What are Stand-Alone Movies, Anyway?

A stand-alone movie is a film that is made as a single body of work. The story, characters or fictional world of these movies are not part of a franchise. There’s no doubt that there’s a certain artistry to be able to tell a complete story in the span of one film. While serial films are amazing in their own right, not every story is meant to be dragged out for as long as possible.

As recently as the 90s, stand-alone movies were the norm. They were everywhere, from romances like Sleepless in Seattle (1993) to gritty dramas like The Shawshank Redemption (1994). While they definitely still exist, they are in a clear decline. Almost every recent hit movie is part of a franchise or a cinematic universe. Fast and Furious has endured 10 instalments and Spiderman: Across the Universe is the second of a planned trilogy. Even the recent Barbie blockbuster is rumoured to be the beginning of a toy-inspired Mattel cinematic universe.

How did we get to this point? The answer is simple; money.

Movie Industry Capitalism

Don’t get me wrong, stand-alone films definitely make money. Some of the biggest blockbusters in history were stand-alone films. Movies like E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and Inception (2010) have had an immense cultural impact while still putting money in the bank. That being said, the last couple of years have had the highest box office revenue from franchises in history. Although franchises have been a thing since at least the 70s, they really hit their rhythm in the last 15 years.

In the early 2000s, serial films like Fast and Furious and Harry Potter proved that it was possible to draw out movies for longer than was previously expected, and it raked in millions. And then Marvel changed the game with the popularisation of the cinematic universe. A studio just needs to build one good fictional world and the number of films you can put in it is endless. This brings in far more revenue because fans are compelled to watch every movie in the set.

As profits increased, studios started expecting higher profit margins than before. 10% profit used to be a solid expectation, but studios are now going for 30% or higher. This makes them more inclined to opt for franchises and cinematic universe films that are guaranteed to bring in money at the cinemas. With the introduction of streaming and the death of the DVD, the box office is the main source of income for film studios. Consequently, most of their funding goes to guaranteed commercial box office hits. Indie studios struggling to create a few stand-alone films every year are suffocated against the monopoly of big studios making franchises. Stand-alone movies pale in comparison when the main metric is profit.

So Where Does That Leave Us?

With the focus now on franchises and cinematic universes, stand-alone films have hit the same decline as mid-budget movies. Cinema is an extremely expensive art form, and without funding, movies simply aren’t made. Unfortunately, commercial success is often at odds with artistic diversity and creativity. Without less and less stand-alone movies, the industry is characterised by films that sell, and not necessarily films that are good. While recent strikes in the film industry might destabilise the status quo, it will take a huge economic shift for stand-alone movies to come back into vogue.

Also Read: Did High-End TV Replace The Mid-Budget Indie Film?

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Wait, What’s the WGA?

The Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) is used to refer to the joint operations of two affiliated labour unions founded in 1954; Writer’s Guild of America, East (WGAE) and Writer’s Guild of America West (WGAW). These two labour unions represent writers in television, film, radio and online media in America. They have headquarters in New York City and Los Angeles respectively, each administering its respective side of the United States. Although they are separate entities, they share certain functions like hosting The Writers Guild of America Awards, negotiating contracts and launching strikes.

So Why Are They Striking?

There is a common misconception that everyone in the film industry is rolling in money. It’s understandable, considering that Hollywood is often depicted as the land of glitz and glamour with films and TV shows raking in billions.

The thing is, not much of that actually goes to writers.

Of course, there are a select few screenwriters out there making big bucks but many of the brains behind your favourite shows are living paycheque to paycheque. This hasn’t always been the case, though. Writers simply aren’t being paid as much as they are used to.

One of the main reasons is the disappearance of residuals in the era of streaming. Residuals are a percentage of the profit received when media a person works on is syndicated, re-run or re-released. For decades, residuals have been an important part of a writer’s long-term income. However, the laws that governed residuals applied to traditional TV, not streaming. With most TV shows moving to streaming and studios grinding the minimum payments down to the ground, writers are making close to nothing. Writer Valentina Garza recently shared a tweet in which she received a residual cheque of only three cents (yes, three cents!) for her work on the hit show Jane The Virgin.

Another sticking point is the emergence of mini-rooms as opposed to fully-staffed writers’ rooms. Basically, many studios are hiring almost half the number of writers they used to on a short-term basis to bang out the structure of TV shows. Fewer and fewer writers are retained on long-term payrolls, and it’s making screenwriting as an industry shift from a full-time career to almost exclusively gig work.

Bottom line; the average Hollywood screenwriter can win an Emmy but still not know when next month’s rent is coming from. All of this is going on as studio execs are making increasingly obscene salaries. The strike is a direct result of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) aka the union of America’s biggest movie studios, refusing to meet WGA’s reasonable conditions during negotiations.

What Does the Future Hold?

We can already see the immediate effects of the strike. Several productions have completely shut down as writers lay down their pens. This isn’t the first time a strike has interrupted Hollywood productions; the 2007 strike had Conan O’Brien spinning his wedding ring on The Tonight Show to fill airtime. A great deal of the Californian economy also relies on these shows to keep running.

But the short-term losses have potential for positive results for both writers and viewers. Not only will it give writers some semblance of financial stability to writers, but it will also probably lead to better TV. With fully-staffed writers’ rooms and regulations to curb use of AI to write scripts, we could see a drastic improvement in the quality of the TV shows produced. We’re all tired of dozens of Netflix shows that are cancelled after one season and look like they were written in the dark.

Want to Help?

Follow the hashtag #WGAStrong or join the picketing.

Also Read: Equal Writes: Why We Need More Female Writers

Your contribution to Big Picture Film Club will allow us to continue to produce content. No matter the amount your contributions are greatly appreciated.

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