The world of cinematography owes a lot of its popularity to western movies.
Why? Because millions of viewers over several decades paid the cost of an admission ticket to watch movies such as The Magnificent Seven, A Fistful of Dollars and Wanted Dead or Alive.
In the 21st century, showing western movies is no longer an exclusivity of theatres, as streaming services like Netflix release movies like The Harder they Fall and News of the World.
In times when science fiction and fantasy have taken over the biggest part of most entertainment industry areas, movies like The Power of the Dog; video games such as Red Dead Redemption, and online casino games like Wanted DoA, remind older audiences of times when cowboys were more important than any superhero. They introduce younger audiences to a period when all the story’s heroes had in their arsenal was a revolver and a horse.
Westerns Are Still Generating Billions at the Box Office
During the second decade of the 21st century, a number of production studios invested in making western or western-type movies. Many of these movies generated hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office. The most popular is probably the Revenant starring Leonardo DiCaprio, which was among the Best Movie-nominated features that performed well at the box office. Some of the other recent western movies that were positively received by the majority of viewers are Django Unchained, Brimstone and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.
The Power of the Dog Is an Oscar Level Western
After starring in movies like The Imitation Game and 1917, Benedict Cumberbatch gave an Oscar-level performance portraying Phil Burbank in Netflix’s masterpiece The Power of the Dog. The movie did not score extremely high on websites such as IMDB, but every single actor who played a part in the movie’s two hours and six minutes was magnificent. Among them was Kirsten Dunst, who gave the best performance of her career, making a top-level comeback after being in the shadows for over a decade.
Video Gamers Love Cowboy Games
Apart from attracting cinephiles, western stories are popular among video gamers. Rockstar’s gaming masterpiece Red Dead Redemption 2 has sold over 42 million copies, and it is rightfully considered the best open-world video game of all time. The story of Arthur Morgan will keep players busy for over one hundred hours. And once the player is done with the main game and all its extras, they can switch to the online part of Red Dead Redemption.
Those who have played and finished Red Dead Redemption 2 are already looking forward to the third instalment of the game,. But developing RDR3 is not one of Rockstar Games’ highest priorities. Everyone working for the New York-based gaming studio is focusing on the development of the next Grand Theft Auto, and this project is far from easy. The sixth instalment of GTA is still at the early stages of development, and if the rumours are true, then Rockstar will need two more years to get to the point of releasing the game. This means that those who want to play RDR3 will probably have to wait a few more years.
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