Best Movies of 2020

January 29, 2021

Best Movies of 2020

There are some people who are declaring that the movie industry, at least as a theatrical experience, is dead. The coronavirus pandemic caused the total shutdown of theaters or cinemas back in the late winter, early spring of 2020. March 13th was the first weekend of that shutdown. During the summer, some theaters reopened in order to accommodate Christopher Nolan's Tenet. However, theaters remained closed in major cities like New York and Los Angeles. Warner Bros., the distributor of Tenet, did not see a lot of success pushing the theatrical release of that film. Without getting into specific numbers, the film made less than half what Nolan's films normally make in the box office, which is understandable, given the pandemic, but not enough to rebuild their business. Instead, WarnerMedia, the owner of the studio, which is controlled by AT&T, decided to pivot and push its streaming service, HBO Max.

HBO Max first launched on May 27, 2020. The number of new subscribers wasn't that great and the launch was criticized as not being well done. In a move, largely seen as a way of boosting HBO Max subscribers, WarnerMedia decided to release all of the theatrical films, mostly blockbuster films that Warner Bros. was going to release in 2021, directly to HBO Max on a day-and-date basis. Typically, there's a window or period of time before a film is playing in theaters and when it's available for home video. Typically, that window is three months. Universal Pictures and AMC Theaters made a deal this year to cut that window down to three weeks. Theater chains don't like the window being shorter because they believe it cuts into box office receipts. The pandemic has cut into box office receipts already, so it seems as if they'll take whatever money they can get.

However a day-and-date release means there is no window. It means that a film is released in theaters and on home video at the same time. Filmmakers like Nolan really hate this day-and-date thing. People like Nolan says it hurts cinema. The opposing argument is that cinema was already hurt by the pandemic. WarnerMedia is arguably trying to keep afloat. Yes, a vaccine is being made available, but the holidays have seen surges in coronavirus cases, so it's still going to be some time before theater attendance returns to levels before the pandemic. WarnerMedia kicked off this day-and-date strategy with Wonder Woman 1984, arguably the first blockbuster to go directly to a streaming service. This whole thing will really only have an effect on blockbusters and movie studio's pursuit of billion-dollar receipts at the box office. This won't affect any one who cares about the art as an art and ignores that greedy corporate and capitalistic aspect.

As usual, I don't care about greedy corporations and blockbusters. Yes, there have been blockbusters that I've enjoyed over the years and decades, but most of my favorite films of any year have been the smaller and more independent films. Those films have often advocated for stories about minorities, meaning people of color and LGBTQ people. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is an example. The titular character is a queer woman. It also features the final performance of the late, great, Chadwick Boseman (pictured below). I was particularly impressed with the amount of films focusing on Black people or Black experiences. There was also a good slice of films focusing on gay and lesbian experiences. In fact, there are several films that I saw through Outfest LA that haven't gotten national distribution yet, which I hope people get to share.