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William Friedkin on why Sorcerer failed at the box office

posted 8 years ago by Edward_de_Vere
8 replies | jump to latest

I recently watched the interview with Friedkin in the DVD extras for Bug, and one of the questions he was asked was why he thinks Sorcerer did so poorly with audiences after its release, given the success of The French Connection and The Exorcist.

His response was that the late 70's marked a sea change in what audiences were expecting for big budget studio films. In the late 60's through mid-70's, dark themes, slow pacing, and character studies were what people wanted. With the success of Star Wars, audiences increasingly wanted major studio films to be fast paced, escapist fluff, paving the way for an increasingly youth-market oriented entertainment industry in the 80's and beyond.

That basically mirrors my views of why the era of substantive big budget major studio films mostly came to an end in the late 70's.

[–] Sonatine97 8 years ago

I would agree with you.

I think the rot set in for such films shortly after the release of the mega-blockbuster "Jaws" in 1975/6, and then of course "Star Wars" and "Close Encounters ..." a year later.

The early 70s contained many terrific gritty dramas such as "The Last Detail", "French Connection", "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "The Godfather" et al. All of the dark, character-drive, slow-paced and exceptionally deep & involving. But I would by the time "Jaws" and "Star Wars" came out people wanted a complete sea-change for their film entertainment.

It's just unfortunate in terms of timing, that "Wages of Fear" was released at precisely the wrong time: 2 or 3 years earlier and it would have been a huge success (although of course whether it would have still starred Roy "Jaws" Scheider, is moot)

“When is old news gonna be old news?”
― Arnold Vinick (The West Wing)

[–] Edward_de_Vere 8 years ago

The early 70s contained many terrific gritty dramas such as "The Last Detail", "French Connection", "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "The Godfather" et al. All of the dark, character-drive, slow-paced and exceptionally deep & involving. But I would by the time "Jaws" and "Star Wars" came out people wanted a complete sea-change for their film entertainment.

Jaws had character depth and substance, in sharp constrast to most "popcorn flicks". It was enough of a character drama to allow the lead actors (especially Shaw) to really shine. There were no similar opportunities for great acting or character depth in Star Wars.

It's just unfortunate in terms of timing, that "Wages of Fear" was released at precisely the wrong time: 2 or 3 years earlier and it would have been a huge success

I think the timing issue also explains why Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy didn't do very well at the box office. In many ways it's thematically a follow up to Taxi Driver, which was made at a time when audiences sought out these types of films. In contrast, audiences mostly wanted fun fluff by the late 70's and early 80's.

[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

People often remark on how Spielberg and Lucas changed cinema forever. Whether it was for the better or not is a matter for debate.

[–] ebhaynz (3759) 3 years ago

I think in the short term(75-99) there sure was a lot of good, light, and fun cinema. Ultimately, the banks took over the studios and further monetized the movies into tentpole dreck. Horrible for the art, great for the dumbed down/immature society we live in.

[–] moviechatterer (16326) 2 years ago

I hear ya
Superheroes : (

[–] Cognoscente (2778) 2 years ago

The title didn't help.

[–] bozo_500 (13386) 2 years ago

With the success of Star Wars, audiences increasingly wanted major studio films to be fast paced, escapist fluff, paving the way for an increasingly youth-market oriented entertainment industry in the 80's and beyond.

That basically mirrors my views of why the era of substantive big budget major studio films mostly came to an end in the late 70's.

Kind of similar to what happened with Iron Man/Avengers creating the shared cinematic universe movies , leaving studios scrambling around to do the same until the post Jaws/Star Wars traditional blockbusters movies are not so much the norm

I guess we could be at the start of a new era with Barbie 😄

[–] moviechatterer (16326) 2 years ago

If the MCU era is over , I'll take anything!