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Ben Affleck on future of cinema: People have grown accustomed to watching from home

Ben Affleck on future of cinema: People have grown accustomed to watching from home

Ben Affleck

Hollywood actor-director Ben Affleck has now opened up on the future of cinema in post-COVID era. In an interview, Ben said that there is a certain uncertainty around teh industry and the traditional release method for films.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Ben said, "I don't know what will be the reality post-COVID. Who knows what the theatrical business will be like. What I think has happened is that people have grown accustomed during this time to watching from home.”

"It benefited The Way Back, for sure (Affleck's recent sport drama made just $14 million in its two weeks in cinemas before the pandemic pushed it to streaming service VOD). It had just come out so I think the ability to see a new movie at home enabled us to get many more viewers than would have come out to a theatre to pay money to see a sad movie about an alcoholic dealing with the death of his child."

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The actor added, "People have now been acculturated to streaming and watching movies at home in ways they weren't before, which probably accelerated a trend that was already taking place."

"I think after COVID movies like The Town, movies like Argo, all the movies I made would effectively end up on streamers. There will probably be like 20 to 25 movies a year that are distributed and they'll all be big IP movies, whether it's the type of movies that Disney makes like Aladdin or Star Wars or Avengers, something where you can count on the low-end being half a billion dollars worth of business."

Ben revealed he feels that it will get difficult for drama films and mid-budget movies to get wide-scale distribution or small movies doing little prestige releases in a few theatres but mostly being shown on streamers.

"I think that's for better or worse, and you can draw your own conclusions, but that would be my best guess about the direction of the movie business just based on what I'm seeing now and experiences I'm having trying to get stuff made."

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Zeba Khan

Zeba is a seasoned entertainment journalist who loves writing on Hollywood, Bollywood and celebrity culture. She loves interacting with showbiz celebrities and getting an insight i...Read More