George Lucas: the web is the future, goodbye blockbusters

George Lucas, the man who single-handedly invented the blockbuster movie with his Star Wars saga had this to tell studios intent in following his example:

George Lucas has a message for studios that are cutting their slates and shifting toward big-budget tentpoles and franchises: You've got it all wrong.

The creator of "Star Wars," which stamped the template for the franchise-tentpole film, says many small films and Web distribution are the future.
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"We don't want to make movies. We're about to get into television. As far as Lucasfilm is concerned, we've moved away from the feature film thing because it's too expensive and it's too risky.

"I think the secret to the future is quantity," Lucas said.

So after spending millions of dollars producing and directing the last three chapters of his world famous saga, the first two of which were considerable duds, he's now giving up those kinds of big productions for good.

He might have a good point about the quantity factor though:

Spending $100 million on production costs and another $100 million on P&A makes no sense, he said. "For that same $200 million, I can make 50-60 two-hour movies.

That's 120 hours as opposed to two hours. In the future market, that's where it's going to land, because it's going to be all pay-per-view and downloadable.
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Lucas said he believes Americans are abandoning the moviegoing habit for good.
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Lucas admitted the big-budget strategy has done well for him in the past, but said, "We're not going to do the $200 million investments."

Lucas might be right when he says that "Americans are abandoning the moviegoing habit," but let's not forget that he's the one who pushed hard for movie theaters to switch to digital projectors for his saga's final installments, and now he foresees the end of the movie theater altogether.

I'm sure that the theater chain owners who didn't bend to the Master's will are smiling right now.