WHAT IS A GOLDEN AGE OF CINEMA?

“Golden Age of Cinema” is a vague term. One might think it simply means we're getting amazing movies. That's certainly part of it, but we're never going to be short of amazing works. I don't believe anyone considers the 2010s a Golden Age, but that decade gave us The Social Network, The Tree of Life, The Master, Mad Max: Fury Road, Get Out, and Parasite, just to name a few. Frankly, you can find incredible movies everywhere: wide studio releases, small indie releases, and even streaming titles. You’re never going to run out of excellent films to watch, regardless of what your tastes are. 

So, if it's not all about quality, is it defined by box office? Cynically, maybe a little. Part of what defined the last Golden Age was consistent audience turnout to movie theaters, but even then, it wasn't always so shiny. The Wizard of Oz and Citizen Kane, two massive Golden Age examples, were box-office bombs by the standards of the time. Ultimately, that means the definition is a little wonky. It can't be simply described as a flawless industry where everything that gets made is perfect and makes hundreds of millions of dollars because those two things are neither synonymous nor mutually exclusive. That would be great, of course, but it will never happen; more importantly, it never has happened.

THE PREVIOUS GOLDEN AGE

To help understand what a Golden Age entails, let's discuss the previous one. I'm not going to get into every single detail, mostly since it's not down to a science; however, by most accounts, the previous Golden Age of Cinema was jump-started by the launch of the studio system. While there is debate as to whether it was the poorly aged but technical revelation of The Birth of a Nation in 1915 or The Jazz Singer in 1927, which popularized the era of the talkies, that began the Golden Age, it's universally understood that it began around that era and, at the latest, ended at the dawn of the 1960s. 

During that time, output was strong and consistent, mainly because there was a monopoly in Hollywood by five major studios: MGM, Warner Bros., RKO, Paramount, and 20th Century Fox. These studios were working with in-house talent that often included movie stars and filmmakers under contract. Since the film industry was so successful, it made way for groundbreaking technical and narrative discoveries, many of which have become the bare minimum nowadays. For example, there was a time when an establishing shot was considered daring and innovative. Eventually, the fun had to stop due to legal issues and an overall shift in culture with the rise of television. The studio system as we knew it started to disband, which in turn made way for more daring filmmakers in the independent scene to usher in the New Hollywood era. Some filmmakers you might've heard of, including George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and even our good friend Francis Ford Coppola, all came in to mold the industry into something that looks a little more familiar to what we have today.

THE MODERN STUDIO SYSTEM

The studio system today is beyond different from what it was almost a century ago. For one, the five leading studios are different now. Warner Bros. and Paramount are still around, but RKO is gone. Disney acquired 20th Century Fox, and Amazon acquired MGM, so those two also are essentially gone. Disney, Sony, and Universal now join Paramount and Warner Bros. as The Big Five. For decades, they've all been focused on tentpoles, for better and for worse, especially as they fight off declining movie theatre attendance in the wake of a pandemic, rising inflation, and the convenience of streaming. For a while, IP blockbusters were easy money, but not so much anymore. Just as an example, Disney has had a tough year. Lilo & Stitch, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and Freakier Friday are the only Disney films to have made a profit in 2025 (so far). More notable is that Disney’s financial misses include two Marvel films, a Pixar film, a legacy sequel, and a live-action classic remake. It wasn’t that long ago that those types of known entities made easy profits. Those bombs weren’t inexpensive to make, either, which means, even with the best of reviews, they may still have lost tens of millions of dollars at the box office. Granted, I'm well aware that Zootopia 2 and Avatar: Fire & Ash are about to cancel out those losses, but Disney can't rely on singular bailouts forever. Ideally, they should want to keep losses at a minimum.  

Admittedly, that's an extreme example, but it makes me strongly believe that the studio system is going to change once again, perhaps (hopefully) for the better, because on the flip side, the independent market is thriving. It's not breaking the box office by any means, but thanks to low budgets and companies like A24 and NEON becoming increasingly mainstream, the indie scene has consistently made incredible films for consistent profits, even if the box office numbers aren’t headline generating. For a multitude of reasons, independent studios alone cannot sustain theatres or the film industry. By their very nature, they are small, which has resulted in larger profits relative to investment, but generally less reach despite occasional, if not frequent, awards hype.

WHAT WOULD THE NEXT GOLDEN AGE LOOK LIKE?

Why all this talk about profit, you may be asking. What does that have to do with a Golden Age? Well, I say that to say, if we do get there (yes, if), it'll look very different than last time. I don't need it to expound upon my subjective feelings on film because, as any Bitesize member will tell you, my taste will never reflect much of the public’s. I've accepted that I Saw the TV Glow will never have more than a niche following despite how amazing it is. Either way, in my opinion, a new Golden Age would include less competition between streaming and cinemas, making the theatrical experience feel more vital. Studio budgets would be much more reasonable on tentpole films to ensure not only fewer financial losses, but that more smaller films could be made. For example, if Disney had reduced Thunderbolts* budget by $100 million, it would have been a financial success; then, Disney could have used that extra money to make 16 movies akin to Best Picture winner Anora ($6 million budget, almost $60 million box office). It's not a simple process, but in time, it could create a pattern of audiences wanting to spend their money at the cinema to watch something interesting and risky instead of only going to see the franchises they recognize. To be clear, I'm not saying get rid of all IP and franchise films, just make it so that they aren't the only thing major studios rely on.

At this point, you might be thinking, “that's much easier said than done.” Of course it is, and my vision of the new Golden Age may just be a pipe dream. However, if the studio system is to change, perhaps we're not light years away from some form of my proposed reality. At the end of the day, film is much more than just box office. It’s a test and measure of time. Box office keeps the wheels turning, sure, but time defines a work of art's legacy. It's why we can now look at Citizen Kane and The Wizard of Oz, films that were once considered failures, and identify them as quintessential Golden Age titles. There will always be bad movies, some of which make loads of money, but a shift in the way the studios operate could make those movies an annoying aberration and not the important lifeblood keeping theatres alive.

HAVE WE MADE IT TO THE NEW GOLDEN AGE?

If it wasn't already clear… no, I do not believe we have made it to a new Golden Age. We certainly have no shortage of Golden Age-worthy titles from both the independent scene, like The Zone of Interest or Past Lives, or the major studios, like One Battle After Another and the Dune series. Of course, there are the two phenomenon-creating films that caused Francis Ford Coppola to make such a claim in the first place, Barbie and Oppenheimer. But is it possible I'm reading too much into a statement that was, perhaps, made offhandedly in the aftermath of a historical cinematic weekend? Maybe so. However, if I may match Coppola's optimism, there are small steps being taken to ensure a better cinematic landscape. For example, Netflix has recently done a better job of giving some of their original films a wider theatrical rollout, so much so that I can still watch Frankenstein in theatres right now even as it’s available in homes across the world. It is far from perfect, but it's a start. 

Look, here is what I will say in closing… I get depressed seeing A Minecraft Movie making nearly a billion dollars just a few weeks after Mickey 17 was an absolute bomb. That said, considering the overwhelming success story for Sinners and the growing appreciation for IMAX experiences on print film and classic re-releases, I find myself not fully pessimistic about the future of film. If a Golden Age is on the horizon, we probably are years away from it, at best, and who knows what it will actually look like, if we can even recognize it in the moment. My optimism lies in the fact that, at the end of the day, you don't need a labeled Golden Age to watch amazing movies. They are out there. All you need is an open mind and a sense of discovery.