even less-than-quality television, is now filling the space that indie films used to occupy.
It's part of Netflix's business plan to deprive us of hits. I think Frankenstein, like Nosferatu, would have been a big hit in theaters. What about Wake Dead: The Mystery of the Knives Drawing? Clearly, this is the best Knives Out movie. “House of Dynamite”? I'm not a fan, but everyone talks about it. This should have been in theaters.
Does the “start” of a film festival matter? The list of acclaimed Sundance films this year was barely noticeable when they were released. (Sorry, Sorry Baby, but the world barely knew you existed.) Cannes 2025 films, from Eleanor the Great to Eddington, have been well received (though Sentimental Value may be a different story). It's the same with the titles of Venice. However, one of the main prestigious hits of this fall is Paul Thomas Anderson's album “One battle after another“, didn't even perform at the festival. Is there a message here?
I think there's an important message in all of this, but it's not about festivals or streaming or any of the other factors listed above. It's about the types of films people make. This message should echo throughout the indie film world: if you make it, they No come – unless you build it right.
This year saw the release of several bold and original films that became hits and created quite a story as a result. A story about storytelling. These hits are Celine Song songs.”Materialists“, which had the courage to be a romantic comedy about the real, modern world of dating; “One Battle After Another,” which is such a relevant x-ray of what's happening in America that it hits you like a lightning strike; and, I predict, “Marty Supreme(opening Dec. 25), Josh Safdie's existential ping-pong thriller starring the fiercely committed Timothée Chalamet is a film like Uncut Gems remade for audience pleasure.
That's the message of these films. In a world of wavering attention spans and blockbuster numbness, indie filmmakers need to start thinking more about the audience. Not in a cautious, lame and pandering way, but in a bold and adventurous way. They need to live up to what the market is telling them. They need to start thinking like artists again.
It may seem that I am making a reactionary argument or that I am waging one of those polemics against art cinema. But that's not true. This is Hollywood at its best. Always stood for. This is what the New Hollywood of the 70s symbolized. This is what Quentin Tarantino's 1990s indie film revolution symbolized. That's what “Materialists”, “One Battle After Another” and (mark my words) “Marty Supreme” mean.
There must be a place for small and very unique films. No questions asked. But if indie cinema wants to save itself, it will have to remember that films, before they do anything else, have to pull us out of ourselves. They need to reach for danger, for beauty, for the third rail of reality, for higher love. And they need to start doing this now.
The stakes are too high.
