Film History: 1990s Film History

In the 1990s for the most part, cinema attendance was up - mostly at multi-screen cineplex complexes throughout the country. Although the average film budget was almost $53 million by 1998, many films cost over $100 million to produce, and some of the most expensive blockbusters were even more. In the early 1990s, box-office revenues had dipped considerably, due in part to the American economic recession of 1991, but then picked up again by 1993 and continued to increase. The average ticket price for a film varied from about $4.25 at the start of the decade to around $5 by the close of the decade. As indoor multiplexes multiplied from almost 23,000 in 1990 to 35,600 in the year 2000, the number of drive-ins continued to decline (from 910 in 1990 to 667 in 2000).

There still existed an imbalanced emphasis on the opening weekend, with incessant reports of weekly box-office returns, and puffed-up reviews and critics' ratings. The belief was sustained that expensive, high-budget films with expensive special effects (including shoot 'em-ups, stereotypical chase scenes, and graphic orchestrated violence) meant quality. However, the independently-distributed film movement was also proving that it could compete (both commercially and critically) with Hollywood's costly output.

Pressures on conventional studio executives to make ends meet and deliver big hit movies increased during the decade. Higher costs for film/celebrity star salaries and agency fees, spiraling production costs, promotional campaigns, expensive price tags for new high-tech and digital special-effects and CGI (computer generated images), costly market research and testing (to develop risk-averse, formulaic, stale, and over-produced films), scripts created by committee, threats of actor and writer strikes, and big-budget marketing contributed to the inflated, excessive spending (for inferior products) in the Hollywood film industry. True character development, interesting characters, credible plots, and intelligent story-telling often suffered in the process.

High-Cost Stars:

[Perks have sometimes reached epidemic proportions for some of the most demanding stars. For example, to promote her freely-adapted $50 million film The Scarlet Letter (1995), according to Variety, Demi Moore's support staff--including personal assistant, cook, makeup artist, hairdresser, trainer and three nannies--reportedly racked up more than $877,000 - all to ill effect, since the movie bombed and earned only a small fraction of its budget. She also required two jets and two helicopters to guarantee her G.I. Jane (1997) publicity appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman in 1997. And Julia Roberts ordered the studio to have a jet standing by around the clock while she was making Mary Reilly (1996) in London, at a cost of more than $41,000 per month--for approximately three months.]

The Digital Age and Home Viewing:

The VCR was still a popular appliance in most households (about three quarters of them in 1991) and rentals and purchase of videotapes were big business - much larger than sales of movie theater tickets. Rather than attending special film screenings, members of the Academy of Motion Pictures viewed Oscar-nominated films on videotape, beginning in 1994. The signs of the burgeoning of the digital age portended revolutionary change. In 1990, Kodak introduced the Photo CD player. And in 1992, the Second Edition of the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary, was also made available on CD-ROM. By 1992, broadcast TV was beginning to lose large numbers of viewers to cable-only channels.

By 1997, the first DVDs (digital video discs) had emerged in stores, featuring sharper resolution pictures, better quality and durability than videotape, interactive extras, and more secure copy-protection. In just a few years, sales of DVD players and the shiny discs proliferated and would surpass the sale of VCRs and videotapes.

And with the digital revolution, some pioneering film-makers were experimenting with making digital-video (DV) films, pushing digital imagery and special effects, or projecting films digitally:

Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy (1990) was the first 35 mm feature film with a digital soundtrack

Jurassic Park (1993) was the first film with DTS sound; other DTS films included Best Picture-winning Braveheart (1995), Best Sound-winning Apollo 13 (1995), Twister (1996), Independence Day (1996), the Star Wars Trilogy 1997 re-release, Batman and Robin (1997), and Con Air (1997)

Forrest Gump (1994) used digital photo trickery to insert a person into historical footage

Lars von Trier, founder of the Dogme 95 movement, directed the distinctive Breaking the Waves (1996) and showed how digital-video (and its hand-held cinema verite look) could be viable for dramatic feature films

The English Patient (1996) was the first Oscar-winning American film with a digitally edited soundtrack - two of its nine awards were for Best Film Editing and Best Sound

George Lucas' Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999) included characters that were entirely digitally rendered, such as Jar Jar Binks

Established directors experimented with Denmark director Lars von Trier's Dogme 95 fresh and improvisational approach to film-making, with groundbreaking techniques using digital video, including: Spike Lee's Bamboozled (2000), Barbet Schroeder's Our Lady of the Assassins (2000), Mike Figgis' Timecode (2000) and Hotel (2001), Eric Rohmer's The Lady and the Duke (2001), Richard Linklater's Waking Life (2001), Rebecca Miller's Personal Velocity: Three Portraits (2001), Steven Soderbergh's Full Frontal (2002), and Gary Winick's Tadpole (2002)

Lucas' second Star Wars pre-quel: Attack of the Clones (2002) was the first major Hollywood motion picture to be filmed entirely with digital video (at 24 fps)

