The return of the adult drama!
I’m ready to call it: Adult dramas are back! Pulled from the brink! Resurrected from the dead! Yes, dead I tell you. It was only back in April 2009 when I posted this:
While some of “State of Play’s” likely lackluster performance will be blamed on Crowe, the 45-year-old Australian — who is overweight and disheveled in the film’s lead role as an investigative newspaper reporter — is hardly the sole issue. Equally problematic is “State of Play’s” genre: the highbrow adult drama, which is quickly becoming a big-studio relic.
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“You are going to find every studio saying, ‘I can’t do it, I can’t do it,’ ” Donna Langley, Universal’s production chief, says of the near-term prospects for dramas. “It will be awhile until there are a lot of really smart dramas.”
Then a mere 2 years later, I posted this, analysis by Patrick Goldstein of 2011’s Oscar favorites:
The films (“The King’s Speech,” “The Social Network,” “The Fighter,” “True Grit” and “Black Swan”) have all made more than $85 million at the U.S. box office, with three of the five films having passed or on track to pass $100 million.
And now this from BoxOfficeMojo:
BEST PICTURE NOMINEES
Lincoln $173,621,006
Django Unchained $154,516,627
Les Miserables (2012) $143,983,705
Argo $123,608,957
Life of Pi $108,530,249
Silver Linings Playbook $89,519,510
Zero Dark Thirty $83,567,450
Beasts of the Southern Wild $12,062,576
Amour $3,019,111
7 of the 9 movies will hit $100M in B.O. And while we can quibble about Django being a Tarantino movie [what genre would you call it] and Les Mis being a musical, all 7 of those movies fall within the broad perimeters of what I would call ‘adult drama’.
And I couldn’t be happier!
Let’s not forget Magic Mike and Flight which have hit $113M and $94M in domestic B.O. respectively. Bottom line, there is some pretty decent ROI happening in movies targeting adults.
I love all types of movies — action, science fiction, fantasy, horror, thriller, comedy — but adult dramas [and drama-comedies] are a favorite. Maybe it’s just because I’m fast en route to becoming an Old Fart, deep into navel gazing and contemplating the mysteries of the universe, but to see a movie that is compelling on both an emotional and intellectual level, and is entertaining to boot, to me there’s nothing better.
So welcome back adult drama! We missed you… for the couple of years Hollywood apparently thought you were DOA. Please stick around. There’s a whole generation of movie lovers who are ready, willing and able to drop some greenbacks at the local bijou on quality movies like Argo, Silver Linings Playbook, Flight and all the rest of a great roster of adult dramas from 2012.
Hey, Hollywood. More movies like these, please! I tell ya’ there’s gold in them thar hills!
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