Steven Soderbergh addresses Black Bag underperforming in theaters

For decades, Steven Soderbergh was the king of the hill when it came to the “one for them, one for me” model. We’re talking following up one of the highest-grossing movies of its year, Ocean’s Eleven, with the $2 million Full Frontal, along with balancing the Ocean’s trilogy with indies, classic Hollywood homages and four-plus-hour biopics on Argentine revolutionaries. More than 35 years into his career, Soderbergh has been the champion of mid-budget fare. But when it doesn’t succeed as intended, what’s the reaction?

Speaking with The Independent, Steven Soderbergh said it’s a bit of a disappointment that movies like his most recent, Black Bag — which had a budget around $50-$60 million — don’t have big turnouts at the theatre. “This is the kind of film I made my career on. And if a mid-level budget, star-driven movie can’t seem to get people over the age of 25 years old to come out to theatres – if that’s truly a dead zone – then that’s not a good thing for movies. What’s gonna happen to the person behind me who wants to make this kind of film?…I know for a fact, having talked to somebody who works at another studio, that the Monday after Black Bag opened, the conversation in the morning meeting was: ‘What does this mean when you can’t get a movie like this to perform?’ And that’s frustrating.”

While Steven Soderbergh has been assured by the studio that Black Bag will ultimately turn a profit, he’s still concerned that mid-budget movies are DOA overall at the box office. He would then cite his insane 2000 double-header of Erin Brockovich and Traffic as a prime example of how much things have changed. “Erin Brockovich wouldn’t get made today; Traffic wouldn’t get made. Unless you get Timothée Chalamet who, god bless him, seems to be interested in doing different kinds of movies. But that window is getting smaller and smaller for filmmakers to climb through.”

Part of this is in contrast to something Steven Soderbergh pointed out last year, where he said that people would head to the movie theater if directors continued to make quality movies. And while we love Soderbergh and will always support his style and passion for film, there’s really little correlation between quality and box office numbers. Heck, we loved Black Bag and look how that has fared.

What do you make of Steven Soderbergh’s comments about the state of the industry? Are movies like Erin Brockovich and Traffic doomed?

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