While there are several specific reasons why many Amy Winehouse fans are anxious about the release of “Back to Black,” there is an argument to be made that audiences are beginning to tire of big-budget biopics more generally. Celebrity biopics, particularly those of musicians, are considered a safe bet in the film industry, with the subjects’ fanbases representing pre-existing audiences for the movie that original pieces of fiction lack. But across the board, from sports stars to politicians, biopics of public figures have generally performed well at the box office and when it comes to award season.
However, some critics are now suggesting that audiences may be growing tired of the biopic genre. As Bilge Ebiri writes in Vulture, studios typically invest a great deal of effort into biopics, which are treated in many cases as examples of high art in contemporary cinema, but there is a risk of oversaturation, with 2023 representing a bumper year for releases of movies about real people, including “Napoleon,” “Oppenheimer,” “Nyad,” “Priscilla,” “Maestro, and many more arriving in cinemas over the course of the year. With news emerging that Sam Mendes has signed on to direct four separate biopics of the members of The Beatles in 2027, it seems increasingly likely that audiences will soon show signs of biopic fatigue. Whether that comes around the time of the release of “Back to Black” time will tell.