One of the emerging trends of the late 80s and 90s was that although about the same number of pictures were produced as in the "Golden Age of Hollywood" (about 450-500 in a year), many of the films that were produced (some estimates say 40%) went directly to video (laserdisc or DVD) or cable with no cinematic theatrical release at all. And the window of time between a film's theatrical opening and availability for cable TV or home viewing shrunk. The proliferation of films helped to assuage the tremendous appetite for new products demanded by cable stations, video rental stores, the local megaplexes, digital satellite services, foreign markets, and the Internet. In the early 90s, the World Wide Web was born, and home computers were becoming the hot new technology - with vast repercussions for the film industry. [One of the decade's many films about malevolent computers was The Net (1995) with Sandra Bullock.]

Groundbreaking Internet Film-Marketing: Case Study - The Blair Witch Project

Foretelling new methods of Internet-based marketing, Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick's low-budget, roughly-made, offbeat independent film The Blair Witch Project (1999) (from Artisan Films) was a quasi-documentary about an October 1994 horrifying camping trip and investigation of a local legend that was experienced by three vanished Montgomery College student film-makers (Heather, Josh, and Mike) in Maryland's Black Hill Forest (near Burkittsville).

The film reaped a greater audience (and box-office receipts) from Internet exposure and astute promotion. The 'Blair Witch' website, a popular destination for web surfers, created tremendous advance buzz for the cult film that was directed by a group of students from the University of Central Florida. It was shot on 16mm B/W and color digital video, and basically looked like a home-made film. Surprisingly, it easily became the most profitable film (percentage-wise) of all time, grossing $248 million, but budgeted at only $35,000 [a profit ratio of over 7,000!]. Remarkably, it had no stars, no large marketing budget, no state-of-the-art special effects, and no creatures/monsters. Many believed that the story was true, rather than the ingenious marketing hoax that it was.

Changes in The Major Studios:

Late 1990:

Japanese corporation Matsushita Industrial, Inc. acquired the entertainment conglomerate MCA/Universal for $6.1 billion.

1991:

MGM Studios struggled under its new chief Alan Ladd, Jr. (until replaced by Frank Mancuso in 1993)

Brandon Tartikoff chaired Paramount (until replaced by Sherry Lansing in 1992).

1994:

Viacom bought Paramount Pictures after a bidding war with USA Networks/QVC

Disney became the first studio to gross $1 billion at the box office

Showtime Networks and Castle Rock Entertainment entered into a multi-year, 50-picture exclusive output deal.

1995:

Seagram bought MCA/Universal from Matsushita for $5.7 billion and renamed it Universal Studios

Disney bought the ABC Network.

Two members of the Creative Artists Agency, one of the world's leading talent and literary agencies, moved to head Hollywood film studios: Ron Meyers to MCA, and Michael Ovitz to the Disney Company (until 1996).

1997:

Orion Pictures was sold to MGM.

Newcomer Studio: DreamWorks

It was significant that the first new Hollywood studio in many decades, DreamWorks (SKG), was formed in October 1994 as the brainchild of director-producer Steven Spielberg, ex-Disney executive producer Jeffrey Katzenberg, and film producer/music industry giant David Geffen. The studio's first theatrical release was first-time feature director Mimi Leder's The Peacemaker (1997) starring George Clooney and Nicole Kidman. This was followed by Mouse Hunt (1997), Amistad (1997), Small Soldiers (1998) , Paulie (1998), and Deep Impact (1998). Their first real hit was also their first film to be nominated for Best Picture - Saving Private Ryan (1998). After their first major animated film The Prince of Egypt (1998), they also turned out Antz (1998), The Road to Eldorado (2000), the claymation Chicken Run (2000), and Best Animated Feature-winning Shrek (2001).

By decade's end, DreamWorks had three consecutive Best Picture winners: Sam Mendes' American Beauty (1999), Ridley Scott's Gladiator (2000), and Ron Howard's A Beautiful Mind (2001). In addition to producing films, DreamWorks also produced TV shows (Spin City, Freaks & Geeks, The Job, Undeclared), and music, including the soundtracks to DreamWorks films and record deals with popular artists. One of the new issues that all studios and other media industries had to confront was the pirating of films, and the illegal sharing/swapping of MPEG music files.

Independent Films:

Existing alongside mainstream Hollywood film production is that of the independents. By the end of the decade, most studios had formed independent film divisions (such as Fox's Searchlight division) that would make films with artistic, edgy, or 'serious' social issues or themes, and without major Hollywood stars. Unlike the glitzy Academy Awards Oscars, the IFP Independent Spirit Awards - founded in 1984 - honored visionary, innovative film-makers, and unsung actors and actresses in independent films who "embody independence and who dare to challenge the status quo." Indicative of the times, in the 1996 Academy Awards race, four of the five Best Picture-nominated films (all but Jerry Maguire (1996)) were from independent studios.

