Jerry Seinfeld says the movie business is over: ‘No longer the cultural pinnacle’

Jerry Seinfeld has said the film business is “over” and that movies are no longer “the pinnacle in the social, cultural hierarchy” they once were.

In an interview with GQ magazine, Seinfeld talked about his experience on his feature film directing debut Unfrosted, saying that he admired the dedication of his collaborators on the movie, but that the industry itself was in crisis. “I thought I had done some cool stuff, but it was nothing like the way these people work. They’re so dead serious! They don’t have any idea that the movie business is over. They have no idea.”

He added: “Film doesn’t occupy the pinnacle in the social, cultural hierarchy that it did for most of our lives. When a movie came out, if it was good, we all went to see it. We all discussed it. We quoted lines and scenes we liked. Now we’re walking through a fire hose of water, just trying to see.”

Asked what in his opinion has replaced movies, Seinfeld said: “I would say confusion. Disorientation replaced the movie business. Everyone I know in show business, every day, is going, ‘What’s going on? How do you do this? What are we supposed to do now?’”

Unfrosted, a comedy about the creation of the Pop-Tart during the early 60s battle between rival cereal manufacturers Kellogg’s and Post, stars Seinfeld and Melissa McCarthy as Kellogg’s executives and Amy Schumer as the head of Post. Seinfeld wrote the film’s script and is credited as a producer, in his most substantial feature film project since Bee Movie, the 2007 animated comedy on which he also acted as writer and producer as well as taking the lead voice role.