[allturtles]

> The article laments that things aren't right in the world when Steven Spielberg can't draw a theater crowd. Well, Steven Spielberg is an old, wealthy man now, and he is making movies for himself, not for the kind of audience that made Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park massive successes.

I sort of agree. I've enjoyed many of Spielberg's movies, but I have no interest in watching a fictionalized Spielberg biopic. West Side Story was meh, I tried watching it on Disney+, and gave up after 30 minutes or so. The music was dull and old-fashioned.

But the most obvious counter-argument to this is Schindler's List, a black-and-white Spielberg movie about the Holocaust (granted it has some 'feel-good' elements, but still). That movie made nearly $100M in the domestic box office in 1993. It's hard to imagine box office success for that kind of movie today.

[havblue]

It's funny that the column implied that West Side Story's failure was a surprise. It was a remake of a classic movie that never should have been made. You can't compare this to the ground Spielberg movies of the 70's through the 90's.

[dangus]

If Schindler's List was made today it would be best suited as a streaming mini-series.

[bitwize]

Fun fact: Spielberg didn't get his bachelor's degree until 2002, having dropped out in the 60s for a hiatus to, you know, have a successful filmmaking career.

He submitted Schindler's List as his senior project and got an A on it.