In a recent interview with Forbes, Channing Tatum expressed concern over streaming’s effect on the quality of storytelling in film.
Channing Tatum is an actor who’s remained committed to the cinema experience, even throughout the pandemic. His feature debut as a director, Dog, was released in cinemas in February 2022 despite the struggle to get cinemagoers back up to pre-Covid numbers. Trilogy-ender Magic Mike’s Last Dance was originally meant to be released on Warner Bros streaming service HBO Max, but was instead released in cinemas in February this year.
The actor’s latest comments in a Forbes interview reveal that he’s been thinking a lot about the effect streaming services have had on the quality of creative output.
“The movie industry is just changing so much,” Tatum says. “It’s a different era now and it’s just getting crazier with the streamers. I do fear a little for the storytelling of it all. I think there will be less good storytelling and a lot more product out there.”
He also pointed out that the growth of streaming releases has a negative impact on films released in cinemas. Using his own movie Magic Mike XXL as an example, Tatum claims that theatrical releases now need bigger marketing budgets than production budgets just to compete with streaming films.
His comments come amid a WGA (Writers Guild of America) strike over streaming residuals and concerns over writers being replaced by AI.
Channing Tatum clearly isn’t the only one worried about what’s going to become of writing and storytelling in Hollywood, and rightfully so. We’ll just have to wait and see what direction it all takes – and support those on the picket line!
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