Why aren't movies like this nowadays?

GREAT question. The basic answer is that films today are about money and nothing else. They cost so much to make and have such huge possible upsides--JK Rowling is worth over a BILLION dollars today--that there is no place for films about people or characters unless they have very low filming costs and huge profits mostly by accident, like Pitch Perfect, for example.

Then there is the sequel concept...if it made money once, it will make it again, which of course is always a roll of the dice. Last year, The Avengers(!) made the most money. This year, so far, Iron Man 3 is tops. I have not seen either film, but neither is about real people. Yes, films are supposed to be about fantasy, but evidently films like FNL are not going to make money with the target audience, which is males, 18-35. Evidently this audience is not going to pay to see a film that has no CGI or car crashes, or things blowing-up, or people full of blood, so films like FNL are not being made much any more.

1 Iron Man 3 BV $406,512,887 4,253 $174,144,585 4,253 5/3
2 Man of Steel WB $273,930,420 4,207 $116,619,362 4,207 6/14
3 Fast & Furious 6 Uni. $235,741,645 3,771 $97,375,245 3,658 5/24
4 Oz Great&Powerful BV $234,868,548 3,912 $79,110,453 3,912 3/8
5 Star Trek Into DN Par.$223,381,060 3,907 $70,165,559 3,868 5/16
6 Monsters U BV $221,990,710 4,004 $82,429,469 4,004 6/21
7 The Croods Fox $185,247,328 4,065 $43,639,736 4,046 3/22
8 Despicable Me 2 Uni. $165,658,010 3,997 $83,517,315 3,997 7/3
9 World War Z Par. $163,765,088 3,607 $66,411,834 3,607 6/21
10 The Great Gatsby WB $142,980,917 3,550 $50,085,185 3,535 5/10

So, unless the demographics of the buying public changes, or unless the people who put up the money change their minds, the only films you will see like FNL are the small films that are made privately and that don't get to the Cinema 25.

This year, a decent film made from an amazing novel by Henry James, What Masie Knew, did not make it to many Cinema 25s. Nor did The Sapphires, which was kind of like The Commitments, another very good film about people that did not do very well when it came out in 1991.

Films are about making money, just like professional sports are today. The bad part is that sports are controlled by the gambling industry; films just have to answer to hedge funds so far.