The Independent Film Channel was launched by the Bravo cable network in 1994 as an outlet for independent films. In similar fashion, in 1995, the Sundance Channel was created by the Showtime cable TV network (in partnership with Robert Redford). By the end of the decade, however, independent film-making had become more mainstream and institutionalized - sharing some of the same concerns and corporate worries that traditional Hollywood studios had always confronted.

Miramax Studios:

The small, independent Miramax Studios, formed in 1979 by brothers and co-chairmen Harvey and Bob Weinstein (the name was derived from the combination of their parents' names: Miriam and Max), produced and distributed independent and foreign, and then - more recently - even mainstream films. Miramax made a name for itself in the late '80s and '90s by making "art" films and the small independent and foreign language movies that other studios refused to make, including Working Girls (1987), the UK's My Left Foot (1989), Steven Soderbergh's sex lies and videotape (1989), Stephen Frears The Grifters (1990), and Quentin Tarantino's heist pic Reservoir Dogs (1992). It shrewdly marketed writer/director Neil Jordan's original British film The Crying Game (1992) with a surprise gender twist experienced by Forest Whitaker, earning Jordan a Best Original Screenplay Oscar. In 1993, Walt Disney Studio Entertainment acquired the maverick studio for $65 million - a move that encouraged other Hollywood studios to begin buying up indie production and distribution companies.

After its biggest cult hit of the 90s - Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994), Miramax Studios gathered together a stable of hip, young actors including Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Affleck, and Matt Damon. During the decade, Hollywood was disturbed that Miramax did so well, with the releases of Clerks (1994), Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway (1994), Sirens (1994), Sling Blade (1996), Swingers (1996), two Best Picture winning films: The English Patient (1996) and Shakespeare in Love (1998), the Best Original Screenplay-winning Good Will Hunting (1997), the Best Picture-nominated Italian film Life is Beautiful (1997), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), and The Cider House Rules (1999).

Since about 1993, Miramax's sister (or subsidiary) company Dimension Films, specializing in horror films and science fiction, revitalized these genres with Scream (1996, 1997, 2000) and Scary Movie (2000, 2001) series.

The Greatest Super-Stars of the 90s:

The greatest stars of the 1990s included Arnold Schwarzenegger, Julia Roberts, Kevin Costner, Tom Cruise, Robert De Niro, Tom Hanks, Sylvester Stallone, Clint Eastwood, Michael Douglas, Macaulay Culkin, Mel Gibson, Bruce Willis, Steven Seagal, Tim Allen, John Travolta, Richard Gere, Jim Carrey, Winona Ryder, Adam Sandler, Harrison Ford, Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, Cameron Diaz, Mike Myers, Jodie Foster, Tommy Lee Jones, Brad Pitt, Robin Williams, Michelle Pfeiffer, Billy Crystal, Sandra Bullock, Leonardo DiCaprio, Demi Moore, Patrick Swayze, Jack Nicholson, Sean Connery, Meg Ryan, and Meryl Streep.

The best-paid female actress of the decade was Julia Roberts, "America's Sweetheart " who appeared in lead roles in both clunkers and profitable films - usually likeable screwball comedies. She first joined the club of actresses earning a million dollars per picture after being nominated for an Academy Award for director Garry Marshall's Pretty Woman (1990), with her role as a Hollywood hooker in a red-killer dress being romanced by corporate tycoon Richard Gere for $3,000/week.

Other film appearances included: I Love Trouble (1994), Mary Reilly (1996), Everyone Says I Love You (1996), My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), Conspiracy Theory (1997), Stepmom (1998), Notting Hill (1999) and a wedding-phobia tale titled Runaway Bride (1999) - reteamed on screen with Richard Gere almost a decade after Pretty Woman. By the end of the decade, Julia Roberts was able to command and equal male salaries - $20 million for her role in Steven Soderbergh's Erin Brockovich (2000), the film for which she won her first Oscar.

Similarly, likeable girl-next-door star Sandra Bullock made uneven appearances in Speed (1994), While You Were Sleeping (1995), The Net (1995), In Love and War (1996), Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997), Hope Floats (1998), Practical Magic (1998) and Forces of Nature (1999).

The biggest male star of the decade was Tom Cruise, with films as diverse as Days of Thunder (1990), A Few Good Men (1992), Far and Away (1992), The Firm (1993), Interview with the Vampire (1994), Mission: Impossible (1996), Jerry Maguire (1996), and Eyes Wide Shut (1999).

Following close behind was Arnold Schwarzenegger, who starred in some of the biggest hits of the decade, including Total Recall (1990), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), and True Lies (1994). Will Smith (in Independence Day (1996), Men in Black (1997), Enemy of the State (1998) and The Wild Wild West (1999)), Whoopi Goldberg, Eddie Murphy, and Denzel Washington were the best box-office draws among African-American stars of the decade.