George Lucas Predicts End Of Big Budget Flicks

[TJL]

From Forbes.com

Star Wars creator, billionaire and by our reckoning the fourth most powerful celebrity on Earth, George Lucas, was apparently talking shop at Harvey Weinstein's party at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood on Saturday.

Lucas, who in February received a Medal of Science and Technology from President George W. Bush for Lucasfilm's innovative visual effects and technology in films, soothsaid the demise of the Hollywood blockbuster.

"The market forces that exist today make it unrealistic to spend $200 million on a movie," said Lucas, who has amassed a $3 billion fortune from his six-part space epic and other projects. "Those movies can't make their money back anymore. Look at what happened with King Kong," the bewhiskered impresario was quoted as saying by the New York Post.

Lucas, whose bloated Revenge Of The Sith movie was nominated for a makeup Oscar, was cheered by the major Academy Award nominations going to independent films. He apparently added that it was no accident that the small movies superseded the big budget flicks at this year's ceremony. "Is that good for the business? No--it's bad for the business. But moviemaking isn't about business. It's about art!" Lucas opined, his tongue possibly firmly in cheek.

"In the future, almost everything that gets shown in theaters will be indie movies," Lucas declared, whose Sith adventure was the third and least expensive of the Star Wars prequels. "I predict that by 2025 the average movie will cost only $15 million."

[Brad Russ]

Originally Posted by TJL

"In the future, almost everything that gets shown in theaters will be indie movies," Lucas declared, whose Sith adventure was the third and least expensive of the Star Wars prequels. "I predict that by 2025 the average movie will cost only $15 million."

Boy, I sure hope he's right. I love Independant films. The more of them, and the less of the big budget films, the better as far as I'm concerned.