Will we see the return of the small budget science fiction film?

[hour_25mikehodel]

Before star wars we had films like Logan run.silent running on smaller budgets will the ever be axreturn of those days?

[Michael]

There are, actually, a fair number of independent science fiction films each year. You can sometimes find them on YouTube. As for box office productions, I don't know. The independent cinema circuit doesn't get that much press.

I think that indy film makers are choosing digital distribution more often now than in the past. Perhaps the pandemic has made that a necessity.

[rkomar]

Heh! I could watch more movies like Dark Star with a beach ball starring as the evil protagonist.

Hmm, I wonder if Rubber was influenced by Dark Star?

[Boomstick]

Before star wars we had films like Logan run.silent running on smaller budgets will the ever be axreturn of those days?

I don't think they every went away, everything just got scaled up. As the big blockbusters starting costing upwards of $200 million and more, "cheap" ones were anything that was under or around $100 million. Paul W.S. Anderson and Kurt Wimmer come to mind as two guys that have dealt in lower budget sci-fi and genre stuff that were still major releases. Neill Blomkamp's District 9 is another good example, as well as another South African produced film, Dredd.

[Michael]

It could also be that a lot of the small budget SF films being produced by traditional Hollywood studios are targeted for children. They don't need the big budgets that major blockbusters require.