Bong Joon Ho gave a nearly two-hour interview on Saturday at the Marrakech Film Festival, where he serves as this year’s jury president. In between showing clips of his filmography, which includes “Memories of Murder,” “The Host” and best picture winner “Parasite,” Bong discussed his upbringing in South Korea and watching censored horror movies on TV, breaking genre conventions and the role of social commentary in cinema.
But a question from the audience at the end of the event finally addressed the Hollywood-sized elephant in the room.
“It’s in the news that Netflix is going to buy Warner Bros. Many people, not only journalists, are worried that the theater experience might disappear,” the audience member said, noting that Bong has previously worked with both studios. (Netflix released his 2017 sci-fi adventure film “Okja,” and Warner Bros. distributed this year’s Robert Pattinson-starring “Mickey 17.”) The question continued, “What do you think about this acquisition, and what do you think about your films being screened on TV — even large TVs — and in cinemas with an audience? How do you see the future of cinema.”
“To be honest, I don’t know what’s going on there in L.A. I’m just a South Korean guy staying at home,” Bong said, causing the audience to laugh adoringly. (It should be noted that Bong switched speaking between Korean and English, and his answers were reiterated by a live translator in French, which was then translated again for the audience through headsets in English, Arabic and other languages.)
Bong added that over 10 days at the Marrakech Film Festival, he and the jury members “really enjoyed” watching two movies per day “in the big theater, with the big screen.”
“Streaming is also a good way to watch and enjoy movies,” Bong said. “But I don’t think the cinematic experience will disappear so easily.”
On Friday, Netflix announced its plans to acquire Warner Bros. and HBO Max in a $82.7 billion deal. Given Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos’ antipathy toward movie theaters — naturally, his business aims to keep people on the couch — many in the Hollywood community are worried about what the acquisition means for cinemas. Sarandos said Netflix “expects” to release Warner Bros. films theatrically and will keep HBO “operating largely as it is.” But he admitted that the theatrical windows of the films will “evolve,” or, in other words, be shortened, to be “more consumer friendly.” The CEO noted that Netflix put 30 films in theaters in 2025, but those releases are extremely limited (and a requirement for awards contention).
In April, Sarandos said at the Time100 Summit that watching movies in theaters is “an outdated concept.” He argued that the struggling global box office signals that the consumer would “like to watch movies at home.”
“The studios and the theaters are duking it out over trying to preserve this 45-day window that is completely out of step with the consumer experience of just loving a movie,” he said. Still, he added that Netflix “saved” couple of historic movie theaters, including Los Angeles’ Bay Theater and New York’s Paris Theater. “We didn’t save it to save the theater business,” he said. “We saved it to save the theater experience.”
variety.com
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