Internet—this debate sucks! It brings me no joy to listen (or read) people’s thoughts on whether they prefer A24 movies or Marvel movies. And, believe me, I don’t have a dog in this fight! I watch a few A24 movies a year and a few Marvel movies a year, but wouldn’t call myself a huge fan of either.
I bring this up because a screenshot of a previous article I wrote for this blog has been making its rounds on Twitter (and Facebook and Reddit, apparently). The original article, written back in June 2021, is titled “A24 vs. Marvel: The Battle for the Future of Cinema” (and if you haven’t read it, you should before you comment or respond to this one!).
As far as I can tell, the tweet above from Twitter user seems to be either the first (or at least biggest) one in terms of re-sparking this debate. And, while I’m a little saddened to see that it’s only a screenshot of the title and not a link to the article itself, I’m actually quite glad to see that the overarching premise is being so hotly discussed and debated.
But, for those who haven’t read the article (and from the sheer amount of comments and retweets, that appears to be the vast majority), I’d like to restate as well as expand upon its premise: The movie industry is becoming more polarized and, as fans and filmmakers ourselves, we need to make a choice as to how we want to react.
Ant-Man vs. Black Phillip is the battle the world really wants to see. Images via Marvel Entertainment and A24.
Me neither, Mister Movies! In fact, while I certainly thought the title of the article Nederlandse film Beginning 2021, it wasn’t my first choice to frame the argument that way. I could have just titled the piece something like, “How Big-Budget Superhero Blockbusters and Mainstream Indie Distributors Are Making It Harder for the Rest of Us,” but that’s too many words (and not as fun).
It gives me no pleasure to debate between which movies are “Space Jam 2021” when comparing Iron Man vs Lady Bird. (However, upon reading many of these comments and retweets, I do actually enjoy the debates on who would win in a battle between Ant-Man and the goat from The Witch).
The entire idea for this article simply came from a realization on my part that most of my friends who work in film and video seem to gravitate to one of these two camps.
And, while these two camps don’t only consist of these American movie studios and distributors, they’re certainly two of the most popular and serve as good cultural reference points to film Candyman 2021.
The other odd trend that I noticed when people were discussing the article title was that many people assumed that this was an article written for a film review/criticism website (De Boss Baby Familiezaken in Streamen Nederlandse).
While we do write about popular movies with occasional criticism here on The Beat, the majority of the focus of this blog is to empower and support filmmakers and video Dont Breathe 2 in Streamen.
And, that was the angle for the original piece, to take a deeper look at how these two camps of filmmakers and film professionals are responding to this further segmentation within the industry.
Should you actually try to identify yourself and your personal career brand with one studio or the other? What would it actually take to get the chance to direct a Marvel movie, or have your indie feature picked up by A24?
The discussion isn’t about the movies themselves, instead, it’s about how we as filmmakers (and yes, film fans) should respond to these trends.