Screenwriting : Why films are not working around the globe these days? by Naveen Miriyala

Naveen Miriyala

Hi Naveen,

This is such a great question, and honestly, I don’t think there’s just one reason behind it. It feels like a mix of a lot of things changing at the same time.

Audiences are consuming more content than ever, so their expectations are naturally higher. It’s not really about shorter attention spans, but more about wanting a strong emotional payoff. People will sit through a long film if it truly draws them in and makes them feel something.

Streaming has also changed things a lot. With so many options available, anything that feels predictable or not fully developed stands out quickly. That puts a lot more pressure on storytelling, especially when it comes to structure, pacing, and character depth.

At the same time, some films feel like they’re playing it safe, focusing more on what might sell rather than telling bold, character-driven stories. That’s where things can start to feel repetitive, even if the ideas themselves aren’t bad.

For me, it really comes down to this: audiences still love stories, they just want something that feels real and stays with them. When a film does that, it works, no matter the trends.

What do you think plays a bigger role right now, the storytelling itself or how those stories are being developed and brought to screen?

Globalization meant everyone was exposed to everything and could see the best AND the worst over everyone else's work. Some work still crosses those barriers, but other work is really obviously for limited audiences. For example, when we used to get like 1 foreign movie with a wide release in US every year, they were always only the absolute best movies, made for all universal audiences. Now, we all have access to thousands of films from everywhere, all the time, I think we just see more misses or those less perfect films, which affects overall perception.

The most successful movie ever made, from any aspect, which was also a worldwide sensation - is eighty-six years old. No other movie has ever come close to it. Gone With the Wind. Even today it is a spectacular historic drama watch and it made billions more than all others.

I feel as though it’s a combination of ALL but mostly higher production costs and attention spans.

They may move too quickly without depth or too slowly for our attention spans but either way for many years they now have become too formulaic.

I vote for, "Storytelling and screenplay quality are declining." Movies are smaller nowadays and value slow burn and mostly character focused. The movies performing best are high concept that move toward an exterior goal at a decent pace. That's not to say A24-ish movies are bad - they are excellent - they just aren't profitable.

Naveen Miriyala I can’t speak for the global industry at large, but I can speak as a lifelong film lover who watches everything from the feel‑good stuff — Jury Duty on Prime is a recent example — to the deeply uncomfortable, like Funny Games.

What I’ve noticed is this: the films that travel best, at least for me, tend to be horror. Korean, Spanish, Mexican, German, Irish — whatever the origin, horror seems to cut across borders because fear is universal. We all know what scares us, and that shared emotional wiring makes the genre connect in a way few others do.

Where things get trickier is with stories built around very specific cultural niches. If you’re not from that world — or haven’t traveled enough to understand its rhythms — the emotional resonance just doesn’t land the same way. And that’s not a failure of the audience; it’s just the nature of specificity.

In the U.S., which is still the biggest exporter of film, I think we’re seeing the opposite problem: a kind of cultural narrowing. Once every project has to check every box on a studio checklist, the life gets squeezed out of it. The films become technically correct but emotionally hollow.

Meanwhile, the boldest, most interesting work seems to be coming from filmmakers who can afford to finance their own vision — people who aren’t beholden to algorithms, four‑quadrant mandates, or brand‑management committees. Those films may not always be perfect, but they feel alive.

That’s my read as someone who just loves cinema in all its forms.