I had a terrific movie year — you? I saw hundreds of new films with a variety of plots and styles made on every imaginable scale and budget. Some were from newcomers including A.V. Rockwell and others from the ever-new Martin Scorsese. Some you’ve heard of or will, while others scarcely made a ripple. Some were released by independents such as A24 and the tiny KimStim; others came from tech companies and still others from what are now often called legacy studios, a vaguely eulogistic term that suggests influence but also obsolescence.
The movies have ostensibly been at death’s door at least since the shift to sync sound, which isn’t to undersell the industry’s business woes. When the year began, it was still recovering from pandemic-forced shutdowns and slowdowns. “As 2023 Begins, Worry and Fear Linger After a Topsy-Turvy Year,” The Hollywood Reporter fretted, calling the ups and downs of the 2022 box office “dramatic.” Yet some Wall Street analysts were bullish on moviegoing. “We’re seeing a resurgence of interest back in the theaters,” one analyst told Yahoo in late January. I had just returned from the bounty at the Sundance Film Festival and was feeling bullish, too.
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