The Golden Globes gala on Sunday night and the 2023 box office in Quebec clearly show that cinema is coming back to life.
The opulence of the famous Beverly Hilton Hotel, the ultra-chic dresses of the stars and the presence of the biggest names of the small and big screen at this gala, including singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, leave no doubt: cinema is making a remarkable comeback since the dark days of the pandemic and the long months of strikes in Hollywood.
Host and comedian Jo Koy didn't make Taylor Swift a friend with a dubious joke, but she still led a ceremony that capped a banner year for cinema. The 81st Golden Globes silenced those who forced the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to reform and add real professional critics to its juries.
There is no doubt: 2023 was a banner year for American cinema. It was particularly notable for two exceptional films: Barbie, which surpassed The Super Mario Bros. at the box office, and Oppenheimer, which surpassed Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, another blockbuster. Even if the American box office is still two billion dollars behind the pre-pandemic level, the 2023 box office of nine billion dollars clearly shows that we cannot put an end to cinema in theaters, even if the platforms are becoming more and more popular Film fans.
The same thing increases
In Quebec, our cinema follows the same upward curve. Last year, six Quebec feature films grossed more than $1 million at the box office. There hasn't been a result like this since 2011, the year of the Starbuck and Sense of Humor comedies. In 2023, Louise Archambault's “Le temps d'un été” surpassed $2.2 million, “Testament” and “My Mother's Men” tied for $1.7 million, and “Ru” , a very moving film but without too much polish, has reached $1.4 million so far. It still shows up.
Given these statistics, we can say that it was a very bad idea by Radio-Canada's management to abandon the broadcast of the cinema gala. Noovo and host Jay Du Temple took over the gala with more than reasonable success considering the competition from Révolution and TLMEP. At the evening's peak, 465,000 people tuned in to the gala, including a record number of viewers aged 18 to 34.
A 200 MILLION MOVIE!
For a rare time, I was able to see all of the films nominated for Best Drama Film at the Golden Globes. Oppenheimer won, but all the others could have been declared winners, including Anatomy of a Fall and Killers of the Flower Moon.
Scorsese's latest film may never recoup the $200 million it cost, but it is by far the most amazing film I've ever seen based on a true indigenous story. Around 1920, several members of the Osage Nation of Oklahoma were found dead without Washington ordering an investigation. How hundreds of Canadian Indigenous women mysteriously disappeared before Ottawa launched an investigation in 2015! When will there be a film about this tragic story from home?