Spielberg, Lucas: Movie Industry in Big Trouble

George Lucas and Steven Spielberg think the movie industry is headed for a catastrophic implosion that will change entertainment as we know it. At a USC School of Cinematic Arts panel, the Indiana Jones collaborators sketched a future worthy of a disaster flick, blaming the coming doom on the industry's myopic obsession with blockbusters, which is driving even the likes of Lincoln and Red Tails out of theaters, Variety reports. "You're talking about Steven Spielberg and George Lucas can't get their movies into theaters," Lucas marveled.

"There's eventually going to be a big meltdown," Spielberg predicted, "where three or four or maybe even a half-dozen of these mega-budgeted movies go crashing into the ground." When that happens, Lucas jumped in, there will be mass movie theater closings. "Going to the movies will cost 50 bucks, or 100 or 150 bucks, like what Broadway costs today," he said. Independent movies meanwhile will eschew the big-screen experience all together, shooting straight for streaming on demand services. For their full musings on those services, video games, and even programmable dreams, click the full story. (More Steven Spielberg stories.)